Expresii on a US$150 Windows Tablet: Flow Demos (pt 4)

OMG! Wet Dream come true! 水墨淋漓如何？

Adobe's video ad

Ladies and Gentlemen, what you're about to see would amaze you. Since the introduction of the Apple iPad in 2010, people have been dreaming about using tablet devices with realistic paint simulation to paint, and in fact, even the recent Adobe video ad "the future of Adobe creative applications on Microsoft devices" suggests exactly that.  
用平板配像真度超高的虛擬顏料畫畫，自從iPad 2010 年面世就有人夢想過。最近Adobe發了影片，內容是，將來他們的軟件配合微軟的平板可能會怎樣怎樣。其實片裡只是廣告效果，現在Adobe的軟件沒那麼神呢！

How about having the future *now*? Would you like to paint with realistic watercolor that flows as you tilt the surface? The flow should not be predefined with some kind of bitmaps that you load into the app, but react to your interaction. Okay, I'd let the video do the talking: 
不過其實逼真水彩/水墨，用我們的技術已可達成，且小平板一樣可用（雖然慢點）。多講沒用，看片：

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This is done on a US$150 Windows tablet PiPO W5, with pen and touch support (palm rejection built in). Can you believe it!! Although it doesn't provide the silky smooth user experience you get from a desktop PC or a gaming laptop, its cost-to-performance ratio is extremely high. For comparison, if you're in the Apple camp, a pressure-sensitive pen like the Wacom Creative Stylus 2 would cost you $80, not to mention the ipad itself costs you at least $250 (for an old model). And, remember on the ipad   (in fact any platform),  you won't find painting app that does such a realistic watercolor like ours.  By the way,  the GPU inside the W5 is no match for the Tegra K1 found inside the    Nvidia S hield Tablet  ($299 lowest), and just imagine what we can do with such a powerful  GPU. 
雖然 Atom CPU 運行速度慢，但影片裡用的PiPO W5 的確性價比超高。8寸的大小，方便攜帶。你很喜歡 Wacom Cintiq Companion 但買不起？嫌它太重？那可以考慮PiPO W5 喲，才人民幣 888 (= 美金 142)，萬一丟了也不太心疼吧。比較下如果你是用ipad方案，價錢也不便宜，還有就算用了Wacom專業畫筆，也不是每個app 也支持palm rejection 呢。

In the above video you'll see that every time you put down the paint the outcome is so natural, thanks to our full-fledged fluid simulation. The following is another demo showing the use of the brush in "sprayer" mode.
上面影片可看到，每次下筆，出來效果也不一樣的，這也是水彩/水墨可貴之處。以下影片裡有用‘噴筆’模式來下墨的：

You may say it's just a cool demo - it's not practical for creating art. Well, if you're a  watercolorist, you know the use of flow patterns. You can use those abstract forms for backgrounds, fills for your subjects, etc (see e.g. this video). The organic quality is really  irreplaceable.  Let me show you a piece we did:
你可能覺得這樣只是個玩具，實際上難用於繪畫？那下面給你看個示範圖吧：

This Gandalf in Chinese ink painting style was done on a desktop PC previously, with a "wash" layer that utilizes the paint dispersion and another  layer  used for line work. And, before you ask, yes, our simulation focuses on Chinese  watercolor now. Our Software Architect Nelson Chu would come back to Western media again later (At Microsoft, Nelson worked on oil and pastel simulation, which you now find inside Fresh Paint).
這幅水墨 ‘甘道夫’就是之前用Expresii 在桌面機畫成的。用桌面機比較快，比較爽啊！片裡是用W5打開並展示給你看。圖分兩個圖層，一為‘線條’，另一為‘染色’，傳統上說‘有筆有墨為之畫’，在電子世界裡可以分圖層多好啊！

Conclusion:   We are very excited by the recent development of Win 8 tablets. Finally software and hardware working together to make a dream come true! We're going to release the Lite version of Expresii first (preview  available  now), and the Full version later (no set date yet). 2015 looks like a good year for digital painters!
結論：沒想到 Intel 的CPU 進步那麼快！把我們 GPU-intensive 的水墨模擬放到小平板只是想試試而已，但出來效果絕不是Atom CPU一貫給我們的印象中那麼差喲！夢想，逐漸因軟件和硬件的配合而成真了。   ୧༼ ヘ ᗜ ヘ ༽୨   
我們會先推出 Lite 版本（Preview 現已可下載），之後再推出 Full  版。大家，看來2015  是數位繪畫的一年好年！

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如果你喜歡我們所做的努力，請多多支持，好讓中國水墨也能在數位世界發揚光大，謝謝！請讚我們的FB粉絲團啊～

You can download a 9k x 12k output of the Gandalf artwork here.  
‘甘道夫’超大圖output在這裡。