Thank you so much for all your answers - rage, i have to yet render out the scene. But I have a few more questions that still kind of elude me... I'm curious as to how big an ocean plane has to be in order to merge in with the horizon line or just in general. I've also wondered why there aren't any Maya tutorials out there on creating an island and an ocean... I've heard of one in some book but that wasn't comprehensive. Oh well, thank you all!