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Keeping Tradition Alive 只有發展才能保留

23/10/2017

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Earlier this month, our Dr. Nelson Chu, along with  two more  alumni ​, was invited to speak in an alumni sharing session by HKUST.   You can review the whole sharing  here.   Nelson showed our  ground-breaking app Expresii on a tablet computer to the audience.   

Digital Art not real art? 數位藝術不是真藝術?

During the Q&A section, Nelson was asked   to comment on how to deal with people saying digital art is not real art. To answer  this, let's first assume people don't regard digital art as real art because they think operations like undo and redo   mean   cheating. Let's here what Nelson has to say:
One may say there's no mistakes in art so there's no need for undo. Okay, then let's regard undo's and redo's as opportunities to go back and forth in time. - Nelson Chu
'Long time ago when the Western fountain pen got introduced to the East, people might say "pen calligraphy" is not calligraphy. Only brush calligraphy is. But now people accept that pen calligraphy is also calligraphy' said Nelson.
Nelson is a firm believer of digital calligraphy.  See how he does digital calligraphy with his own tool Expresii: 
From the above videos, you see how undo's and redo's allowed more flexibility and save time  to create the perfect design without wasting paper.    ​(^(エ)^)

Embracing New Tools

In deed, if you look at the history of writing tools in East Asia, you will see we keep adding new tools to our arsenal over the years.  If we insist that a new tool has to act exactly like what came before it, there wouldn't have been brush calligraphy in the first place because we would still be using carving knifes to write. 

​​We should really   embrace new technology   and   explore what we can do with it.
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History of writing tools in East Asia
我們拿書法來談談工具的影響吧。毛筆書法的出現,是因為我們發明了毛筆。試想想,如果我們都堅持新工具一定要跟之前的一模一樣,那我們可能還是用着刻刀來刻字呢,而毛筆書法根本不會發展出來。
​​
也許以前有人說,硬筆寫的不是書法,只有毛筆寫的才是書法。但現在大家都已接受
硬筆書法也是書法。我們深信,數位書法是必然會發展起來。

Changing Business Model

Another possible reason why people don't consider digital art real  is that they can't sell it to galleries or collectors like they do with works done in physical media.  People are concerned that artists  (along with a whole ecosystem of art dealers) can not make a living if there are no   originals  (vs. digital copies) to sell.   

To respond to this, firstly, we'd like to emphasis that artistic value is NOT market value. If we stick to the question of  whether something is real art we should  really judge it by its artistic value.   Whether it sells or not is a completely different story.   For a painting, we judge its artistic value by e.g. the use of colors or  composition, which you can also find in digital art. 

Secondly, business models can adapt to changes.  A century ago, musicians made a living by performing live. With the invention of sound recorder, musicians don't lose their job simply   because there is  a way to playback their music. Instead, a whole ecosystem of record companies & distributors came into existence. And then came the digital age, when people don't buy CD's as often.  Record companies could blame digital music making it easy to be pirated. Then Apple fights the problem by providing a way to get legit music easier than looking for pirated copies.   And if you think those big companies are paying artists  too little royalty ,  now independent   artists can sell their music, art or tutorials via sites like Gumroad with a much bigger cut,  effectively  democratizing  art selling for creators.

消失中的手寫字 hand writing anyone?

久不久就有人發表文章,說現代人都用電腦手機,都不會寫字了。而且電腦字體的流行,讓人廉價使用。街上原本很美的手寫字招牌,一下子被呆板的電腦字體所取代。

我們不能逆轉電子產品的普及應用,但可把東西改進,讓它更適合我們。我們在軟件上努力,做出Expresii 水墨書法軟件,讓大家可以更好的在電子時代,承傳並發展中國書法和水墨畫。其實,電腦上也可以手寫字啊!

In the Chinese community, we regularly see  complaints  about new gadgets making our younger generation forgetting how to write with their hands.  The rise  of computer fonts  also turned beautiful calligraphic signs into unimpressive 'computer-font' ones in   our city . All these  new gadgets  seem to take away our cultural heritage.

Gadgets  only get   more popular and  we can't revert that. But what we can do is to build new tools  to go with them so that we can breathe new life into our  culture.   In Expresii, we're actually making digital art organic to a whole new level - in response to existing paint programs making brush strokes that are so sterile.
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Old neon vs New LED sign (Macau 2014)
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Wu GuanZhong (吳冠中) 1919-2010

To Keep Tradition Alive = To Bring In New Life

保留傳統,只有發展才能保留,不發展就不可能保留。 - 吳冠中
以上是已故著名畫家吳冠中的一句話,語出這裡。我把它翻譯成:To Keep Tradition Alive = To Bring In New Life。華人都很講‘傳統’,但真的,‘傳統’不是死的,而是需要我們去繼續發展下去的。希望大家不要抗拒新發展。新發展是難的,方向也不一定對。如果大家對我們的發展有什麼看法,歡迎指正。在此也僅希望從事教育的朋友,或者關心傳統的朋友,如果覺得我們做的事情是對的,請給予支持,幫忙廣傳。感謝!

I can't emphasize enough the importance of new development.  If you think what we do with Expresii is worthwhile, please help spread the word. Thank you!
​
Further on the pros and cons of digital painting:   Why go digital?
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More VR Controller Choices: with analog input!

17/10/2017

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Previously we've been trying   cheap bluetooth VR controllers    but they either don't really support Windows, or they don't offer analog joystick input (joystick only act as buttons): 
Thanks to Shuen Leung, recently   we discovered a couple of Keysco   branded  bluetooth controllers that could act as analog joysticks under Windows.   However, they could only be seen as DirectX devices so we also added support for DirectX (DX) game controllers in Expresii. These should be the cheapest single-hand controllers that offer analog input for Windows on the market now.  And they are more comfortable to hold than then R1 shown in the youtube video shown above.  If you can communicate in Chinese,  you can get one from Taobao for RMB35 (=$5.3).   Otherwise, you can buy one from   Amazon    currently at $9.8 or   Ebay  at $6.95.
Below is a process walk-through video for connecting the controller and using it in Expresii.  You can press WIN and type 'joy.cpl'  and press enter to get to the control panel  item  for game controller shown in the video.   And FYI, those Keysco controllers we tested only give 4 buttons - those shoulder buttons actually maps to one of those A B C  D buttons!  Also, the analog sticks are not very sensitive as some of the more professional ones like XBox or Plasystation controllers.
Such a controller is useful for quick access  if you don't want to use a keyboard.   In particular, if your stylus doesn't sense tilt yet, you can also use the analog stick for pen tilt, or even for painting surface tilt.

Let us know if you need more function assignment  for game controller and we will consider adding them.   ^_^

Update: Controller known NOT to work as expected

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The white one on the left doesn't even connect to a Windows machine via bluetooth,  although the description says it supports PC.   The Mocute on the  right connects to Windows device, but those buttons and  thumbsticks map to number keys - not working as a game controller as expected. :(
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Expresii on New Surface Pro

15/10/2017

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The New Surface Pro was announced back in May this year.  Today we will show you how Expresii runs on it.
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The latest Surface Pro (2017) running Expresii. (Figure painting by Shuen)

The New Device

The outlook of the New Surface Pro is mostly the same as that of the Surface Pro 4, except that the more rounded edges now feels more inviting.  ​ The top model (CPU: i7 7660U; GPU: Iris Plus Graphics 640; RAM: 16GB) is capable of getting 100+ FPS. I'm very pleased with the performance given  the sleek package of the Surface Pro.   See a demo video   below - which include spontaneous painting  of some eggplants:    ​(ノ・д・)ノ

The New Pen

Highlights of the new Surface pen over the last generation:
  1. Tilt sensitivity
  2. Much lighter activation force
  3. Much reduced lag,  especially near device   edges
The only downside  is that it doesn't support tilt sensing while hovering, something we normally would get  with Wacom's EMR pen   on their Intuos Pro or Cintiq lines.  Disappointingly, those new 2017-released  tablets equipped with Wacom's EMR pen technology (namely Samsung Galaxy Book &   Acer Switch 7 Black Edition) do not support tilt sensing during hover as well.      (๑◕︵◕๑)

Without hover   tilt sensing, you don't see your virtual brush in the right orientation right before you stroke.   That'd be awkward  because you need to know how the brush is touching the paper to make a mark.   Fortunately,   brush orientation   left from the previous stroke doesn't affect the correct rendering   of a new   stroke  with an initial tilt angle   quite different from   the final tilt angle of the previous stroke.  
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You can make vastly different marks intuitively by varying pressure and tilt angle in Expresii.
In most advertisements by both Apple and Microsoft, they would say 'tilt to shade'.   Here, we show you that tilt is  not just for shading, but also for making   organic marks using the side of the   brush   as well.   In Expresii,  your ink and   brush  really interact with the paper. 

Pressure Level vs Activation Force

A lot of people  think the new pen is more sensitive because of the pressure level increase.   To me, pressure level doesn't really make a noticeable difference (given >= 1024).  It is mainly the improved   activation force   that makes the new pen feels more sensitive.  Those who are not sure about this   can try    toggling the   '1024-level'   option    on your Wacom device and see if you notice any difference.  ​

New Pen on other Surface devices?

Yes, you're covered.  ​According to Microsoft representative:​

"The new 
Surface Pen works with these generations of Surface Devices: Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, Surface Studio and Surface Laptop.  The new Surface Pro is the first Surface to enable 4096 levels  of   Pressure Sensitivity  and  Pen Tilt.  These features will be updated on Surface Book and Surface Studio with updates in early 2018.  All devices benefit from the 9g-low activation force."

Game Mode

To make sure you get the best performance,   you can opt to use Game  Mode for Expresii.  What the Game Mode does is to    minimize background activities to give way for the foreground program.
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The Game Mode is available if you have the Windows 10 Creator's Update. Press WIN+G   to bring up the Game Bar  UI. Read more about the   Game Mode   here .

Conclusion

I'm impressed by what Microsoft has achieved over the years for the Surface Pro Family.   I wish in the near future they are able to support hover tilt sensing as well. Expresii really shows off the sleek new Surface Pro for its powerful GPU and its new pen.   Users can make vastly different organic marks  simply by varying pen pressure and tilt angle, as well as the wetness of the virtual brush.  This allows spontaneous painting  not possible in any other app.
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Inktober & Giveaway!

14/10/2017

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We are half way through  October now and have you started your Inktober yet? This year, Angela Wong a.k.a.   GingerCatSneeze  on Tumblr. has been using Expresii to do her Inktober (re-posted with permission):
If you're on Tumblr, don't miss the chance to win a license for Expresii and her Inktober Zine!   Head over  to GingerCatSneeze's  Tumblr :
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The giveaway closes on 1 Nov 2017 at 23:59 (UTC).  All you need to do is the reblog or like that Tumblr post to enter!
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