My most "useful and used" plugins have been ShaderOps and Velout They allow you to make very complex shaders. If you are rendering architecture these two are must-haves. The redo of the particles you heard of is probably AuroDigital's Particloid which hasn't been released yet. See link below. Also worth watching for is Shoestring's Toolbox which wasn't released this month as planned, but will add new modifiers and tweeners. Bookmark the following sites: http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/ http://www.associatedfx.com/plugins.html http://inagoni.com/ http://www.des-web.net/shoestring_graphics.html http://www.kawachi.zaq.ne.jp/kurozuka/akurodigital/ holly