The Lightwave Reference Manual/User Guide - Rather obvious really, but it is surprising how many questions are posted to newsgroups which get the 'rtfm' response. Of course, some of these may be from individuals who don't have the manuals. Why's that? These manuals show you the tools of your trade. Read. Reread.

Inside Lightwave 3D - Dan Ablan, New Riders Publishing, ISBN 1-56205-799-5. This book is one of the best books for Lightwave users who have mastered the basics. It does not aim to be a replacement for the manuals; rather it seeks to explain how to use the tools in Lightwave, from a man who has obviously had a lot of experience in the field. I hope more Lightwave book developers follow Dan's example and explain by exaple how some of the myriad plug ins for Lightwave wok.

Lightwave 3D 5 Character Animation - Doug Kelly, Ventana Communications Group, inc. ISBN 1-56604-532-0. The examples in the book don't particularly inspire, and Lightwave 5.6 is now upon us, making some of this a little old hat. However, this book leans more towards explaining the process of being a digital animator in a real industry as opposed to how to make Lightwave sing. For those wishing to pursue a career as an animator, I can recommend this book highly. It has highly detailed tutorials and explains the broader concepts applicable to animation in general.

Digital Cinematography - Ben de Leeuw, AP Professional, a division of Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-208875-1. Not a book for those wishing to learn the mechanics of Lightwave. This is a book aimed at those wishing to understand more about lighting, composition, camera angles & effects of lens sizes etc. While the images are basic, they achieve what they set out to do, which is illustrate the many valuable concepts explained by the book.

3D Photorealism Toolkit - Bill Fleming, Wiley Computer Publishing, ISBN 0-471-25346-4. While this book claims to be for all types of software packages, it seems fairly obvious that the tutorials are done in Lightwave. An invaluable resource for anyone wishing to do photoreal rendering.

3D Creature Workshop - Bill Fleming, Charles River Media, ISBN 188680178-9. About a quarter of this book is specifically for Lightwave users, and another quarter gives general information useful to computer graphics folk in general. The subject matter may be a little narrow in scope, but the depth of the chapters and quality of images makes this book a must for anyone remotely interested in creature modelling.