CompuServe Messages

I agree wholeheartedly with everything RalphF said, and I'd like to add an aside… If you talk to any hard-core Alias user and ask them what features in the materials editor that they really like, they'll tell you that they LOVE the "grad" tool. That tool allows you to build gradients to affect material components with quite a bit of flexibility. However, as flexible as it is, it doesn't come close to the power of the HSC IPAS Gradient Designer. For a visually-creative person, the ability to make animated ramps over time as components of materials, mattes, backgrounds, layers, etc is a godsend.