I'm like a sponge mastone soaking up your input. I've spent the last 3 years pretty much doing nothing but modeling object after object but hardly any effort on texturing, lighting, compositing etc. so I'm really grateful for all the advice your giving me. Even though I've shelved this community project until I can figure out how I want to develop the characters, I think I'll play around with all the suggestions you've made.

Unfortunately I don't have fur anymore. I used to have the student version of Maya unlimited but I couldn't affort the commercial version of it, so I only have complete . I did get shave and a haircut which seems to make some really good grass too but I don't have the commercial version of it either so when I render out hair and grass and such it puts an ugly grid on the renders. So I'm pretty much stuck with grass textures unless anyone has any other suggestions/ideas on making decent looking grass. I tried using alpha maps for making grass but it just doesn't quite give the right look. Then again neither does a plain with grass texture on it, haha.