Hi Dex, Yes it is possible to generate images in these programs and then map them to polygons (non shadow casting sphere). I have done this a lot in Lightwave, as Terragen creates much better skies than Lightwaves' native SkyTracer. Plus once the sky is rendered it eliminates that extra processing step of recalculating the sky for each frame, nice time saver. I made a typo in my above post. I have been using Terragen since version 0.6, not "6". Matt Fairclough (developer of Terragen) has said all along that it wont hit a whole number until it is completely ready. Terragen development was slowed somewhat the past few years. Matt took a job with Digital Domain. He was working with them and helped them for their in house projects as far as atmospheric rendering is concerned. Any work he would have done on Terragen while working for them might have been legally challenged so he slowed work on Terragen while he was working for them. I think that endeavour is over now and we all can expect some even greater things from Terragen real soon. Back to Carrara though. For a full modeling and animation program, Carrara has some pretty impressive sky and terrain options now. I dont know if Carrara will ever match Terragen as far as skies are concerned, or if anyone else will either. Matts algorythms for sky generation are hard to match, they are so beautiful and easy to get great looking results. I also use Vue, I find it lacking compared to Terragen with regard to skies. I havnt used Bryce in years, but from what I see posted in galleries, it too is no match for Terragens' atmospheres. Arete, who makes plugins for the higher end 3D apps, has a great plugin that does wonderful true volumetric skies, but again the cost of such plugin is nearly as much as Carrara, I havnt priced it lately. Perhaps Eovia will address the atmosphere creation at some point and add more features, but as it is, considering this is a full featured modeling and animation package it does a respectable job. For me, terrain and skies are secondary. My work does not call for them regularly, although I like to play with them for personal satisfaction. If my work depended on it I think the best solution is a combination of the aforementioned tools. Unfortunately no single program can hit on all cylinders, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. So far I have found Carrara to provide a good balance of strengths and weaknesses, once again especially considering the price. Sorry for getting off topic there, just wanted to express my satisfaction so far with Carrara. Donnie