Thinking about my model and animation; it works best with a SU model (when exported to EC still differentiates textures of inside and outside of beads). 

Published a simple model and animation with sky environment map today.  I am happy with the 2 metal reflective textures on the beads in combination with the Ocean texture on the ground plane which throws a (preset) rhythmic animation of tide and light on the beads and ocean surface, in keeping with the Rhythm Repeat design principle driving the idea.  I will use the Ocean texture ground plane in part of the movie only (?intro), as it takes up a lot of memory and stalls animation and navigation.  When exploring the beads I will have a second EC file (without Ocean texture, with ground plane out of view) so that the file is not too clunky.
Now back to EC to try the bigger SU model and set up some trigger fields and more sophisticated animations.