CompuServe Messages

Jonathan, Congrats on getting your Toaster. I'll try to answer yout questions as best as I can. The upgrade to 3.1 from 2.0 retails for $699 US dollars, you should be able to get a discount from that price by going mail order as opposed to buying from Newtek direct. I'm not sure if they will require you to furnish proof of ownership or not, check with the dealer on that one. As far as upgrading firmware; I am afraid you are too late to take advantage of the special trade in offer from Newtek. That's been over for quite some time now. If you decide to upgrade to 3.1 you will see marked improvement in lightwave render times. In some circumstances there is a 300% or more increase in speed. The other upgraded features in both Lightwave and Modeler are too numerous to mention, suffice to say it's probably more than worth your while to upgrade the software. I am sure Newtek would be more than willing to furnish you with a free demotape of 3.1's features along with a brochure, but you must be patient. I have heard that it can take weeks for that info to arrive once it is ordered by Newtek, I think they might be using an outside service to provide fullfilment on the promotional tapes. The warp effects you mentioned make use of the digital frame buffers (DV-1 DV2) to accomplish their magic. In order to get them to work properly on the other channels of video, the buffers must be available (at least one of them anyway). Try experimenting a bit, you will find a way to work with the digital style DVE effects with most combinations of DV's and input signal sources so long as you bear in mind there are some limitations. I find some interesting ways to work with images "keyed" over each other while using the DVE's it can get real interesting. Your manual should be a good source of info on the basic explanation of the different combinations available. If you didn't get a manual, I suggest you either get the 3.1 upgrade, or contact someone who would be willing to let you photocopy their 2.0 manual. I can't imagine you using lightwave without a manual anyway. Frank