Yes Caitlin the whirlpool is a terrain - you start with a circular gradient and the twirl filter in photoshop or KPT3 if you have that. Maybe I will write a quick tut for this. It should be similar to the tornado tuts you see out there. The key is to invert the gradient in the center of the whirlpool so it has depth instead of height. Cool Stefano - yeah I'm sure it gives you the creeps to write about a whirlpool too. I'm gonna have to look up Malestrom - Poe of course gives me the creeps. Thanks again Stefano - I'm glad the theme is inspiring this thread. I think part of the human experience is to enjoy being scared. Why else would rollercoasters be so popular? Scott ; )