cool stuff Jim
im a traditionaly trained TI, but unfortunatly i comleted my training just at the time computers were starting to be used. my first job was straight away in front of a computer and have only ever made illustrations digitaly and have never made a hande made piece of comersial work
at the bigining of my career i lost all motivation and would never even consider having a computer at home to do personal work. but then 3D came along and that all changed! i was very lucky that my employer encouraged it, and as we worked in the auto industry and with good contacts to VW i was making 3d marketing engine cutaways while i was learning 3d!
Hacking stuff apart sounds way more fun than messing with assemblies in solidworks.
yeah thats always a fun part of illustrating. im often invited to tour cleints factories, and get to climb over cars/trucks/machines and learn stuff at the same time
i had a washing machine manufactorer client that used to send the actual machine to draw from and they even optermisticly ask for it back in one piece, that never happend