Hiya.

-Corel Painter / Adobe Photoshop
-[graphics tablet; Intuous]
-UltimateUnwrap3D
-Softimage|XSI
-Hexagon 2.1
-regular ol' paper and pens/pencils, of course!

...and a few "nice to haves"...

--Bodypaint3D
--some type of terrain tool like "PnP Terrain Creator", "TED" (http://www.d-grafix.com/?page=ted), etc.

^_^

"We've got a blind date with destiny...and it looks like she's ordered the lobster."

-- The Shoveler

A7 Commercial (on Windows 7, 64-bit)