What could be improved for you?

The interface: It could conform a lot more to the standards set by the operating system in terms of keyboard accessibility and general consistency. Also, absolutely everything should be undoable and mass-editable.

Then I'd like to have a more sophisticated construction history in Modeler and parametrical objects that remain editable. I also wouldn't mind if LightWave's renderer was faster.

What spec machine(s) are you using it on at the moment?

A dual Athlon (2 GHz) with 2 GB RAM and 200 GB hard drive space. The graphics card is a meagre GeForce FX5200 and it's serving a dual display setup. I also have a Pentium-III-notebook and am about to set up another dual CPU machine just for rendering.

Are there any plug-ins you wouldn't be without?

If I was allowed only one plug-in it would be Evasion's X-Dof 2. Other than that I am using Darktree and its Simbiont plug-in a lot.

In your opinion: Integrated or Separated? :)

Separated. I could even do with another application just for rigging. ;-)

What gave you the idea for Kicker?

I was sitting in my favourite bar in Hamburg, watching people play table football. I had just decided to do "something" 3D again and was still looking for an idea - and there it was. Well, first I thought, why not model a foosball table for some nice still images? And this somehow turned into "What if those players were alive and, ahem, kicking?"

As always, things got more complicated after the basic idea was found. All of a sudden there were problems like: Where do they get a new ball from, if one team scores? Where does the ball come from in the first place? Why are the lights still turned on but there's nobody in the room any more? Turning the main action into a dream and a match of sudden death with just one ball looks like an obvious way out, but it took me quite a few discussions with my friends to get there.

I've seen "real" table football games with people strapped to the poles. Did you take any inspiration from them?

No. I know these games exist and have seen one being erected at a street festival in Hamburg, but I have never actually watched it being played.

This reminds me of a shocking moment, though. In August 2001, just after I started work on "Kicker" I read a news article in 3D World that began with "Table football with a difference...". It was about an ad by The Mill where they replaced the figures of a foosball table with some famous football stars like Beckham or Davids, so not quite what I was doing. But I still remember the initial shock when I read this first line, thinking "Oh no, it's already being done!".

Recently, I got an email from two German guys who unfortunately had to find out, that I did do what they were still working at, at least to some degree. I could imagine what they must have felt watching "Kicker".

How long did Kicker take in total?

I started in July 2001, when LightWave 6.5 arrived on my doorstep. The modelling of the table and figures was completed while I was still figuring out what exactly was supposed to happen. The final edit was finished in February 2003, which makes it a good one and a half years. Except for one month of full time animating I worked on it only on weekends and in the evenings. You have to keep in mind that I also had to learn the software and the general production process at the same time. So I reckon it's not that long, although people not familiar with animating are usually very surprised and can't quite believe that it took so long to deliver not even three minutes of film.