Your TechMailings Guy is not a graphic designer. I know as much about rasterizing as I do about Rastafarianism. So most of the things discussed in the on-line archive I visited at their Web site was beyond my ken. From what I saw, this is a relatively active list, with people posting from all over the globe. It's just that I didn't know what they were talking about.

So, for those of you who can speak "graphics," here are two sample posts:

"Subject: Texturing nurbs surfaces

"Greetings all,

"Having created a shark using nurbs uloft surface and texturing it using cylinder uvmap wrapped it around the body. This all works fine to the point where I need to make the top of the pectoral fins the dark grey and the underside white - I either end up with the the underside grey also or the top white, now I know this is due to the mapping coordinates used.

"If I was a mesh then I could select the underside and use multiple materials - but with nurbs material multiple channel it selects the entire surface and not specific sections.

"What I need to know is :- How do I select sections of nurbs surfaces to apply different materials?

"Cheers in advance
"Tim"

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"Subject: Re: 3dsmax r3 shiva

"hi all,

"i saw shiva on a discreet roadshow yesterday and i can tell u that a lot of things have changed for the good. it will be released sometime around end june to beginning july.

"if u got specific questions plz write 'em. there is too much stuff to list it all but what i can tell u is that 2/3 of the code is rewritten. to sum it all up : get it when it's out - it makes working with max better, easier and more fun!

"dirk"

From what I could see, this is a friendly and informal group of folks sharing their knowledge. If you are a graphic designer, you probably even know what they are talking about. Recommended.