Of course people want more! That's what popularity brings: the demand for more.
But when you are active in a creative scene it doesn't matter what others want. It's important what you want. The more you work for others, the faster you get tired and frustrated. So don't make releases because others want you to. Make movies when you have ideas and when you want to make them. You said it yourself: It's your precious time and therefore you decide when you use it to make movies.
Ignore the haters. Easy to say but you have to learn this. With popularity comes the envy. Learn to cope with it.
There is a difference between movies with no effects and no concept. Movies can have a lots of effects but no concept. Or they can have no effects but a concept. Without doubt, from the artistic view movies with no effects but with concept are mostly the better ones. You have to imagine a movie as something to eat. The packaging can look very nice and appealing. But that's useless for you, if the content of it tastes crappy. The same goes for movies. What's the use of nice effects if the actual content of the movie is some average crap? People who say "nothing special" only because it has not many effects don't even look beyond the shown pictures. They don't even get the point of the movie, what you want to tell with it. Guys like these shouldn't you - as an artist - not interest at all. Because people like these are the reason why you won't develop any more. With an attitude like that they will never be able to give you helpful critics.
It depends on what you want. Do you want to develop and are you able and willing to maybe live with a few lesser views? Or do you want to keep your view count as is but stand on the spot and stop stepping forward? Think about it.
Not using AE with glow, strokes, 3D Layers, shine, parcticles, ... doesn't mean not having effects at all. But if you want to really - and I mean really - use the functionality of AE and its plugins with knowledge and skill you have to learn how the basic effects of movies work. You have to get the elemental feeling of how to use them. Otherwise the effects you create will never look realistic.
You can't invent something new. Everything, you wanna do, has already been done. With this knowledge think again about how you make movies. You don't have to create something new. You rather should use already existing concepts and combine them to create something original of it. The original stuff that comes out of this is actually the new thing you invent.
The originality also comes with the content. Write stories that tell something new. Use the possibilities that SRO gives you. Yes, SRO might be limited but the potential still isn't fully used by today's movies.
Wir müssen [...] der Versuchung widerstehen, ein Geflecht von Gesetzen herzustellen, hinter dem eines Tages die Freiheit unsichtbar wird. - Helmut Schmidt[/size]
