Hi, sometimes a problem is right in your face and you just can't pinpoint what bothers you. I can see it now crystal clear, all of your suggestions are 100% correct. You see lighting and shadows have always been my bigest problem. The thing is that my PC can't handle rendering all of the files at once and I end up rendering each figure on it's own and then do the rest in post work. I really don't know what I can do about doing a better lighting job, I'll probably drop the whole thing but in any case thank you so much for all the suggestions. I'll give it one last makeover and if I'm satisfied I'll post it here. Thank you again niki