A couple newb questions regarding fresnel and rendering

A couple newb questions regarding fresnel and rendering

I'm learning Cheetah and trying to do some composites with a background photo. A couple weird things are happening.

First, whenever I use the fresnel option for reflection, my camera background image seems to show through on the edges of the rendered object. I'd expect this if I had a fresnel effect on the transparency channel but not for reflection. There is no transparency on the objects.

Second, some of my models get these weird rendering artifact near edges. I've tried changing the rendering settings for antialiasing and the subdivision setting on the object but neither seems to have an effect. My geometry seems fine - nothing overlapping or anything. If I render at twice the size, the artifacts are twice as small. Which is sort of a solution, but not really.

Anyone have any ideas why these things are happening and how to get past them? Thanks!

ZooHead, no problem.

The file is on another machine but here is a similar file with the same transparency issue that I set up quickly.

I'm using version 6.3.1.

Thanks!

Yup, I think you got it! Man, I thought I was trying everything but apparently not. Thanks, I knew that couldn't be right.