Is it harder to get a job in another country?

It can be a bit harder. For a company to hire a foreign artist they need to pay extra for relocation costs, spend time and money arranging for your visa, not to mention that in most cases they need to trust you on the basis of a telephone interview.

Having said that, finding the proper people with the right attitude and talent is the biggest problem of any studio no matter how big or small. Companies are willing to look around the world in order to achieve that. In other words if you are good enough you are going to get a job anywhere you want.

What's your thesis for the PhD?

My research is related to applied photorealism. I'm trying to break down most of nature's elements to their physical properties and trying imitate and simulate them properly using off-the-shelf tools. Hopefully this will lead to a published book to help other 3D artists that are interested in photorealism and need a guideline to apply it. Unfortunately because I have been extremely busy here at Animal Logic I never seem to find time to have any serious progress on my thesis. Once we stop full production I hope I find some time to do a little bit more research.

When did you see LightWave 3D for the first time?

I saw it on the Amiga, unfortunately I was probably too lazy at the time to get involved. I got another glimpse at Siggraph - that was when I first raised an eyebrow looking at the unbelievable quality of the renders.

When did you first start using it?

I started my 3D career using other packages until 2000 were I was employed by Digital Animations Group (DAG) in Glasgow. DAG has some of the most talented LightWave artists worldwide, with their generosity I learned LightWave properly and since then I never gave it up.

What do you like about the package?

Modelling tools and feel, rendering quality specially the raytracing engine. I also enjoy how simple it is to use the more advanced developments in 3D technology like HDR, SSS, Radiosity, hair, etc. I also work a lot with Renderman, but for my personal work or freelance my choice is LightWave renderer.

What could be improved for you?

Microdisplacement bump will make a huge difference to me and to many out there. That's the only thing I love about Renderman, a true bump map instantly makes an object alive. LightWave always employed the latest technology in its rendering arsenal. Lately other renders are seriously catching up, I would like to see LightWave to be where it deserves to be.

OpenGL performance is another issue that needs to be addressed. With average to high polygon count models LightWave 3D performs well but when you really push it at very high poly counts the performance drops. It seems that LightWave fails to take full advantage of all the features the new graphics cards employ. I would love to see that change and both Modeler and Layout to benefit from it.

I would also like to see a node-based surface editor as standard. Keep the brilliant layer-based surface editor but add another one were you can plug surface and texture networks in a node-based way. I find that way of building surfaces very creative.

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

At work I use a dual 3.0GHz HP with 2 Gigs of Ram and NVIDIA Quadro 4 980 XGL. At home I have a an Acer Aspire 1714SMi running at 3.4GHz with 2gigs of Ram and nVidia GeForce FX Go5700.

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

Vertibevel, and all the Worley plug-ins.

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

Integrated is the way forward.

Do you use LightWave at Animal Logic?

Unfortunately not, the pipeline is set a long time ago. I use Renderman and Maya although most of my tools are propriety.