I've already told a bit of my story here, but a brief summary with 3D:

1. TrueSpace 3.2 off a magazine got me started a few years back, maybe around 2000 or so.
2. Cinema 4D 6 giveaway on 3D World took me a stage further
3. Carrara 5 on a magazine came next (with Carrara 6 Pro added recently)
4. I then bought Vue Esprit 5 and began playing with it, but I really wanted EcoSystem technology, so
5. ,,, I sidegraded to Vue 5 Infinite, which came with a free upgrade to Vue 6 Infinite (them were the days!)
6. In the last two weeks I have upgraded to Vue 7 Infinite.

My main interests in 3D turned out to be in visualisation and illustration, rather than "art" as such, though I do a wide range of things, and I hope to set up business as a freelance illustrator at some point soon.

Another major component for me is Google Sketchup. It took me a bit of time to get used to Vue but I feel very at home in it now, and I love the function editor for material editing particularly.

So that's a bit about me!

Thanks
Richard