Expresii 寫意
  • Home
  • Showcase
    • Moxi Paint Engine
    • Yibi Brush Engine
    • A New Way to Paint
    • youji Rendering Engine
  • Download
    • Get / Buy Expresii >
      • Update Log
    • Sample Artwork Files
    • Third-Party
  • Support
    • Documentation >
      • End User License Agreement
      • Privacy Policy
    • Video Tutorials
    • User Forum
    • FAQ
    • Feedback
    • Help Translate
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Media Resources
    • Privacy
  • Blog
  • 主頁
  • 示範
  • 網誌
  • 下載
  • 關於我們
    • 聯絡我們

Expresii on Surface Pro 7

13/11/2020

Comments

 
It has been one year since the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 was released.   We got ourselves an i7 model to test with. We've had it for about a month now and it has been very responsive.
The following is a quick test on its performance. As you can see, it allows fluid digital watercolor in Expresii. In case you can't afford the i7 model, you can still get by with the i5 model, but  you may want to use the   Fast Mode   for more responsiveness.
Did some calligraphy test too:
Don't have the original Surface Pen with us right now, so we picked up a Surface Pen alternative in these tests. 
Finally  we'd like to show you some sneak peek at some latest development in   ink-painting-style animation (水墨動畫) that we are working on.   Follow our animator collaborator's Instagram  to learn more. Their work is so cool & cute at the same time!
​And yes, Surface Pro is used in producing this animation, in case you wonder.   ​​(・ωー)~☆
Comments

Review: Cheap Surface Pen Alternatives with tilt support

25/9/2019

Comments

 

Where to buy?

There are tons of cheap Surface Pen alternatives out there available for purchase online. The cheapest usually marked as 1024 pressure-levels are around US$20. Newer models supporting tilt sensing are a bit pricier.

We acquired two Surface Pen alternatives from Taobao,  namely the IQS Surface Pen 4096  and the  WiWU   P503 'Picasso' Active Stylus for testing.  Both claim to support 4096 levels of pressure and tilt sensing. Tilt sensing seriously?! Normally a 2017 Surface Pen, which supports tilt, costs US$99, but these alternatives are only a fraction of this at around US$40. We bought them when there's discount so the final prices were around US$30 each.

If you can't use Taobao, there're online stores like Amazon that sell e.g. this VORCSBINE    (looks exactly like the WiWU reviewed),   this from Lengh (looks exactly like the IQS reviewed)   , this     Penoval,   or this NewPower,  which all at around US$40 and claim to support tilt. Those pens look very similar to those two we tested so we won't be surprised if they were actually the same pens just with different labels. We didn't found any review of these pens with tilt support so we will review a few for you.

Pen Tip Feel

The rubbery tip feels very good, just like using the original Surface Pen -  not making any scratchy sound or friction being too large impeding your flow nor too small that it feels like skating on ice. I actually like such a rubbery tip, typically found in the Surface Pen or its alternatives, over the tips provided by Wacom.   Recent default Wacom tips are quite easily worn out when stroking against their own drawing tablets like the Intuos Pro, while their felt tips are also easy to catch dirt (and get worn out too).

No Bluetooth, no Magnet

These Surface Pen alternatives don't have any Bluetooth module in them, so they can't perform top button shortcut clicks like the original Surface Pen. They also don't have magnets in them so you can't adhere them on the sides of the Surface devices,  at least not securely when it's only the battery  (enclosure made of metal) inside that provides a weak adhesion.

Pressure & Tilt ​Sensitivity

Testing shows these cheap pens perform quite well. The IQS seems to have a smaller activation force - I can press very lightly to get a very thin line with ease. The WiWU pen on the other hand needs more force to get registered and I do get some strokes not recognized or broken due to very light pressure being used. 

The 2017 'new' Surface Pen doesn't sense tilt when we use its Eraser end to stroke. These alternative pens don't have an eraser end - instead they have two barrel buttons, one being used as the Eraser button.  From our test, the WiWU doesn't sense tilt when the eraser button is pressed, while the IQS does sense tilt but with jitters when the eraser button is pressed. 

Like the 2017 Surface Pen, these pen sense tilt only when it touches the screen. BTW,  the pleasant surprise of Surface Go giving tilt reading even when hovering is gone after some Windows Update. :(
To our surprise, our Line Tests show the IQS pen is even more sensitive than  the original 2017 Surface Pen! See the following video for comparison:

1024 vs 4096 Levels 

Guys, I want to stress that it's not the pressure level,  but  the activation force  and the pressure response curve that matter here  - that which make you feel how sensitive the pens are. 1024 levels are actually very enough.   Due to the API used, the pressure reading is actually converted to 1024 internally if you use the 'Windows Ink' option in Expresii. If you are using Wacom,  by default Wacom's driver also converts the reading to 1024, no matter you're using a 4k or 8k-level pen (you can disable the 1024-level cap in Wacom's driver and see if you can tell the difference :-).  Truth be told, those 4k or 8k  numbers are purely for marketing purposes. However, you may ask, then why does the 2017 Surface Pen with 4k levels feel more responsive than its previous model with just 1024 levels.   The answer is that they also improved the   activation force  and maybe also the   pressure response curve .  With smaller   activation force ,  you don't have to push so hard for the stroke be get registered.  

Weight Balance

Center of gravity also affects how the pens feel in your hand. Both the IQS and WiWU have full-metal bodies,  while the Surface Pen is metal except its top part being plastic.   The Surface Pen has its center of gravity right at it's middle along its length (shifting balance is probably one reason why its not all metal).  The IQS has its center of gravity  quite shifted towards its top part, making it feel a little unbalanced ​ when held in hand. The WiWU is only slightly shifted towards its top so it still feels fine. Our digital scale shows all  three pens weight roughly the same at 18-19g.
Picture
Weight balance of (Top to bottom) 2017 Surface Pen, IQS Surface Pen, WiWU P503.

Conclusion

These cheap pens are really great alternatives to the original Surface Pen with excellent price-performance ratio.  In particular,  the IQS pen is great for artists because it can sense small pressure well, beating even the original 2017 Surface Pen. I'd say the IQS pen's pressure sensitivity is on  par with Wacom's.   The only thing missing is the ability to sense tilt even during hover like an EMR Wacom pen does.
​
For those wanting to buy Surface Pen now, note that the  next version of Surface Pen probably will have wireless charging. You might want to wait till Microsoft’s fall event on October 2nd.

We, of course, would still like to see digital writing hardware technology further advances - currently they are only mimicking pens with hard nibs. It'd be great if hardware makers can provide tools that  simulate brushes well.   Leave your comment on what else you would like to see in future digital writing instruments.

Update: Compatibility 

Since the WiWU pen claims to be an MMP (I believe it should it be MPP, standing for Microsoft Pen Protocol) Active Stylus supporting the devices listed below, we want to verify if it's really cross-device. We couldn't find the exact models today but we managed to try the pens on a Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 and a Lenovo  IdeaPad C340.   Unfortunately  both the WiWU and the IQS don't work on either.  FYI, the Lenovo active pen meant to go with the C340 does work on the Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1.   
Picture
Comments

Expresii on Microsoft Surface Book 2

30/6/2018

Comments

 
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.
Picture
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. 
Picture
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.  
PictureCalligraphy done in Expresii on the 13.5" Surface Book 2

See the calligraphy process video in Youtube:
Comments

Shuen Leung tries out Surface Studio & Book 2

18/4/2018

Comments

 
 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✧
Picture
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.
Comments

Expresii on New Surface Pro

15/10/2017

Comments

 
The New Surface Pro was announced back in May this year.  Today we will show you how Expresii runs on it.
Picture
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.  
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
Comments

Demo'ing at Microsoft Shanghai Event

31/5/2017

Comments

 

Expresii was a huge success!

So we are told ! :)  ​ We were invited to demo at the Microsoft world-wide launch event last week in Shanghai.  We're glad to be back to this amazing city to enjoy great food and all that. ​ ​ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Visitors were amazed by the simulation and rendering quality of Expresii. Look at how the ink flows down the gorgeous screen of the Surface Studio.  Look at how beautifully the artworks are rendered on the screen. Look at how  you can make organic strokes with our breakthrough technology!

It was really great to have visitors and also Microsoft folks telling us  Expresii was the most impressive  demo in the launch event.  "Everyone keeps talking about how beautiful  the app is!  "       ​٩( ´・ш・)و       

​​
And yes, Expresii was shown  along side  much bigger players like  Adobe, Autodesk and Corel.  Given our presence, Corel Painter can't really call itself the most natural painting simulator.

"I can’t think of a program that better demonstrates the power of their inking platform than Expresii"  - a customer

" 遇到了一直关注的数字水墨软件expresii的创始人,感受了业内最精彩的模拟现实绘画软件;科技和艺术的大碰撞"    - 郑昊煜RADIO
A big big thank you to Angela Wong of Rooftop Animation  for coming along to help amidst her busy schedule.  
m ( _    _ ) m
Below are shots  of Microsoft CVP Panos  Panay  showing Expresii  during the keynote.  See the video again here.
Expresii aligns  with Microsoft's We're All Creators  marketing  strategy squarely .  Like Panos said in the keynote, it's been an incredible journey. It was great to review all the progress made over the years. Can't wait to see what's next. We thanks Xiao Tu, Jen Anderson   and Rui Li of Microsoft for facilitating our collaboration. Congratulations, Microsoft!
Picture
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: ‘We are the company that stands for builders, makers and creators’. Photo by Kevin Lisota / GeekWire.

Next Stop: Hong Kong 

We're now also invited to join Microsoft's event  in Hong Kong  to be held in 13 June  in PMQ.  Hope to see you there!

Update: See our appearance at the Hong Kong and Taiwan launch events here.

Comments

Microsoft Launch Event in Shanghai & Windows 10 Store

23/5/2017

Comments

 
Panos Panay of Microsoft really likes Expresii and we were invited by Microsoft to be in their App Partner video and also showcase our Expresii app in their May 23rd launch event in Shanghai.  It was a great honor that Panos  himself introduces Expresii to the world in their keynote:
You can also watch the  full keynote with Chinese translation here (按這裡看華語傳譯) .  It was great to meet people in person and have guests telling us that Expresii was the most impressive demo shown in the whole event. ​

Excerpt of Expresii's parts from the app partner video  :
Our parts actually sum to 1/4 of the whole 2 min. app-partner video.  ^_^  我們也是唯一亞洲團隊出現在這宣傳片,其他團隊包括大公司Adobe、Corel和Autodesk。

We've been asking hardware makers to add pen tilt support for years, and are certainly happy to see the new Surface Pen getting tilt sensing support. The new Surface Pro also features latest Intel processor and is completely silent thanks to the no-fan thermal design for the m3 and i5 models.  See the details in Microsoft's blog.

Expresii now also available in Windows 10 Store 

Expresii is now also available in the Windows 10 Store  for $89.99. The Store version of Expresii is the same as the Win32 version except that you can't have tabs in the Setting Windows as separate windows  for now. FYI, we use a converter to convert the original Win32 version into  what Microsoft calls a 'UWP' app as our Windows 10 Store version.  ​Performance-wise, our test indicates that the converted app takes slightly longer to start (1.6s vs 1s), but otherwise performances virtually the same during painting,  on an i5 Surface Pro 4. 

Expresii Win32 version for Win XP/7/8/10

The availability of Expresii on Windows 10 Store doesn't affect users buying  a license for  the Win32 version of Expresii via    Gumroad.  For those who don't have Windows  ​10,  you can always use the original Win32 version, which runs on Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10.

Update: see a report from the demo show floor  in our next blog entry!
Comments

    Expresii 寫意

    Previous Posts
    以前的文章

    November 2022
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories 分類

    All
    3rd Party Tool
    Animated
    Artists
    Calligraphy
    Demo
    Hardware
    Mac
    New Feature
    Publicity
    Purchase
    Surface
    Tech

    RSS Feed

Picture
© Expresii.com 2023. All Rights Reserved.