Thanks ctbram. I never really have any money to spend on anything so I'll have to make do with whatever free apps I can find. However I'll take note of the things you mentioned so that when I do have some money to spend, I'll have some options. I've heard of the unfold option in alot of the threads on Simply Maya so I'll have to read up on it in the Maya Help Files.

Here's my 1st attempt at texturing a ball. I created a polygon sphere, smothed it and applied a picture I downloaded from the internet. Bionicle is my son's favorite thing . Anyway, the picture all comes together at the poles so it makes the head look pinched and then it stretches out toward the middle of the ball.