Hi Brent, The video in the Glow Channel is the thing to do but you need to add a Multiply Channel in there with a Value. That way, you can set the Value to 2 or 3 and not have the video glow out of control. If this doesn't make sense, lemme know and I'll post an example. Mark

It's easier that you might think (but isn't everything once you've learned it?) Your Envelope Path has multiple points. Any one of those points can be turned into a Cross Section. You can also add a point anywhere on the Sweep Path or Envelope Path with the Bezier tool located next to the Pen tool in the spline modeling room. If a cross section already exists at a given point, you can also delete it. The Crenelation CS was created at a point further down the Sweep Path. That way I could see it easily in the directors camera. After the cross section drawing was complete, (mine is actually an imported Adobe Illustrator path) I used the Arrow/Direct Select tool, grabbed the point on the Sweep path and dragged it back to the Circle Cross Section. (The shift key was held down to constrain the point movment to a straight line so I wouldn't get a goofy bend in the shape) The picture probably does a better job explaining it that I do. Mark

Hi Stacy, Booleans are a no-no if you can avoid them. Here is a solution with the (you guessed it) spline modeler. The circle cross section and the crenelation cross section have been positioned so that they are right on top of each other. Using different cross sections is an extremely powerful way to create fully editable shapes. Mark

Yow! I can't believe no ones gotten back to you on this yet. Could you be more specific? (How to apply them in the shader tree?, Does the object need to be imported in OBJ format? etc.)

Very, very nice. Man I wish that Furrific ported to Carrara. I keep RD5.5 installed just to use that plug in. Mark

Carrara has been pretty stable on my system. Been using it professionaly since January and would have to be dragged back kicking and screaming to use RD5.5 For the price, I think it's the most full featured package available. The several plugins that I've added to it (Lost Horizons Software Carrara Powerpack and Digital Carvers Guilds Anything Glows, Glare and Zenstars Tree Druid) have added incredible additional feature sets for very little money. While there are some software bugs, most that I've seen posted are usually associated with hardware/software issues. The newer your equipment, the more ram you have, the better Carrara will perform. It virtually never crashes on my system. Is Carrara a Lightwave or Maya. No. But, currently, I don't need that additional performance, abilities or price that comes with either one of those packages either. You can make Carrara jump through some pretty interesting hoops. If I couldn't rely on the program, I wouldn't use it professionaly.

Lookn' good Stacey. The knights head will need to be modeled as a seperate item (or two depending on what you want to do) and placed on a pedestal. Keep posting as you complete stuff! Mark

I used Antoine suggestions of unchecking the two 'smart' options for final animations renders. The 'sparkles' remained when Wind was selected in the atmosphere settings. When Wind wasn't used, the renders came out flawlessly. Mark

Havn't been able to download the mpg yet. I'll set up some DOF animation tests and get back to you. Mark

I am becoming a stranger to my family. Your casual referrels to harmless plugins and applications is ruining my life. =)

Sorry 'bout that Marque. I think that you must of posted while I was out of town for about a month. You get dibbs on Thanks!!!! See, you're just as guilty as willf in totally destroying any spare time that I have. :) Mark

Despite the fact that it sucks, it's good. (Wait...does that mean that I'm one of the right people?) For legitimate looking 3-d clouds, I highly recommend Lost Horizons Software Carrara Power Pack. The volume clouds are awesome. (it's not in the free one, it's in the buy one) It takes a little getting used to but you can control color for the main cloud body and change the color out towards the edge of the clouds. Just like the stock volume clouds with Carrara, you can control complexity but the LHS stuff adds more detail. You can also 'split' a single volume cloud into 'levels' and apply specific color adjusments with in that level. Very cool. If you want to use the Wind settings though, just move the sky up hight than the default 100 inches. Mark

That's not cool. That's totally awesome! You're a bad man. How am I supposed to get any deadlines met today with a toy like this around?

Cool. Thanks!

Why is it that we have this dysfunctional need to work hours and hours for 3 seconds of glory? :)