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Wacom Connected Ink 2018 Tokyo：Analog Meets Digital

30/11/2018

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As Wacom's software partner, we were demo'ing Expresii in Wacom Connected Ink 2018 held on Nov 30 in Tokyo.

Paint with Colors Captured from the Real world

We are also partnering with Ufro Inc, maker of Mozbii. Check out our demo with Mozbii Color Capture:

In the end of the video above, we also show sample Ambigram artwork done with Expresii.

Analog meeting Digital

Wacom is advocating digital stationary and marriage of Analog and Digital. We are definitely on the same page, since we paint with digital tools and simulation, and then gets the result back to the analog world.

After all, it's all about human & we love your feedback

We are happy to hear visitors saying Expresii having the best digital ink simulation! Most visitors from the East readily recognize the value of our brush & ink simulation from a cultural perspective, however, we're really glad that a Caucasian visitor from Google also appreciates our contribution to further developing traditional art, and he actually really likes our ambigram of 高錕<->光纖! (ﾉ^∇^)ﾉﾟ

We thank Wacom for holding this special event for supporting digital ink and facilitating partnership. We are staying in Tokyo for SIGGRAPH ASIA. Stay tuned for more coverage.

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New Design Tool for Ambigram (雙向圖アンビグラム)

18/11/2018

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We added a new feature called Quarter Mode (now available to beta users, let us know if you want to be included) to facilitate the design of ambigram in Expresii.

Ambigrams: East & West

The earliest known ambigram design from the West was ‘THE END-PUZZLE’ done in 1893 by Peter Newell. In the East, perhaps the earliest ambigram design with known period is the signature of painter and monk Bada Shanren 八大山人 (1626 - 1705). His stylized signature of '八大山人' resembles the phrases for 'laugh at it' (笑之) and 'cry at it' (哭之) at the same time, implying his confusion and feelings of grief for the fate of his country.

In the West, ambigrams were made popular by Dan Brown incorporating John Langdon's ambigram designs into the plot of his year-2000 novel bestseller Angels & Demons. In around 2013, Japanese artist Issei Nomura (野村一晟) was inspired by Angel & Demons to dive into ambigram design with Eastern characters, which in turn made ambigram with Chinese characters (kanji) popular in East Asia after media coverage from Japan, Taiwan, China & Hong Kong in 2017.

Signature of Bada Shanren might be the earliest ambigram.

Design tool Matters

In the West, calligraphy is done with pens so strokes are of sharp lines and curves. In the East, brushes are used instead for calligraphy. I believe writing/lining instruments such as pen and brushes have great influence on artistic styles. So far, most of ambigram designs are done with lines and curves, even for Eastern characters (like shown on the right). Today, a typical ambigram design process is to first draft the design on paper, which requires repeated flipping the paper manually. The author would then make the final design on a computer using vector graphics editor programs. This manual paper flipping could impede the workflow, and sometimes it's not easy to do tricky mapping on paper.

陰陽 by oyadge01 & 意瞑字査印 2010

Expresii Ambigrams: Brush Calligraphy strokes + Quarter Mode

With new feature of 'Quarter Mode' in Expresii, we make it easy to create ambigrams directly on a computer, as you can make strokes on one of the quarters and be able to see the result in other quarters immediately.

We demo with the Chinese characters for Yin (陰) and Yang (陰). Yin-Yang is a popular subject for ambigram previously done several times by Japanese authors (see works done in 2009: 回文ユンブイカ, unknown author; 2010: oyadge01, oyadge01×意瞑字査印; 2013: Issie Nomura, 2014: 意瞑字査印; 2015: 意瞑字査印, Satoshi Ito; 2018: Satoshi Ito, ARTAKANA). In fact, the famous Yin-Yang symbol ☯ inspired John Langdon to do ambigrams back in the 70's.

With Expresii, we can make the strokes with authentic calligraphic look, which sets it apart from all previous ambigrams of Eastern characters:

Yin-Yang 陰陽 ambigram made with Expresii by Nelson Chu 2018

Calligraphic ambigram 陰陽 made into a chop. Funny thing is, the chop reads 陰, but actually 陽 is imprinted. © Nelson Chu 2018

Ambigram 陰陽 chop when lit. Yang (陽) in Light, Yin (陰) as negative print. © Nelson Chu 2018

Conclusion

We hope to contribute to the development of our culture by introducing new tool for designing ambigram. In particular, since Eastern calligraphy has been done with a brush for thousands of years, we would like to make it easy to do ambigrams with authentic brush strokes. We hope you like our new feature and would love to hear your feedback!

- Nelson Chu 2018.11

P.S. 中國大陸把 Ambigram 譯成‘對稱字’，但其實Ambigram 不一定‘對稱’。Ambigram 的前部ambi 應該有 ambiguous的意思，就是暧昧、含糊、雙關等意思。Gram 有‘圖’或‘字符’的意思。其實我覺得Ambigram 譯作‘雙關圖’也不錯，接近我們說的‘一語雙關’，套到字圖就是‘一圖雙關’。

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Expresii is coming to Tokyo!

1/11/2018

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Expresii is coming to Tokyo later this month! We'll demo at Wacom Connected Ink 2018 and SIGGRAPH ASIA 2018. Come see our latest development and chat with our developer! Stay tuned for details~

👉Register free for Connected Ink here.
👉Get a free Visitor Pass (includes Exhibition where we'll be demo'ing) for SIGGRAPH ASIA by registering now.

Special thanks to Wacom for treating us as good partner. Previously, we participated in Connected Ink 2016 Shanghai:

Expresii demo'ed in Connected Ink 2017 Tokyo:

We also express our graitude to CGVisual.com for inviting us to demo again at SIGGRAPH ASIA. Check out our previous reports on SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 & SIGGRAPH ASIA 2013!

Expresii demo at SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 Macao

We can't wait to see you again in Tokyo! ヽ(´ω｀○)ﾉ.+ﾟ*｡:ﾟ+

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High-DPI support rolling out

15/9/2018

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We will now (v.2018-09-16) gradually rolling out high-DPI support that some of you are asking for (by giving bad review). Here, I'd like to say that High-DPI support not a simple easy-peasy toggle of a switch (if it were, Adobe would have had high-DPI Photoshop early on). We do rely on others' UI framework. When such framework doesn't work as expected, we need to look for workaround. Not all software developers are as big as Adobe where you can have a whole arm of developers to work on it. So, please be more understanding and don't give the lowest review score in MS App Store simply because we don't have high-DPI support earlier. Without high-DPI, Expresii is still functional and gives you the world's most organic digital watercolor. Like some of the users say, Expresii deserves the credit. So, please leave a balanced review if you are to leave one.

Speed Impact

Using high-DPI rendering may not best suit your situation. If you're using a not-so-powerful GPU, you may notice slow-down after switching to high-DPI rendering. This is because previously the system is only using e.g. 1/4 of the screen resolution for artwork rendering and artwork rendering takes GPU times. With high-DPI support, we will use the full resolution of the screen and thus it'd take more time. You can see the rendering quality difference below (captured on my 2017 Surface Pro i7):

Blurry rendering using 1/4 the resolution (1/2 width & 1/2 height) and then scaled back up.

Sharp rendering using native screen resolution

FYI, my 2017 Surface Pro with Iris 640 dropped from 100+ to 60-80 FPS switching to high-DPI, depending on the zoom level. So, depending on your GPU, using high-DPI support may or may not be your better choice. FYI, we just got a user reporting that he's very happy with high-DPI on his Surface Studio that still gives 90-150 FPS after the switch.

You can always switch back

You can always switch back to System scaling instead of high-DPI via System Override. You right-click on Expresii's icon, and then choose Property>Compatibility>Settings>Change high DPI settings and choose 'System (Enhanced)':

You

Using 'System Enhanced', some of the UI text gets proper scaling. You can check out the rendering differences:

So, if you find painting is too slow, we recommend using 'System Enhanced' so that it's not slowed down and that you still get some of the texts scaled sharp.

The high-DPI support is not perfect yet. We'll keep working on it.

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Printing artwork on Xuan paper 宣紙打印

22/7/2018

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Feeling the intangible

One of the reasons why traditional artists don't like digital painting is that digital artwork only exists in cyber space. They prefer something they can hold in their hands. To address this, we can simply print the artwork on real pieces of paper.

Eastern Art Paper for printing

A decade ago, printing on Eastern art paper was not easy because of the paper thinness causing jams. Nowadays, it is much easily given those designed-for-printer-use Xuan paper packs in size A4 or A3 or even in rolls available from taobao.com (sorry, site in Chinese). There are also Japanese paper designed for printing too (like Awagami). Looking at their website, it seems their papers are thicker than the art paper we normally use for Eastern art, and thus pigments won't soaking into the paper all the way through like in real calligraphy works.

十年前用宣紙打印很麻煩的，因為紙太薄送紙容易弄皺。但現在淘寶有專門用來打印的宣紙，A4、A3，甚至長卷均有出售，雖然還是會皺，但廢品率已經改善很多。日本也有為打印而設的和紙，還未試，但感覺如果紙太厚則沒通透感，會像普通打在紙表面的 印刷品，而非像真的書法作品那麼墨滲透紙纖維的 藝術品。

A4-size Xuan paper for printing

Here we use Xuan paper packs (really cheap at <2USD a pack of 100 sheets) bought from Taobao.

Printing with ink

For an authentic feel, we use Ink Jet printers instead of laser, because the paper absorbs the ink just like in real artworks. If you use laser, the pigment stays on top of the paper, giving an ordinary 'printout' feel. Here we use very low-cost printers with only 4 pigments. If you have more expensive printers using more pigments in different tones, the result should be finer.

See the process and more results:

Casual viewers probably won't notice those are prints. This is especially true when the work is purely black like in normal Eastern calligraphy.

For those who can't access Youtube, see if you can watch the same video hosted in this site:
如果您是大陸的，可能Youtube 看不到，所以我也試下在本站放上面那個視頻，看看您們看不看到，留言告訴我情況啊：

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First try on Veikk S640 pen tablet

4/7/2018

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Veikk sent us an S640 pen tablet for testing. We did some quick doodle and calligraphy with the low-cost (currently $26 on Amazon ; $28 on Gearbest) pen tablet:

The S640 is light-weight and portable. It is the thinnest I've ever tried. At first I wished the S640 comes with some shortcut buttons, but now paring it with a bluetooth keyboard I don't really need them on the tablet itself.

How portable?

The S640 is very thin. See it for yourself:

I like the Huion H420 for being able to have its cable unplugged. But mine is not functioning after a year because of rusting metal for the battery compartment. :( The new Veikk S640 is battery-less so no worry for replacing battery and of course rusting metal is never an issue.

Low-Cost pen tablet for art education

Schools on a low budget should consider picking up such low-cost tablets for their digital art education. Digital calligraphy is big and we should further develop our tradition in the new era.

來一起參與書法革命

硬筆的藝術性比毛筆差，因為筆觸變化沒那麼大。但現在電子筆透過軟件，藝術性變得媲美甚至超越毛筆。

學校請考慮數位書法（大陸叫‘數字書法’）教學啊！我們辦學，是為準備孩子應付未來30年的挑戰。現在電子產品越來越流行，電子書法必然會發展出來的。未來的人會更多時間用電子筆，就像現代人用硬筆多於毛筆一樣。來，讓我們一起參與這場書法革命！

Without pen tilt sensing, it's less than ideal when you make the strokes.

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Expresii on Microsoft Surface Book 2

30/6/2018

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We were excited ever since the first Surface Book came out in 2015, since it gave the option for a discrete GPU. Now we have a chance to test with a Surface Book 2, thanks to Microsoft for providing the hardware for testing.

We are provided with the 13.5" model. Coming from the 12" Surface Pro, I like the bigger screen size. The hardware feels really solid and clean. And of course, with an nvidia GTX 1050, we get very good performance, although it gets a bit hot and the fan would kick on.

Left: Surface Pro 2017. Right: 13.5" Surface Book 2.

You need the base

When you detach the base, the GPU performance drops significantly, so you would like to attach the base when you use Expresii. In fact, when I detached the base and held the tablet part only, I realized how convenient the kickstand of the Surface Pro is! Note that the tablet part doesn't have any USB port (or video port), so you can't really use it in place of, say, a Surface Pro. I believe they designed it for only brief detachment like for the case of quick presentations.

Calligraphy done in Expresii on the 13.5" Surface Book 2

See the calligraphy process video in Youtube:

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Controlling Expresii With Clip Studio Tabmate

26/4/2018

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The recently released TabMate from Clip Studio is a controller designed specifically for digital painting. Long-time Expresii user Shuen Leung is very happy with the new controller. The following is a video walk-through for setting up the controller for use with Expresii:

The setup process is very similar to that of the Nintendo Joy-con. However, the TabMate gives constant left or up signals for the Left and Right Joysticks, so user would need to disable the Joystick readings or function assignment from inside Expresii.

Acknowledgement: we thanks Shuen Leung for lending us the controller and providing feedback and suggestions using the TabMate. Let us know if you have any feedback in using similar controllers! You can read more on the TabMate in this English review by Scigor.

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Shuen Leung tries out Surface Studio & Book 2

18/4/2018

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Hong Kong-based artist Shuen Leung tries out Microsoft Surface Studio and Surface Book 2:

Shuen does artwork in both traditional and digital media. She specially likes Expresii for its ability to undo. "Expresii 是可以undo 的水墨!" (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Shuen in front of her painting 離珠 that gets featured in Microsoft's marketing

She likes the Surface Studio for its gorgeous screen. The screen is so big and sturdy that she can even lean on it to paint.

"屏幕好大手可以枕上去畫好舒服~
解析度很高看得好爽，顏色也好看~"

What about the Surface Pen?

The Surface Pen's weight is just right and feels good in hand. Hope pen tilt will be support on the Studio in the future.
Surface Pen 重心、重量都剛好，手握感是不錯的，
但在 Studio 上未支持側鋒感應，希望日後加入

We too look forward to the Studio supporting pen tilt sensing. ୧༼✿ ͡◕ д ◕͡ ༽୨

Shuen is currently an art teacher and serves as a Background Supervisor in an animation studio in Hong Kong. When not painting, she enjoys practicing Kung-Fu with her fellow Kung-Fu practitioners.

Check out her website and Facebook page for works, art tips and more.

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Magic with Expresii & Microsoft Surface Dial

1/3/2018

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We recently added native support for Microsoft Surface Dial. The combination of pen, touch and wheel gives you a new way to interact with Expresii.

Two custom menu items, Rotate & Brush , are added specific for Expresii:

When Expresii's main window is in focus, a press-and-hold on the Dial takes you to the above radial menu. When Brush is selected, you can press the Dial to invoke our own Brush Control Menu, which has four items, namely Brush Size, Loading, Wetness and Scratchiness:

For instance, you can use the Dial to adjust Brush Wetness while you stroke:

All of these controls, except brush size, can be adjusted as you stroke. Yes, as you stroke, instead of between strokes. Things happen in real time. You can rotate the paper with the Dial as you paint. By adjusting your pen tilt angle at the same time, thanks to the tilt-sensitivity of the pen, you can create interesting patterns!

Create unique pattern by rotating paper via the Dial and adjust pen angle

When you enable gravity in Expresii, your rotation actually directs the ink flow. Expresii's advanced paint engine give the most natural simulation of brush and ink hands down. You won't believe what your Surface device can do!

And of course the Dial is also handy for undo and redo. See it in action for yourself:

We had a lot of fun playing with Expresii & the dial. We hope you do too! As always, stay creative! └(°ᴥ°)┘

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<<Previous

Wacom Connected Ink 2018 Tokyo：Analog Meets Digital

Paint with Colors Captured from the Real world

Analog meeting Digital

After all, it's all about human & we love your feedback

New Design Tool for Ambigram (雙向圖アンビグラム)

Ambigrams: East & West

Design tool Matters

Expresii Ambigrams: Brush Calligraphy strokes + Quarter Mode

Conclusion

Expresii is coming to Tokyo!

High-DPI support rolling out

Speed Impact

You can always switch back

Printing artwork on Xuan paper 宣紙打印

Feeling the intangible

Eastern Art Paper for printing

Printing with ink

First try on Veikk S640 pen tablet

How portable?

Low-Cost pen tablet for art education

來一起參與書法革命

Expresii on Microsoft Surface Book 2

You need the base

Controlling Expresii With Clip Studio Tabmate

Shuen Leung tries out Surface Studio & Book 2

Magic with Expresii & Microsoft Surface Dial

Expresii 寫意

Previous Posts
以前的文章

Categories 分類

Paint with Colors Captured from the Real world

Analog meeting Digital

After all, it's all about human & we love your feedback

Ambigrams: East & West

Design tool Matters

Expresii Ambigrams: Brush Calligraphy strokes + Quarter Mode

Conclusion

Speed Impact

You can always switch back

Feeling the intangible

Eastern Art Paper for printing

Printing with ink

How portable?

Low-Cost pen tablet for art education

​來一起參與書法革命

You need the base

Expresii 寫意

Previous Posts 以前的文章

Categories 分類

來一起參與書法革命

Previous Posts
以前的文章