Dave, I guess I see your point too, but personally I love the idea. It would really show off everyone's thinking process - the same title, but everyone's brain works differently and therefore would conceptualize differently. Plus, having some common ground for conceptualization would open up opportunities for things like, "Man, that's what I tried to do but couldn't figure it out - how did you do that?!" It doesn't seem like a situation for grading, but rather a situation of expanding all of our Carrara horizons and abilities and sharing information... So far I haven't seen ANY indication this forum is competitive, but rather very supportive. As such, though there is always the possibility of competition and animosity, I just don't see it happening to any real extent. Why don't we just give it a shot, and if this stuff starts rearing it's ugly head, all we have to do is stop. And if you don't want to participate, that's cool... It's just something to do to kick-start our creativity, IMHO... I'll give it a go, provided I have the time to do it... 8^) HG... P.S. Mark, thanks for the info on the realistic water shading process...