I'm basically retired now anyway...

[shrox]

I guess Lightwave3D is a fun hobby, I still do an occasional book cover or such. Are there any people that will actually lose a job that they've been using Lightwave on? (I don't mean NT employees.)

[Axis3d]

I'll be using Lightwave until it doesn't run anymore on my computer. Ive been using it for 30 years. I won't lose any jobs unless the software magically stops working. Heck, I still know someone that uses Softimage.

[Nicolas Jordan]

I'll be using Lightwave until it doesn't run anymore on my computer. Ive been using it for 30 years. I won't lose any jobs unless the software magically stops working. Heck, I still know someone that uses Softimage.

That's exactly my plan as well. I have only been using it for the last 21 years and only regret not discovering it sooner than I did. Heck my Lightwave will still run on Windows long after I'm dead, who knows.

[Ma3rk]

LW's always been more of a way to noodle out ideas more than anything, so not using it as primary income source at this point.

I am currently in Retirement Limbo though. I'm in the Hollywood Set Lighting union & only need a few hundred hours more to retire with full Health benefits. In prior years, that would have meant 2-3 months of work; I was typically getting 50-60 hrs/week.

BUT, those hours have to be on a signatory show based in the LA jurisdiction. And of course pretty much everything is shut down in Tinselburg. No new shows, just returning with existing crews; no add'l day players & limited hours. No 2nd unit work. Little if any location work.

Meanwhile my clock is still ticking.

[Shabazzy]

As an indie animator, I can't see me losing any work or jobs.

I made the switch from 'work for hire' to becoming a full indie animator a couple of years ago. So everything I create is my own IP and so I generate my own income from it.

I spent nearly 30 years in the entertainment industry in various animation and video roles and learned in 2007 financial crash that the only real way to ensure you have job/income security is to do what the studios do and have ownership of your own IP and build your own audience base to sell it to.

I learnt to keep my goals and expectations realistic and understand how business really works. LightWave and TVPaint play key roles in my productions, but my business's value doesn't lie in LightWave or my IP; it lies in my audience base and that's what has really attracted investors. Every business wants exposure.

So as long as LightWave and TVPaint continue to work, I can keep building my audience.

On a subject absolutely nothing to do with this thread though, I came across this fun question on YouTube and thought I'd through throw it out to you guys.

It goes:
How many errors are in this sentence?

how are you asked bob!

A: 4
B: 5
C: 3
D: 7

Answers on a post card.

[TreyX]

That's exactly my plan as well. I have only been using it for the last 21 years and only regret not discovering it sooner than I did. Heck my Lightwave will still run on Windows long after I'm dead, who knows.

[TreyX]

I guess Lightwave3D is a fun hobby, I still do an occasional book cover or such. Are there any people that will actually lose a job that they've been using Lightwave on? (I don't mean NT employees.)

not me. i run my own shop. i can use any 3d app i want, but choose LW. have been using sit since '95. also have c4d (R20 & R21), and will use that for advanced mograph, but otherwise, LW 2015, 2019 & 2020 is everything i need. i'll be using LW until i can't get it to run on Win anymore, so I'm betting many more years...

[vncnt]

To me LW has been more like an area of interest with a lot of potential.
Affordable commercial software (v4.5) that offered OpenGL preview and acceptable render speed.

After some self study and experiments I was asked to accept commercial orders.
For one year I was able to look behind the scenes of small media companies and I was able to draw some conclusions.
1. Never make a profit in the first year of your company: the tax authorities want to settle immediately for the following year.
2. What my colleagues were doing didn't seem too complicated.
3. Running a business in addition to a permanent job is tough. I had to make a choice and I chose security: my permanent job at KLM.

Not much later I was in the situation to make a switch to Instructional Designer in the simulator department, which provided training for cockpit and cabin personnel. I was able to combine automation, media and innovation. Since then we've moved to digital video, digital audio, vfx, animation (I was able to buy a LightWave license!), interactive 3D (Unity). I've used LightWave to visualize aircraft and flight safety equipment in flight simulations (based on logged simulator data), in SD/HD video's, in stills, in interactive 3D training (panorama's, 3D simulated environments), etc.

Now I am 54 years old.
In this year the company has been struggling and corona has enabled me to bring my plans forward by another 6 years.
From 1 December I will no longer be a KLM employee after more than 34 years.
It still feels a bit uncomfortable to leave behind and hand over everything that I have worked so hard on.
But it's a good time to offer opportunities to young people.
I sympathize with those who lost their jobs.

Starting this year, I'll dive deeper into the secrets of character animation. Without interference.
I will continue to use LightWave for that because working with characters requires that your tools don't get in the way but can trust them blindly.
However, I now have more time to delve more seriously into Blender.
In this respect, fast (or real-time) and realistic final rendering is of secondary importance but I want to keep expanding my toolbox.

The signs don't seem very positive at the moment but I still assume that LightWave has the opportunity to remain part of an innovative process.

During my career, the usefulness of my experience and knowledge of LightWave has always proven itself.
Let that be a comfort to anyone living in uncertain times now.

My purchases of LW2018, LW2019, LW2020 were largely strategic in nature as any update could be the last and I welcome any additional update or bug fix.

It is very nice to own and use these licenses during my new adventure.

[erikals]

IKB + TAFA still knocks the socks of the competition, (speed/result) so think i'll end up creating a simple LW <> Blender Bridge.

Should be easy using AHK, tho' not as neat as a professional version.


Your LightWave future depends on your demands.
My guess is many will be using LW for a further 10 years.

[vncnt]

I'm a happy user of Genoma2 and built my own facial rig with it.
Also exploring the displacement nodes method for extremes but I'm less of a fan of linear transitions between morphs for speech.

I get inspiration for exercises from the animation videos of Jean-Denis Haas on YouTube.
Following his video about the use of video reference, I animated the following shot (for exercise only).



In this shot I haven't even explored lip-sync speech and facial expressions because I don't own the rights to use the audio anyway.
Using video reference to exactly copy movements is not my cup of tea - and yet it was a fun exercise.

I will further optimize its rig and after some more exercises I'll continue with the acting part of animation.
Production speed is therefore not the most important thing for me.
My goal is to learn.

[Bernie2Strokes]

As an indie animator, I can't see me losing any work or jobs.

I made the switch from 'work for hire' to becoming a full indie animator a couple of years ago. So everything I create is my own IP and so I generate my own income from it.

I spent nearly 30 years in the entertainment industry in various animation and video roles and learned in 2007 financial crash that the only real way to ensure you have job/income security is to do what the studios do and have ownership of your own IP and build your own audience base to sell it to.

I learnt to keep my goals and expectations realistic and understand how business really works. LightWave and TVPaint play key roles in my productions, but my business's value doesn't lie in LightWave or my IP; it lies in my audience base and that's what has really attracted investors. Every business wants exposure.

So as long as LightWave and TVPaint continue to work, I can keep building my audience.

On a subject absolutely nothing to do with this thread though, I came across this fun question on YouTube and thought I'd through throw it out to you guys.

It goes:
How many errors are in this sentence?

how are you asked bob!

A: 4
B: 5
C: 3
D: 7

Answers on a post card.

I would love to have TVPaint even though it hasn't had many upgrades in the past few years. But if LW2020 is the last version to come out I think I can still work with it.

[scallahan1]

On a subject absolutely nothing to do with this thread though, I came across this fun question on YouTube and thought I'd through throw it out to you guys.

It goes:
How many errors are in this sentence?

how are you asked bob!

A: 4
B: 5
C: 3
D: 7

Answers on a post card.

I'm gonna go with B:5. Is that correct?

Steve

[Shabazzy]

I'm gonna go with B:5. Is that correct?

Steve

It depends.

How did you come to that conclusion?

[scallahan1]

It depends.

How did you come to that conclusion?

1) "How" is not capitalized
2) No comma after "you"
3) "Bob" is not capitalized
4) Missing quotes "" between spoken words
5) Missing question mark after "you"

I think it should read: "How are you?", asked Bob!
I still don't know why there's an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, though. Been out of High School for a LONG time.

Steve

PS> Was I close?

[Shabazzy]

Interesting reasoning. Does anyone think Scalahan1's conclusions have any merit?