I occasionally see references to nulls, and nobody seems to go into any detail on them. Even the Carrara manual mentions them in passaing, and does not even mention 'null' in the index. Any ideas out there?

Null Main Entry: null
Pronunciation: 'n&l
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French nul, literally, not any, from Latin nullus, from ne- not + ullus any; akin to Latin unus one -- more at NO, ONE
Date: circa 1567
1 : having no legal or binding force : INVALID
2 : amounting to nothing : NIL
3 : having no value : INSIGNIFICANT
4 a : having no elements b : having zero as a limit c of a matrix : having all elements equal to zero
5 a : indicating usually by a zero reading on a scale when a given quantity (as current or voltage) is zero or when two quantities are equal -- used of an instrument b : being or relating to a method of measurement in which an unknown quantity (as of electric current) is compared with a known quantity of the same kind and found equal by a null detector
6 : of, being, or relating to zero
7 : ZERO

It means nothing to me otherwise.
giggle

I don't have a clue what these frenchmen are ever trying to convey in their manuals.

A null is exactly what the above definition says. Its a target helper object ie. a null object. It doesn't render. just is used for help controlling groups, bones, targeting lights, etc etc. Brian

Aha! Well said, my friends. EtchASketch: your quick confession of confusion: gracious, voluminious and detailed, is an unparalled example of classic medieval scholasticism that is the basic underpining of the Carrara manual...I am convinced. [LOL] The only thing lacking, which, as yet, cannot be conveyed by an e-mail, would be the elegant 'Gallic' shrug-of-the-shoulders'. Mon ami...I am ever in your debt. Nicholas86: Let me explain myself a bit farther. I was trained on Strata 1.5 in 1995. I used it and loved it until a year ago when its limitations [and squirrelly renderer] led me to a better way. Now, as I enter the worlds of Carrara and Poser, I am confronted with a welter of terms that are new. Such as: TARGET So...whuts'a'target? As I understand it, it's not a thing/object, but a point in time. Such as: a morph target. Change A to B. Am I right here? And...in the past I had conceived of parenting a walking figure [with a repeating walk cycle] to an object [like a small sphere] which is out of the cameras view, and using it to elevate the walk sequence up a terrain gradient. Is the sphere a 'null' object? I am, and remain, confused by this notion of "target helper". Thanks so far, and any further clarification will be most happliy recieved.

Target helper objects can be placed in a scene and then when you add the "Point At" behavior or point an object at another, you can use the targets without introducing another object to render. -Kix

Kix: I remain confused. If I can take a light or a camera and tell it to "point at"...why is a target helper needed? What else does it do? And...in the above example of the parent sphere...was it technically a 'helper object'?

It allows more precise control...like if you wanted to control where the light is pointing at without all those silly rotation tools, you can have it point at a helper object and then just move the helper object around. Its much more simpler then you are trying to make it:) Its a helper object, use if however you want, its something that you can group with things and it won't render, but can still effect other geometry. Take a look at how Eric uses helper objects in this tutorial. And you can see a nice benefit. http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/tutorials/masterlight/agmasterlight.htm

Nicholas86: I think the light just went on. You're right, it's not as arcane as I had thought. I printed out Eric's tutorial and will play with it soon. Thanks for the advice.

Anytime:) Happy to help.