heyas; you're welcome, smoke :) william, you dont NEED mat spheres OR bulges on ALL the joints. start with the center, and place it where you want the joint's main bends to occur from. you may jiggle it around while you're doing the major bend, to get it just right, but after that, you should be leaving it alone. once you get the center centered for one bend, moving it for another bend is gonna change that bend, too. when you move the bend-x controls from the center, you're ALSO moving the center! they all use the same center. (except the twist-bar, which doesn't really have a center.) now, if bending/siding/twisting of the joint is mushing its siblings, or chunks of its parent you dont want it to mush, then you put on mat spheres. if bending your joint makes it sorta deflate in an ugly manner, then mess with bulges. (bulges aren't really a very good solution for this, they just don't have enough fine control, but you can try.) as for getting the center of the eyes, i have a tutorial for that, too... somewhere in those tutorial goodies :) (and that's funny, i always start jointing from the base and go out. ::)