Hi Mary, Yeah, yeah yeah...I know the difference between a .mat and a .atm. ;) I was thinking that it would be cool to be able to take the apearance of a sky such as above and use it as a material on something. But I guess you could just render it, save it as a bitmap and then use it as a material. Well, I never claimed to be the world's quickest thinker, now, did I? :P MIke PS And YES, your idea is a VERY good one for someone such as myself who is pretty much clueless as to functions. It usually takes me a while with any software before I start learning the more advanced things. I get the idea that the functions are the KEY to creating great and realistic Vue materials, and I most definitely plan on studying them in depth. :)