wassup Rage I need some help.. I emailed you last week asking for some help w/sparks. I'm attaching a maya scene file to see if you can help me to figure something out. I want this particle cloud to fade in and then fade out during the given time using the smoothstep function; when ever I tried it the particles that were supposed to be invisible still rendered. This is for a short animaiton were doing as a school for a local gossip show here in miami. Man I know that you can help. Thanx alot.