My first.

dam sytraight, i had to put in around 3whole hours practice to get to where i am ( not near the top, for one i use brushes not c4d backgrounds) but honestly, some people have certain skill for it that makes it easier to understand the stylish way of presenting stuff, so read some tuts then add your own sense of stylish stuff to it...... it will help alot beleive me... to make backgrounds like we do ( brushing style, c4d is different) just make a layer, get a brush and brush white... new layer, change brush, brush black a little bit.. layer black on white for up to 16 layers and then colour it.... start off with that and youll get good... find brushes by searching photoshop brushes in www.deviantar*****m and download some.

i'm up near 300 hours, thats when the "A LOT" starts to come in