hello - sorry for disappearing mid-discussion. I think I understand nodes a little more now: I've been learning Nuke; with viewer, merge & key nodes among others (tho Nuke's seem to make a little more sense...) I guess where I was heading with this thread was to pose the question 'are any nodes universal?' i.e. if I were to drop a volume fog onto a cube or a light, would it create a smoky cube and a smoky light? or an intensity node that say, dropped onto the flow node of a fluid, would adjust the flow rate; or that same intensity node on the brightness of a light acting acting accordingly? I know these are far-fetched scenarios, but I'm curious as to whether this principle does actually play out anywhere in the wacky world that is Maya? ps. hope nobody minds the bump :S