You need to create a bump in the exact location of the 'window' (on a Mac you option-drag the transparency level -or entire shader- to the bump channel to exactly duplicate location. I'm sure that PC has a similar function) The window would have to be solid black in the bump to give you maximum depth. Check out how I assembled the 'Water Globe' shader in the free download section. On that one I created depth by duplicating the 'wires' to highlight, transparency and bump channels to fake dimension. Mark

I'm on a Mac too and have had great luck exporting from Poser as a 3DS instead of an .obj file. Read about doing that somewhere on this forum. Mark

It's the parent-child relationship combined with where the 'hotpoint' of the group is. Depending on how much of the Hierarchy of the group you have open, either things behave normally or completely whacked. I've occassionaly sent parts flying off to hundreds of units away because I didn't collapse the hierarchy for the elements as I manipulated the group. Sorry that I can't offer more advice; I would have to see the file first. Mark

Thanks for the effort. Mark

Doug, It took me awhile to realize this myself so don't feel bad for missing it. (this is with a poser 3ds export) The object is there but it's very, very small. (it will appear as a little gray dot in the center of the different view boxes) You have to zoom in quite far just to see it. It can be scaled up in the modeling room but then, in the assembly room, it will have to be scaled down. With some other obj files that I've imported, the reverse has been true. They are absolutly huge. In the modeling room I have to zoom out, sometimes to 10 percent, to see it all. I then scale it down to work with it but have to scale the object up once I'm back in the assembly room. Hope this helps. Mark

Doug, After you import a mesh, obj, 3ds, or poser file (all the same really), in the model room, from the 'edit' pull down menu, select 'convert to another modeler' and then choose 'vertex'. Mark

I'd create tiny shapes and apply a glow value or color to them. You don't need to use the Aura post effect unless you want a bona fide glow around them. The glow channel will allow them to 'light' up even when on a dark side. Mark

If you have photoshop the easiest way is to: open the texture> use the pen tool and create a path that follows the archway shape> then under the file 'pulldown' menu, select export> 'paths to illustrator'> open your file in Carrara> insert 'spline object'> import from the file pull down menue (drive the selection to wherever you saved the photoshop exported path)> and , TaDa, you should have a spline shape that is perfect for your texture. Hope this makes sense. Mark

Clint has a good one in his downloadable shaders. Mirrors, like reflecting water, look best when you map or create a gradient blend for a background. (which can be different than the backdrop which shows up when you render) For example, that Waterglobe shader that is available in the free download section looks pretty mediocre unless you have a bigradient background which causes it to becomes luminous. Any time I create scenes that have a highly reflective surface I'll also position light and dark elements out of the camera view that cast reflections onto the object. (Check out the 'mixmaster' in the gallery section. Without white 'reflectors' the object would have been gray on all up facing surfaces.) Hope that this helps. Mark

Since I don't know how to post a picture within a message, check out the new message, 'Ishtar Gate' for an easy fix. Mark

That feature is called a 'caustic' (the focusing of light rays as through glass or water) and is not supported by Carrara. Bummer. Mark

Also, Digital Carvers Guild shader extension has referaction index for a bunch-a substances programmed into it. You just have to select which one. Mark

This is how I'd do it: Create a path that matches the texture map arch shape > use the path to make a spline object > in the shaders, convert the shader kind to 'layer list' and select the correct face to apply the texture to, ie. 'face 1' or 'face 0' (This way you won't have to draw or size a rectangle. When a 'face' is selected, it won't try to map to any other side). It eliminates the need to mess around with transparencies which will only 'open' box shape and do not go through it. Willf suggests multiple shader maps. I wouldn't create different 'color' maps to apply but would rather create a 'highlight', 'bump', and 'shininess' map based upon the color map that you already have. That way you can use just a single, rich shader. Mark

Unfortunetly, the fog has it's own glow. The work-around is to have multiple fog objects: most of them will be a 'dark' fog object, the second one is the 'light' fog object where the spot hits. Adjust the colors of the fog accordingly. Not perfect but it works. Mark

Hmmmm, I'm not having anything like that on my system. Make sure that you're using the 1.1 update. I had a problem with both Open GL and ATI rage 128 extensions activated simultaneously with crashing after 'spot' renders. I disabled the ATI and had no more problems. Mark