Total immersion

One of China's finest oil painters has made her first foray into virtual-reality art, a digital debut that has proved to be as painstaking as it was rewarding. Deng Zhangyu reports.

The darkness is broken by a sharp light. All of a sudden, a newborn baby is brought into the world, kicking and screaming. The doctor holds the baby in her arms, walking toward a set of scales.

Everyone in the delivery room - the mother lying on the bed, the doctors in attendance and the infant herself - can be viewed from every angle, just as in the real world. However, these are not actual three-dimensional characters - they have been meticulously painted in oil, and yet can only be viewed in virtual reality.