AHA!! after banging my head trying to paint feather patterns (this was not a good painting week for me), i got wise as to how to go about this. MUAHAHHAHAHAH! ::cough:: sorry. i painted single feathers on layers, then converted them to image hose nozzles in fdp. now i have a new, improved, 100% original, non-repeating feather skin for my eagle. wohoo! um, er, okay, so i'm talking to myself. but ya never know, i might be persuaded to release a pack of feather nozzles for people who might need them for such a project. (yes, free ones!)