When did you first start using it?

I eventually bought LW5.5 around 1995/1996-ish. I saved up for 5.0, but then 5.5 came out and the price went up. However I was lucky to meet someone online who offered me a second-hand copy of 5.5 so I went for that! Even on my old 486, it ran great!

It was my most expensive hobby. However after some 'showing off' how I could create cool 3D stuff to colleagues at work, I eventually started to be offered small freelance jobs on the side. This got me in touch with some cool people, and I've never had to go and 'find' work - it has recently started to finally become less freelance and more career over the last few years which has been great for me!

But for me, its still my most passionate hobby!

What do you like about the package?

Pretty much most of it, but if I was to get specific about the software, I'd say the workflow and tools - the biggest fact is that I feel comfortable using it, like an almost natural bond with the software for producing whatever I want from it. It still challenges me to come up with solutions for creating animations or models, but I like that and that it offers so many different approaches to try out!

With version 8.0, I love the crisp new 'Texture wireframe shade' mode in Modeler and the faster performance the most, which really starts to make Modeler feel really slick to use. Layout obviously has all those cool new features for Dynamics as well as the oh-so-handy dope track (which gets a LOT of use when I'm animating!)

But definitely the workflow is number one - After all, if I found it hard or awkward to use, I would have moved on years ago to something else!

What could be improved for you?

I think the Scene Editor/Spreadsheet should be internally integrated and removed from the Master Plugins List. These tools both cause more headaches for me than they solve in a production pipeline, causing crashes and instability on render farms and more. Actually, these are part of the reason Lean Clean Scene Machine was created (more on that later - ed) - to fix the problems those things created!

I'm not sure if there's any reason why these can't be internalised where they can get a deeper 'access' to the LightWave system itself anyway?

I would like to see more improvements at the plug-in level though, more open access to the underlying architecture in both SDK and LScript, and faster LScript execution too would mean it could become a viable solution for shaders, etc. I love LScript - it's easy to use, and I can pump out tools quickly and easily in it. Now all we need is an LScript to plug-in compiler and I think we'd be on the right track! :-)

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

Whatever I can afford! Actually, I use an older AMD XP2000+ with half a gig of ram and a GeForce Ti4200 at home for all my LightWaving. At the studio I run a similarly specced workstation but with a Gig of ram and a Ti4600... When I get a little more money I'm planning to upgrade the home machine a little more!

At the school I'm teaching, we are Macintosh equipped with G4 800MHz machines with GeForce 2 and half a gig of ram as well - but we're in the process of upgrading those to newer, faster machines. I really wouldn't recommend that lower spec to anyone if they seriously wanted to use LightWave on a Mac - LightWave needs the fastest Mac you can afford if Macintosh is your preferred platform.

The nice thing is that working in both platforms gives me get plenty of experience in LightWave's multi-platform support.

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

Plug-ins are great, but honestly, most of my work revolves around the great tools that already come with the standard LightWave. Of course, with LightWave 8, that means all those cool Dave Ikeda tools, etc... And I'm really finding those fantastic enhancements to my modelling workflow!

Though, that said, the new Ambient Occlusion plug-in that's been getting plenty of great feedback lately is something that is finding its way deep into my workflow lately for texturing and surfacing! And it's free - can't say no to that!

In your opinion, should LightWave 3D stay separated or become integrated?

I say keep them separate. Why? Because I like the way I can work with it - it's fast and less cumbersome then a huge beast application where all your modelling and animating tools are integrated deep in menu systems in the one application.