"Oh, eeew, ick. Instant art. Just add water. Talent optional." - Ironbear I'd appreciate it if no-one took this post as in any way defending DAZ, who I increasingly see as... well, let's not go there eh? However I would like to address one aspect of "Instant Art" as a concept - not necessarily how it may apply to DAZ Studio, but on a wider canvas. I'm pretty sure that when photography reared it's technological head painters worldwide screamed in horror "instant art! Yeuck". I'm absolutely positive that when single-button and/or auto-developing cameras came on the scene "serious" photographers screamed "Euch, Instant Art! How tacky!". I know for a fact that when Poser got popular enough, REAL "3D artists" held their heads in their hands and shoock with outrage. Oh the shame, the shame! Twiddle a few dials and that's it - instant "art"! I'm not saying that DAZ Studio. "DAZ Clipart", or DAZ's latest foul-up in any way resembles the above scenarios, but the idea that making the tools that facilitate expressing oneself through art easier is somehow wrong strikes an odd chord with me. I'm absolutely positive that, as with the various improvements in easy-to-use cameras (I now have a 5MP model myself, and a "near photo quality" printer) and 3D software, more people will be able to churn out incredibly tacky, talentless images. I'd say that only around 50%-75% of my photographs do their job, and that less than 25% are what I MIGHT be tempted to call "art" (some are simply "texture sources" for example, to use in 3D). However, I'm sure a talented artist can do a lot more/better with the same tool than a newbie to the field - indeed, while my photographic abilities are poor they're hugely better than when I got my first digital camera (I've moved up to better, harder-to-use tools that allow for higher quality results). So, I THINK my standpoint on the idea of "Instant Art" nowadays is somewhat mellowed - I don't think that software that makes a job easier without having to spend years learning that software is "blatantly a bad thing", I think it's mostly down to who has the creativity to produce and who is a talentless hack producing join-the-dots trash. To me. Who uses the tool at its most basic, against who pushed the envelope and uses the tool to go just that bit further. This in no way, IMHO, excuses DAZ's (once again) rather bizzarre behaviour, nor the fact that as usual they've chosen to do something stupid and then buffer off for the weekend. It's ALMOST as if they can turn around and say "well, a whole weekend has passed - it's already done now, no chance we can 'take it back'. You've gotta love the Daz "Weekend Confusion" policy that's STILL in operation, even after all the previous PR cockeral-ups! (and I suspect at the end of the days that's gonna be their defence -"it's a good idea really, we just screwed up on how we announced it. Again. As usual. Have a cookie"). Still - instant art? I doubt it. It'd be nice if we could get nearer the Science Fiction type scenario of "transparent software" though - software that's so intuitive/easy to use that you don't even realise you're using it, you're just doing the TASK (producing art/company memos/captain's logs...) Cheers, Cliff Bowman