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Expresii On A US$150 Windows Tablet: Sketches (Pt 3)

30/12/2014

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Let's try some Chinese Brush sketching!   走,試毛筆速寫去!

[Continuing from last entry] So we took the W5 out and tried sketching on it with Expresii Lite. Frankly, the W5 is not a powerful machine and the frame rate is only 35-50 FPS.  While you can easily get 10 hours of usage for an iPad, the W5 only gives you less than half of that, like 4-5 hours. The W5 doesn't come with a built-in stylus pressure curve adjustment tool (Wacom's driver does) and the larger Hanvon stylus feels too hard on the W5. We will add  an adjustment tool  in Expresii to help with the situation later. 
[續上回] 今回要試試拿 Pipo    W5 用 Expresii Lite 出外寫生了!因w5 比較慢,其實不能‘速寫‘啊,筆劃如果太快會出角,畫者要自我調整。還有W5 續行一般,只有4-5 小時,比較下 ipad 則可以有10小時。那支漢王筆用起來比較‘硬’,要適應一下,我們之後增加軟體筆壓調控到Expresii 去改善情況好啦。

We found that unplugging the machine from power doesn't affect the drawing frame rate. This suggests that the CPU throttling  works really well in lowering the CPU frequency while you're not painting, and increasing it while you are. 沒接電源,感覺沒影響繪畫速度,都是 35 到 50 FPS。
I ended up doing only rough sketches and then finished them when I got home, with the luxury of a Wacom Intuos 3, which gives me stylus-tilt sensing. 
最後還是把sketch 帶回家來完成,而且忍受不了 W5 沒有筆的斜度感應,用回wacom的 intuos 3了!W5 是一部完整的Windows PC,是可以連接intous的。以下是完成了的作品,隔天帶回原地對比拍照,呵呵。

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Tip: hold the stylus vertical to the surface, so that the pressure gets registered. 
I was so tempted to slant the brush when I need to do texturing, just like in traditional painting - only to be frustrated by the W5 not supporting tilt sensing and that a too-tilted stylus won't get its pressure registered.

有別於西畫,中國畫重線條表現,毛筆的使用為之關鍵。傳統“皴法”很多需要側鋒用筆,W5沒有筆的斜度感應,只能透過UI調好角度才下筆,發揮不得意。W5屏幕較小,畫畫時經常需把畫面放大縮小,但好處是可以單手拿著來畫。

Conclusion

If for sketching with the W5, the pros and cons are:
Pros:  
  • Very portable - can be held with one hand
  • Very affordable
  • Nice IPS screen
  • No fan - completely silent
  • metal back helps heat dissipation
Cons: 
  • Too slow for fast strokes
  • Only 4-5 hours of play
  • Stylus not working near screen edges
  • Stylus can't be tucked into the device
  • No stylus tilt nor eraser tip support
Granted, the W5 is not a perfect sketching tool, but given its price which is only 1/12 that of a Wacom Cintiq Companion and 1 / 5.3 that of a Surface Pro 3, you should consider it if you are on a budget. 

用W5來畫畫並不完美,但它的價格是最便宜那款Wacom Cintiq Companion (US$1800) 的1/12,最便宜的Surface Pro 3 (US$800) 的 1 / 5.3,初心者可以考慮 (btw, Cintiq Companion 其實挺重的)。期待下一批 Core-M 跟Cherry Trail 平板於2015年的出現,並希望廠商可以加入筆的斜度感應,配合我們Expresii 軟件,打造完美的毛筆水墨寫生利器!

Update 12/31: The maximum output size of these sketches generated by the W5, which has only 2GB of RAM, was 5,120 x 7,680 pixels. If you load the artwork on a desktop with a discrete GPU, you can easily get 8k x 12k.
測試發現,用W5輸出,最大為5,120 x 7,680,但你可用家裡有獨立顯卡的電腦讀進作品檔,就可輸出高達 8k x 12k 的圖檔了!

Check out the 5k x 7k output at here.
Update 1/6: The following are screenshots showing you the details of one of the sketches we did (in case you can't watch the youtube video above). It's amazing what such a small device can handle. 
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Expresii On A US$150 Windows Tablet: Calligraphy (Pt 2)

23/12/2014

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中國書法,歷史悠久。電腦時代,何從適配?最近一批廉價 Windows平板電腦湧現,再配以 Expresii Lite 軟件系統,一個真正便攜又廉價的數位書法方案便誕生了!

Authentic Digital Chinese Calligraphy!  真。數位書法不是夢!

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[Continuing from last blog entry]  We first try the original stylus included in the  PiPO W5    package. We found that it's not as easy to control as the other styli from Hanvon that we have. Check out the test video below. We keep getting bad strokes due to the less-than-ideal pressure control and the friction of the stylus tip against the screen. Fortunately, using the other styli that we have, we get better control and are able to get some nice results. 
[續上回] 感覺  PiPO W5   原來的筆,筆壓操控沒那麼好:輕壓力容易劃不到線,壓重一點又很容易變得太粗。換了一支大一點的漢王筆,這筆比起wacom intuos 的筆要硬,但在這塊 W5上用卻發揮剛好。W5  本身驅動沒有如 Wacom 自帶的壓感輕重調控,日後如加入這樣的軟體調控,望可有幫助。
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The small stylus is the one included in the W5 package. The bigger stylus is from an old Hanvon graphics tablet.
Below is another session with the larger stylus. Notice how organic the strokes are! These styli do not support tilt angle sensing, but the resultant strokes are not bad.  We of course still want tilt sensing (available in high-end graphics tablets) for best results. :)  Tablet makers, are you listening? 這些筆都沒有斜度感應,筆劃還好,但當然我們還是想要斜度感應的,書法嘛,就是要以筆的操控來畫出美的線條啊~
Below shows yet another session with the large stylus. The Atom Bay Trail used here is a very low-power CPU. Because of that, we cannot make very fast strokes without jaggedness. However, we are still very impressed by Intel's advances in their GPU-integrated CPU's. As you can see from the videos, zooming in to see stroke details is no problem, although it's not the smoothest experience like we have on desktops. To appreciate the advances, be informed that the 4 year-old TabletPC HP Touchsmart TM2 gives a mixed performance gain/loss compared to the Pipo W5 (table below) but is actually more than 5 times heavier!

Performance Comparison running Expresii Lite: 
                                      TM2      W5
Start-up           18            13      sec.
Stroking           65       49      FPS
Idle                     200*  110     FPS
Zoom Pan        20      75      FPS
* The max FPS is capped to 200.

Potentially the W5 can give better performance, as the CPU boost rarely pushes it to the maximum of 1.8GHz (ref.: the last video below). 
In the last video below, we show again a comparison of the original W5 stylus and another Hanvon stylus. You can literally hear the sound of friction as we get a broken line in this video. Maybe a matte screen protector can solve the problem? 除了壓感,原w5的筆還有摩擦問題啊,換一張屏幕保護膜可解決嗎?
In conclusion, we now have a very good candidate for an education tablet for school students. These Windows tablet are easy to carry, certainly much cheaper then an iPad, and are capable of running millions of .EXE applications already exist in the Windows ecosystem - be it content-creation or office applications, for examples. Android tablets can compete in terms of prices, but are quite limited in terms of applications. Professionals would probably opt for more capable (and more expensive) Windows tablets which are also available now. And, you know, if you still need to use some Android applications, you can always try an Android emulator like DuOS-M (paid) or  Droid4X  (free).

結論:學校如果要為學生配平板電腦供教學用途,這樣的Windows平板的確是個不錯的選擇。另,為中華文化傳承,也請各教育機構,認真考慮參與數位書法的發展。

Next blog entry, we will try sketching with the W5.
Finally, we wish you a Merry Christmas and happy painting in 2015!
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Expresii on a US$150 Windows Tablet: First Look (Pt 1)

18/12/2014

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What advances do you expect in four years? 

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Left: HP Touchsmart TM2 (2010). Right: Pipo W5 (2014).
雖被稱為“山寨機”,Pipo W5 的確比我們想像中好。除了電磁筆在屏幕邊緣失靈,筆太小和機身沒筆槽外,考慮到價格我們基本沒什麼投訴。以RMB 888 的價格,它的確性價比超高。用Expresii Lite 的時候,覺得它的筆壓感應不夠靈敏,這個我們下一篇部落格再談。
I'm pleasantly surprised by the recent release of affordable Windows 8 tablets and impressed by the Intel Atom Bay Trail CPU and HD Graphics GPU inside. - Nelson Chu
Five years ago, there weren't many tablet PC's with both pen and touch support. The HP Touchsmart TM2 was one released in 2010. We have one that is equipped with discrete GPU ATI Mobile Radeon HD 4550, which was sold for $1100 at release. To be frank, the 12" TM2 weighting 2kg (add 400g for PSU) isn't very portable. It has a Wacom pen that comes with an eraser tip (but no tilt support, so there's still a reason for a Cintiq ;-).

We acquired a Pipo W5 earlier this month. It has an 8" screen, weights only 375g and is available for less than $150 now. The W5 and the TM2 both have a screen resolution of 1280 x 800. The pen module in W5 is rumored to be from Hanvon (HanWang or 漢王 in Chinese), which is likely to cost ~$30 since a similar model without pen from Pipo costs $32 less.
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To the right of it are two styli from Hanvon that actually work with the W5.
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Top: Pipo W5's pen. Bottom: Samsung Galaxy Note's pen.
The pen that comes with the W5 is certainly too small for most users - it's remarkably similar to one that comes with a Samsung smartphone Galaxy Note (see above)! Fortunately, we found that styli for an old Hanvon graphics tablet actually work with the W5. None of these Hanvon pens come with an eraser tip and there's only one side button, however.

In the next blog entry, we will show you how the W5 performs with Expresii Lite. We're impressed by how much technology has advanced. Stay tuned.
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The TM2 is certainly much bigger than the W5.

Where to buy? 很想要?

Update 2015/1/11: If you can't communicate in Chinese with sellers on  taobao.com  (China's online shopping site, lowest priced W5 at RMB888 = US$143), you can get a W5 (or other low-cost Chinese Win 8 tablets) from resellers likes  Banggood  (currently at US$184), MeriMobile ($177), Geekbuying ($183) or AliExpress ($176).
淘寶可以直接寄到台灣跟香港,貨運很快。我們沒有commission 的啦,只是方便大家找個買的地方!
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Texture 一支筆做出不同質感

12/12/2014

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In 'Girl with Ice-Cream', we demonstrate how one can create various patterns with just one virtual brush. In other painting apps, you may need to collect various bitmap patterns as your 'brushes' - which involves a lot of mode changes. In Expresii, you can simply go by with one brush and use stylus pressure, tilt and speed to create different patterns. You will enjoy the expressiveness like never before digitally. Demo was done in Expresii Lite. 

一支毛筆,有很多可能性。這裡我們示範,用一支筆來做出不同的肌理。不同你用開的 PS,SAI 或 Painter 之類。
來,重拾筆的味道,今天就來試一下 Expresii Lite。
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圖中的的文字:
1. 用不同壓力做出富變化的肌理
2. 用‘橡皮’模式做出白線條
3. 用少量墨水 (1-2%) 跟平均壓力做出絲線


See a quick demo below. 也配了示範視頻:
BTW, this cute girl depicted is actually comic artist Little Thunder from Hong Kong. Look for the photo in her Facebook page we painted this demo from.  :-)
Large output (10k x 10k)  here.
大圖輸出  (10k x 10k)  在這裡。
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Tracing Demo 描圖示範

5/12/2014

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We love Junggi Kim's work so much that once we saw an interesting drawing of his labelled 'Brush pen on paper' in it from his Facebook page, we thought, can we redraw this with our virtual brush and get a nice "brush pen" quality digitally? The result is shown in the following video:
Expresii Lite's Overlay function allows you to load an image and trace over it. Watch the above video and see how organic the brush strokes are. It's really a dream come true for digital artists!

The following is the final digital image we made. However, it's scaled down so, again, watch the above video in full HD to appreciate the organic quality please!!!
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