hello again to everyone!

I have been at this 3d thing for about 3 years now and really have exploded in the last year (as I now have a job that allows me to sleep for 35 of my work hours).

anyway I have many projects that I have started and dropped and they have served me well for experiencing issues that I would not have even considered to learn workarounds for.

however when I am able to do something at some point and then not recreate it later no matter what I do, it drives me mad.

any rate I am now working on a realistic giraffe (as it is my 3yr old daughter's favorite animal) too late for long story short, but I am trying to set the fur color by using the same file that is my texture color (giraffe spots & such).

so I have mapped that file into:
base color, tip color, base ambient, tip ambient, and specular color.

I have also tried a render in between assigning each one. but no matter what I try I just get a render with black fur.

I have also tried creating a directional light at different settings.
tried mental ray and software renders.

I also tried setting up a new scene and used a polySphere and a different color map but no matter what ... black fur.

does anyone have any guesses as to what I did before that I am not doing now?

I have always admired the work posted here and the willingness to help by the people here.
Infinite thanks.