How does one go about saving a prop as a character file?,from there I will be making MAT files which I can do no problem, Are there any tutorials on this.I know there is a bit of hacking involved,can someone give an example please. Mclean ,you seem to be clued up on this,how is it done

Hierarchy Window - "Create New Figure". Name it and it will be in your libray under "New Figures".

Ok,now how do I make material changes a one touch operation,eg:MAT pose files

scrap that last message,I think I have done it, I saved the prop as a new character with whatever material setting's I want,Then I use Matpose edit to make the pz2 file,I put that in the pose directory,Then resave the character but this time with different material settings and once again use Mat pose to make the pz2(therefore creating a new MAT file,once Matpose edit has been used) I hope you followed that,It's taken ages to work this out. It means I can have a prop(albeit a character)that changes color by way of a Mat pose in the pose directory,without having to parent it to any other figures.

Attached Link: http://www.silverleifstudios.com/MATTut.htm

This is an OK way to make figures if you just want to MAT them. It does create a larger file than the normal pp2 prop file would, but it's not the end of the world. As far as making the MAT goes, you seem to be pretty organised with MPE. Check the link above. That's the best and most complete tutorial on MAT making I know of. It's a breakdown of every element in a MAT. All you need to do to follow it, is open a MAT in notepad. Even if you use MPE, it's good to know how these things work. What you could do to speed things up is, open your saved cr2 in notepad and just cut and paste the materials section into another MAT file and resave it with a new name. Might save some time. mac

Cheers mac,I've saved the link and I'll check it out later. Material changes are all I'm trying to achieve.and saving props as a character seems the only way around it,are there any other disadvantages to this method,aside from slightly larger file size,Why dont more people do this with there prop sets.

'Why dont more people do this with there prop sets' I guess because instead of having 20 props, you'd have 20 figures, since you can only make them one for one. Probably most people feel figures is already full enough. Also, if you're selling stuff, it's not really such a great idea, I don't think. It approximately doubles the file size, so it makes more sense just to parent the prop. mac