3DSprite In referrence to your question concerning the uses of the pen tool. It is mostly used to draw in a selection path around some object in the picture (same as the masking tools). The difference is that, if you save the path(s), when you import the picture into Illustrator, Freehand, etc. the path(s) can be used to mask out all but the object(s) they surround. Regular alpha channel masks won't do this for you in those programs since they are part of the bitmap (the paths are actually a vector drawing). Since most of the final composition work is done in page layout programs, you can see the advantages this would bring as opposed to masking out each object and saving it as a separate file. Other than that, it's easier to make alpha channel masks. Hope this helps... -Jim