The best thing you can do is to learn the basics of material attributes. Color- main appearance. Transparency- based on color as to how and where an object is transparent. Basically a white to black will do for you with white being the most transparent and black being the most opaque (light-blocking). Ambient Color- appearance seen with ambient lighting, use this to affect the Color slot Incandescence- this affects how much an object glows on it's own. It does not become a light source, but is visible in the dark. Same as the transparency, white to black again with white causing the most effect. Bump Mapping- as the name suggests, bump mapping will create a "textured" surface. Once again based on black and white. You can use colored textures in this slot but your best bet if you used a color texture for you main color is to make a black and white copy for the other attributes to get the desired look. Diffuse- this is how much of the Color slot shows versus the default grey basically. Use this when your texture is too light or dark. Translucence- black and white based yet again, this affects how much the material will glow with lighting, as in a lit candle, the wax has some translucence with makes it appear to glow near the tip Start with those and then move on and learn the rest Darkon