Hi Sara, This is very nice for a beginning image. The macaw does look lovely, and I think you caught the lighting on the coconut leaves just right. I'm not familiar with the problem you related in Bryce where the material doesn't "connect" properly between terrain and ground plane. So I'm not aware enough to be enthused about how Vue handles it. I know that I've always been pleased with how Vue has handled materials in general, pretty much as one would expect them to work. So I can be enthusiastic on that basis! :) You can alter material by double-clicking them (or right-clicking them) to open the Material Editor. Much of what you'll find there is self-explanatory or just plain fun to fiddle around with. There are also some good tutorials in the manual that will help familiarize you with the options. Oh, and welcome to Vue! :) Varian -- Treasures d'Esprit