After 4 days of innumerable hours of frustration, I cannot begin to begin to list the ways that the animation tool SUCKS!  Now I am not one given to rant but, after spending several days of my own time trying to execute an animation that in any other software would be simple, I’m at the end of my rope.  I can render the same motion study back to back and each time it renders differently.  Parts randomly change color, transparency’s shift with the wind.  Mine is a simple assembly sequence, no motion, just a simple show/hide.  I’m not sure what my question is other than if anyone has some pointers on how to make this thing work right I’m open to suggestions.  All my appearances are at the part level with no top level overrides and yet two instances of the same part render differently.  Is there a way to remove any and all top level appearances?  Is there a way to assure that the animation render will be the same as the still render?  For the amount of time I have spent on this we probably could have bought MAX and been done with this nightmare.