Aye, good solution, although it takes a LOT more polygons than just alpha channeling the cuts. You made an alpha image, but it's not working? Is the alpha just true black and white? Is it showing NO tranpsarency, or just not making the parts you want to be transparent, so...? Try clicking the "Blend Transparency" option. It's on a little tab in the Material Lab, at the top, in between the main mixer bank and the channel bank, or whatever. I've never had any problems getting the alpha-type transarency to work. Just, in Bryce, they call it "Blend". Hope this helps... Only one drawback of this function, I've found that it doesn't work well at ALL with volumetric world running, or volume lights. They, for some silly reason, were never set up to recognize it, or I'm an idiot and doing something wrong! (laughs)