I used to use lightwave when I first learned 3d.  It was pretty easy to use, but the UV map editing wasn't that great (I prefer 3d Maya, but 3d max is just as good to learn). It was a while ago, so they might have implemented a way to "sew" pieces of uv maps together by now.  I think when I used it, I had to get a plug-in to export the UV map for me.  You could take a screen shot (maybe that's what you did), but I imagine it might be a little off when you use it. 

Yeah I tried promotion, but it didn't look like it had any batch conversions and I have hundreds of files to convert.  I don't have a lot of exp with promotion, but that's what it looked like at first glance.

    I have a technical question for some of the pixel artists out there that deal with limited color pallets.  I have a bunch of 16 color character images that I created in photoshop.  Now I'm trying to save them as 4bit bmps, but I need the color pallets to be identical when I convert the images (because of the way our compression works with our programming environment - this is for my work) - including the order of the colors in each pallet.  I've tried using graphics gale, but it re-arranges the colors in the pallet, so I have the same colors, but I don't have them in the right order. I'm not using photoshop CS2 for the conversion because it forces black and white and that means I'm losing 2 colors for each frame.

   Is there a program with a batch convert that will keep the color pallet exactly the same when I convert from 8bit to 4bit bmp?
Thanks! 

   Ok, so Ive done a little freelance work here and there and generally people were pretty good about paying me.  Some people gave me a contract to sign others didn't. 
    So I did some work for this guy that owns a new website called zellomesh in July. He said he was really happy with the work and he paid me for it.  But I got this email from paypal today saying he tried to file a complaint and get his money back - from 2 months ago!  Since it had been so long of course they didn't take it back, but he never paid me for some work I did for him a few weeks ago (which he also said he liked). I mean it's one thing if the guy is unhappy with the work and asks for a refund, but he said he really liked it and he'd pay me for it.
 
   Not only that, but after I went and read the complaint from paypal, it said that he told them that they were copywrited characters and he was being sued! Need less to say I was pretty upset. These were some of the little avatar paper doll characters I made:



   Anyway, so I was wondering what you guys do to protect yourself from these kinds of situations. I've heard a lot about contracts, but I don't know what they need to say to protect my rights.  Any of you freelance guru's have any suggestions or examples of what a contract might look like?

Thanks

   Hey, I posted this portfolio quite a while back.  I'm working full time at a video game company so I'm not available for contract work right now. Thanks.

Portfolio: http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~lkester/pixelart.html