Quote - Head exploded yet?

Not quite, but you can see the stress cracks from across the street...

I figured when I kept changing the mask, inputting the new mask name, synchronizing but seeing the same render output that that was happening... checking the name in the lip material confirmed it, but I figured this was by design, not omission. After all, one doesn't want to over-write user-defined masks and image files: the shaders are meant to take advantage of them if they already exist. So, no dramas there - and thanks for taking the time to explain it.

As far as masks go, instead of doing a mask with blurred edges, I'd use those functions. I'll try to re-do the mask so the edges are sharp (but anti-aliased to get rid of the jaggies) and see if I can apply them to the appropriate nodes.

(Printing out that last bit to take to work - will take some getting my head around it)

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks