Shredboy, Thanks. That was exactly it. It was a teeny tiny bit less than black when I looked at the greyscale palette. Boy, talk about a DUH!!! day--LOL. Also, though, the thoughts about the highlight being black--I had made everything white and that affected it too--like I don't really sorta' know better smile--'specially after dealing with all these things in Bryce. Well, anyhow, now I know how to do a transparency map correctly and can experiment with some things. For instance, I was thinking about Steve Shanks short jacket--I had asked him about the fact that it wouldn't come around the front of the figure (its a 'modeling' thing as I understand it). So--I considered all my jackets but none were short--and I thought if I could make them short by using a transmap, well that would give me lots more to work with--same as some of the other clothing--if you can transform with transmaps and textures, then you have an infinite wardrobe VERY BIG SMILE (and I'm the person who lives in only black and comfortable-- smile). I'll leave the hair maps and modeling to the rest of you--that's def. not ever going to be my forte' but now that I'm home, I'm anxious to play with textures and get back to working with Bryce--where I'm actually working on a 'sea scene'---inspired by Bongo's pic. Diane B