thanks, litst so.... is there a way to get the old particle emitter from the old metacreations version of carrara and plug it into 1.1? in carrara studio 1.1, can you create a null object and set it on a motion path? could you then get spheres to track the null and make bubbles that way by cloning them? in my innocence, i can imagine work-arounds to the issues you address, which i really appreciate. could you turn the scene so the leaf is the floor and then turn it around in after effects? well, you needn't respond to all this- just pondering... if it's stable and quick to learn, i can find these answers for myself.