nomuse, I'm glad this place didn't eat this reply, too, because I learned something from it... albeit only remotely related to the original thread... I just spent hours trying to imagine how a complex object would settle onto a flat surface... didn't even think of using physics, because I really don't do that many animations (and those that I do are usually limited to the rotating logo variety). Thanks for the tip... I think I'll go set this up and see if I got anywhere close...