ugh! well, i'm having terrible luck. maybe i'm using the wrong skies, didn't use the sepia aliens. but i change the function on the cloud colours and bumps and trans things, and the sky still looks pretty much the same. even with different filters. i did learn an interesting trick, though.... that sky thing with the glowing lights... the material is an additive glow sorta deal, but it has an underlying material (with no transparency)... which makes the glow overlay the underlying material -- and since that is dark, it makes the additive colours really show up well. that trick could come in handy some day...