Tell us a bit about yourself.

Well let me begin by saying that unlike the rest of the LightWave artists interviewed here, I am not in a CG-related field. I am from Singapore and flying with the national airline as cabin crew. I would consider myself having a little bit of art background since one of my G.C.E. Advanced Level subjects in college was traditional art, i.e. painting, drawing, etc. - but college days seem really long ago now.

My interest and curiosity in 3D art began in 2000. I went for Hash Animation Master initially because it is inexpensive to start out with and I was not sure if I could really cope with 3D art. After messing around with the program for a year or so and having a little success with it (I got Honorable Mentions for "Awakening" in the Fine Arts category in the New York Golden Teapot Awards 2001) my confidence was boosted. Soon I was getting a little frustrated with the program because I didn't really enjoy modelling with AM patches. I began to look for an alternative.

How old are you if college seems like a long time ago?

I am 37+ this year. Is that not old?

Do you play a musical instrument? You share a name with the section leader of the Raffles Institution Military Band... :)

I do play an instrument - alto saxophone. I was in the school band all the way from primary school to college, 10 years. What a coincidence! I am not that Jared Lim! LOL...

When did you see LightWave for the first time and start using it?

I came across Taron's fabulous art work on the net. I was instantly in love with his beautiful renders. I wrote him a fan mail and surprisingly he replied! He's such a nice and great artist and several emails later, his encouragement convinced me to cross over to LightWave. My affair with LightWave began with version 7 in December 2001. Taron the original LightWave master is my original LightWave evangelist.

What do you like about the package?

First of all I love the stability. LightWave hardly ever crashes on my machine. I like the clean, uncluttered interface and how much viewport real estate it has on the screen compared to other programs. Needless to say, I love the render output, that is one of the main considerations when crossing over. Modelling in LightWave is a dream - sub-patch modelling in LightWave in particular has saved me many headaches. The numerous tools that are included and all the plug-ins you can get free from the net just make modelling so much more efficient.

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

D-storm Edge Tool, David Ikeda's Power Tools, Blochi's Thickener — just to name a few that greatly enhance modelling workflow.

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

My current machine is self-built with a Pentium4 2.53MHz, 1GB Ram and GeForce FX 5600 Ultra.

What could be improved for you?

More detailed information in the Render Status panel during the rendering process. This is particular useful during the rendering of huge files (>3000 pixels) for print. An estimated time required for the entire frame render or an indication of how many percent of the render is done. Otherwise it would be great if the render preview would shrink in proportion to the size of the file rendered to obtain a better visual feedback of how much has been rendered.

Faster global illumination render.
Cloth procedural shader — I am surprised LightWave does not have one.
N-gons support for sub-patches.
Better UV texturing tools like relax UV in Maya and better UV texture support for sub-patch models.

The rest I see them realising in the upcoming LightWave [8]. Faster and easier IK rigging for character, better dynamics, adjustable keyframes in the timeline (though a fully-fledged dope sheet would be great) just to name a few..