LauriePriest - thanks, i appreciate it. DJbLAZER - yeah, i'm confused - when i hover over the file in zbrush it says 32 bit - but in ps it says it's 8 bit. GioChrono - yea, maya 7. here's my shading network. i'm sure there's something i'm missing. haven't had much of a chance to look at this, but i did manage to find a bumpnode for maya 7 on highend that let's me render the normal map, though only in maya software.