A Sumatra screenshot, source unknown (looks like something from the web site or from a magazine article).

Update: Top commenter Hirazi found that this screenshot was the “Pick of the Month” from June 2001. Titled “Last Check Point”, it’s the work of Max Evgrafov. Via the wayback machine, we get this description:

The great Italian writer Primo Levi once wrote:

“Loving your work (unfortunately the privilege of a few) represents
the best, most concrete approximation of happiness on earth.”

Like Levi, who worked as a chemist by day and a writer the rest
of the time, XSI guru and June Gallery winner Max Evgrafov
loves his work, even when he’s not on the job.

Currently a hard-working animator in the game development
department of the large Russian company 1c, Evgrafov has
spent the last eight or so months developing levels, animating
CG soldiers and paratroopers, and modeling and texturing
low-res polygonal objects for IL-2 Shturmovik, a high-level
flight simulator that has been in the works for over three years.

It’s pretty nice work if you can get it, but it’s after work that
some of Evgrafov’s best ideas get a chance to shine. His winning
entry, entitled “Last Check Point” and featuring a startling realistic
3D oil lamp and hovering moth, shows just how brightly Max’s
light can shine. “I was introduced to the magical world of 3D
through my architectural studies at university,” says Evgrafov
thoughtfully.

“When I graduated, I found work on a television
channel, before moving on to some advertising
agencies. Eventually, I got to know SOFTIMAGE|3D
and became interested in character animation,
which I worked on for a year and a half.”

He recently picked up SOFTIMAGE|XSI, and has spent a lot of
time exploring its possibilities. Indeed, his enthusiasm and expertise
for XSI seem to extend to nearly every part of the software:
“Firstly, SOFTIMAGE|XSI offers excellent polygonal modeling
capabilities,” says Evgrafov with enthusiastically. “The system
enables me to do some great work with materials and, of course,
render passes. I was frankly amazed by the easy to use XSI
interface. I really like working with it. Also, the Render Tree
offers a vivid and easy instrument for creating materials. It
allows me to create and edit complicated materials with
complicated textures without fear of getting lost. ”

That’s all well and good, but it is the SOFTIMAGE|XSI
animation toolset for which Evgrafov reserves special praise.
“I really like the animation toolset,” he says. “XSI lets me
create layered animations, put them together in the Animation
Mixer, estimate the animation of a single character, and so on.
Put simply, XSI provides convenient features non–stop while
I’m working.”

Put simply, Evgrafov is doing pretty well for somebody claiming
to have a lot to learn. In addition to winning the Softimage.com
XSI Gallery competition for “Last Check Point”, the image
also won an all-Russia computer graphics competition
held by web site http://www.render.ru/.

One thing is certain: this Max Evgrafov’s time to
shine…and he has the 3D light to prove it.

Congratulations, Max!