Ok, had some sleep and some coffee, not necessarily in that order =P

I think I am "almost" there. There seems to be 1 crucial element I am forgeting, not doing, not checking off or just not understanding, and I have become a little distracted, and a little confused. I think I may have even confused you guys a bit, so I want to start from scratch, and go slow, piece by piece...

I totally fixed the scene. Deleted the existed lights, added just 1 ininite, changed the angle, did the light meter test until the meter showed "ok" light, loaded BB's envirosphere, loaded my texture into that, applied a "good" skin texture to the main character, edited the render settings WITHOUT GC 1st (we will add that in later) and this is where I/we start...

These next few screencaps will show the "default" scene, and then I will explain what I added and changed...

What I like in this render is how the colors of the textures are "rich" and match my overall expectations. I do change/fix/edit my mats on the fly, but for our sakes and purposes, and keeping in topic, this is how the load... I do NOT like how the aliens are way too dark. I would fix this, but thats another step. Generally, I make my scenes first, and I can get pretty complex w/ my scenes. Then I'll add the materials. THEN I decide on lighting... After that, I may play w/ some side props and special effects, but thats my flow...

There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those that can count, and those that can't..