[Sweeper - Can't find it.]

That's what this forum is for. My pleasure.

[Assembly Line Graphic]

You did a great job on that one. Very clean and to the point.

[Sweeper - Can't find it.]

You need to have a path selected first before sweeper will show up. You also must have a sweeper object centered on the x/y/z/ axis with a name to use sweeper. See this page: http://www.hash.com/sweeper/

[lighting]

Leave the fade with distance off for now. I believe you might not see the flare because you need to have the klieg just in front of your Photon model and have the klieg aiming in the general direction of the camera. If you aim it directly at the camera, all you see is a huge glow, so aim it a bit off. Now try it.

 

Photon Movie

 

I played around with stuff and got the above result. This was done with a bulb as KNbits suggested. All reflections were eliminated by chosing "none." The project file crashed after the render and I did not save it, but I believe I only left the beam active and the first glow. Intensity, size, and beam angle were randomly changed over time in the, what else, timeline. Hope that helps.

[Giraffe: Attaching Nost to the Head]

Doug:

 

Do a screen capture of the problem area so we can get a visiual. Now that I think about it, I don't recall the nose being separate from the rest of the model. Sure enough, it's been a long time since I did the Giraffe, but the head is one piece. Extrude the nose piece, if it isn't part of the head mesh already, and taper it down to almost nothing at the end. You should not have a separate nose piece to attach.

[1440x900 wallpaper]

Just trying to get the sphere with Projection map to appear right. This is what I get, a big ugly seam as seen in the reflection orb. Made a material with HDRI image, had to flip it in HDRIShop in order to be right side up. Properties: Projection map, Method: Spherical, Type: Color, Repeats: 1,1. Seamless option does not seem to make a difference either way.

 

Is there an ugly seam in your image too, just hidden?

[Nimmie's Exterior]

I haven't read the post to see if there is a reason no leaves are present, but all else is absolutely stunning. Fantastic job!