Perhaps I should amend my first statement- I don't make a bit deal out of lights, because they're rarely much more complicated than picking out the color and putting them where they belong, and I can get a good approximation 99% of the time. I also use a lot of artificial light sources, which helps. The "secret tool" isn't software, it's just an aquired skill from years of experience. Two years ago, when I was the stupidest of stupid newbies, I would have looked at what I'm doing now, and sworn that it had been done with a whole slew of advanced plugins and render tools, and taken days. Now, I'm doing sub-photorealistic work, and the only additional piece of equipment I use any significant amount of the time is an inverse duplicator. It's simply that I'm reasonably (but still not entirely) well-versed in my decrepit old copy of a five-year-old raytracer/modeler, and have learned some new techniques. I can already get a reasonably close approximation of photorealistic with a program that's so old that the company that made it is defunct. I can already make any component out of that reactor scene in ten minutes or under, with a program that's effectively abandonware. TELL me you can't do any better with your $3500 copy of MAX or tooled-out version of LightWave. If you really can't do it, if it's really impossible with all that software muscle, by all means, let's trade. You don't need anything more advanced than Ray Dream Studio, sans radiosity, disp maps, fully functional aura/light effects, and ability to go beyond a million polys without taking a day between mouse-clicks. I'd almost find this thread offensive, it's so silly- it's like a little rich boy who got a Lamborghini at age 16, complaining that he can't go anywhere. Those of us who have to walk on foot don't do too shabby, excuse me. I'm serious about that trade, though. I can send you over a copy of RDS any time, you just mail me those MAX CDs. You'll be able to do photorealistic finally- you'll love it.