This is a post i copied most of these links will be familiar to alot of you but its a nice collection of them i copied form a thread at another site read this one first: http://www.erikasorson.com/tutorial...ubdivision.html then this: http://maxrovat.sns.hu/subdiv/ then this: http://www.izware.com/news/indexa446.html then go here: http://ambient-whisper.cgcommunity....ial/Page-1.html then here: http://cube.phlatt.net/home/spiraloid/ also you asked for lighting tuts http://www.3d-worxx.de/tutorials/lighting.html http://www.geocities.com/pixelmagic2002/Page1.html [An awesome GI tutorial! Worth checking out even for advanced artists.] ***** + http://www.3d-worxx.de/tutorials/lighting.html [A set of lighting tips. Very good explanations.] ***** http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutor...&stage=5&page=0 [Lighting without using lights... Stupid?.. no.] ***** http://www.the3dstudio.com/tutorials.asp?id=7 [radiosity tutorial. Essential.] *** http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_educa...ctor_lights.htm [Projection maps for making a forest scene.] ***** http://www.nawyecky.com/tuts/tut-gi.htm [Another good GI tutorial.] ***** http://www.the3dstudio.com/tutorials.asp?id=121 [soft shadows (GI again). A very full of examples tutorial.] **** http://www.3dlight.com/page-lighting.htm [matching lighting in compositing.] **** http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutoria...3ptlighting.asp [Three point lighting setup... Or so called "modeling with light".] ***** http://www.3d-worxx.de/tutorials/lighting.html [Some basic explanation of lighting.] **** http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutor...&stage=2&page=0 [Some research on a spotlight's anatomy...] **** http://www.the3dstudio.com/tutorials.asp?id=97 [faking sunlight.] *** http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutor...&stage=5&page=0 [using negative light.] **** http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutor...&stage=3&page=0 [Selecting which lights should affect diffuse, which ambien, which specular...] **** http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Lighting/light03.htm [Some explanation about painting with light.] **** http://www.3dlight.com/page-softlights.htm [This one's very usefull for making realistic lighting.] **** http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutor...&stage=4&page=0 [The light's Including/excluding list.] **** http://www.taffix.com/Tutorials/Lighting/Light001.htm [How to lith a scene properly... Basics.] *** http://www.the3dstudio.com/tutorials.asp?id=8 [That's one interesting tutorial about using light flters.] *** http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tuto...smoky/smoky.htm [some practice with volume lights.] *** http://maxfreek2.tripod.com/Tutorials/Tut02.htm [my desk lamp's symptom...] ** http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials...lume/volume.asp [some more basic practice with volume lights.] *** http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutoria...3ptlighting.asp [I like this one... It makes your characters look much better.] **** http://interneteye3d.com/Tutorials/...CAL/default.asp [the usual way of doing area lights in Max.] **** http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorial.../striplight.asp [VERY usefull! may be used instead of a softlight, but that's not easy to apply to animatuions.] these were copied from this thread: http://www.threedy.com/showthread.p...15&pagenumber=1 where you can find a load more tutorials on various topics. That should keep you going for a while