Well, after playing around with the material editor some more, I went ahead and ordered Vue from Daz3D (they have it marked down--$30 off, so it matches E-on's Bryce sidegrade). I figured, what the heck? =) I had a totally love/hate relationship with trueSpace, Mike. Decent modeling tools (although I also have Rhino, which is better on almost every front), an absolutely beautiful renderer (very possibly the best renderer you can find for under $1000), but I hated the interface so much ended up selling my copy on ebay. Ugly floating toolbars everywhere, no consitency or sense of organization... I loved the renders, but hated working with it. Vue seems to be completely at the other end of the spectrum in that regard. Once you figure out how one thing works, you begin to find that everything else works in a very similar way.