CG Networks: The Eternal Gaze
Sam Chen, whose ingenious 3-D web artwork for SGI back in 1996 called "The Out of Box Experience" inspired the VRML and 3-D web revolution of the mid- to late-90's, won Best Animated Short for the Siggraph 2003 Electronic Theater. The piece "The Eternal Gaze" profiles the life of artist Alberto Giacometti.
Sam Chen, although revered by 3-D animation zealots, remains unknown in the world of rich media advertising. But it was Sam's brilliant work while he was with SGI that was an inspiration to artists who were exploring the possibilities of the web as a creative medium.
The excitement generated by Sam's work was the catalyst for the launch of Cosmo Software and other 3-D web animation companies between 1996 and 1999. Cosmo was one of the early pioneers in the field of rich media advertising, using a vector graphics file format known as Virtual Reality Modeling Language or VRML (pronounced vermal) for short. Sam helped create some of the earliest examples of rich media advertising using VRML, and his success led the way for companies such as Viewpoint, which were able to capitalize on both the initial success and ultimate downfall of VRML.
