We thank Mark Lam of CGVisual.com  for introducing us in the session 'CG in China' at  SIGGRAPH ASIA 2017, held last month in Bangkok, Thailand.

Our new  ink pusher tool was shown to public  for the first time during   the session.   Here is the video again:

As you can see, you  get  just-right amount of control and things stay like water-based paint with details. 

We can't wait to try it on big devices like the Surface Studio.   ​Ψ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)Ψ

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.   

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:

'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)^)

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.

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.

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.   ^_^

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. :(

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

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

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.  

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. 

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.  ​

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."

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.

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 .

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.

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 :

Expresii is a proud sponsor  for the  ASIFA-South Animation Conference & Festival 2017, held last weekend in  Atlanta, Georgia, USA!

Live Artist Battle with  Expresii  between  Dan Flores (@deltatangomike) and Wayman Humphrey  (@themaddpenciler) during the conference party:

Get a glimpse of  animated shorts from all around the world shown during the Festival: 

​We look forward to seeing Expresii being used more for animation!  ​o(^◇^)o

Our Nelson Chu couldn't make it to SIGGRAPH this year but huge  thanks to our friend Li-Yi Wei  for  demo'ing Expresii at SIGGRAPH 2017 for us!   We also thank all those who came to check our our program and gave us feedback!  Many of you asked for a Mac or an iPad version.  Yup, we hear you. One even mistook our Windows app for an iPad app. :)

Li-Yi told us Expresii was very  popular at the Appy Hour. ​ See Li-Yi speaking on behalf of us:

And in this video  Akshay Agarwal,  Mobile Chair  of SIGGRAPH 2017 also specifically mentioned Expresii as one of his favorite apps shown at the event:

New to this year is the Facebook live videos. Review those videos on their Facebook page or their  Youtube channel. And, again, if  you are new to Expresii, be sure the checkout this demo video for what can be achieved with our revolutionary brush and ink simulation and hybrid-vector-raster rendering:

Our Dr. Nelson Chu was honored to be invited to give a series of talks  in Taiwan in June:  two public talks on the  development   of  digital ink painting technology  in  Taipei and Hsinchu, and one keynote at the Computer Graphics Workshop (CGW) 2017 in Taichung.  We thank Prof. James Chu of Tsing Hua University for hosting the talks and his thoughtful arrangements and help during Nelson's visit.

Dr Chu's seminal work on digital ink painting simulation was first published at SIGGRAPH 2005 and he was awarded PhD for that in 2007. Although he left the academia for many years now, today Computer Graphics researchers still remember his contributions to digital painting technologies.  The industry  also  recognizes  Nelson's work - back in 2006, Adobe already licensed Nelson's work, hoping to get it into Photoshop. Last year Wacom invited Nelson to be a panelist at their Connected Ink event  to discuss the future of digital ink.  This year, Microsoft has invited Nelson to be at various launch events (new Surface Pro's global launch   in Shanghai, local launches  in  Hong Kong, and Taiwan). Microsoft CVP Panos Panay  likes Expresii so much that he would introduce Expresii on stage himself!

We thank all the visitors including  folks from  大禧堂  for coming. Nelson visited their studio earlier that day to ​  discuss digital calligraphy creation.   大禧堂 的朋友太客氣了 ， 非常感謝大禧堂的招待與美意！

We're  supposed to end at 9pm but people  won't leave  until the security guard came to  close the  lecture room.  ^_^

We're honored to have  Prof.  Chintay Shih, a very prominent figure in Taiwan, in our  Hsinchu  talk.  Prof. Shih  loves calligraphy and gave us valuable feedback.  We thank Martin Sun, ex-President of  Wacom Taiwan,  for introducing Prof. Shih and various people from the industry to us. We also had the chance to give away some copies of the Meerkat Ojisan 's    comics book to the audience.

感謝台灣前工研院董事長史欽泰教授  以及  幾位台灣不同大學的教授光臨指導。史欽泰教授酷愛書法，也給了我們寶貴的意見~

Taiwanese  people are super friendly and polite.  This trip   to Taiwan was great but too packed for various events - there're so much more for us to explore including food and interesting places. We will definitely come back!

這次真是非常感謝台灣，讓我們有機會來交流，而且也嚐到台灣美食！台灣人真的非常熱情，非常有禮。這次台灣之旅行程滿滿的，非常充實和有意義！只嫌不夠時間真正的逛逛和太多的美食還未有機會吃到，哈哈。最後附上Nelson  寫的一些數位書法送給熱情的台灣～～ 下次再見！！

​Our Dr. Nelson Chu  was invited to do live demo of Expresii in the launch event by Microsoft to showcase the New Surface Pro for the Taiwanese market. The audience was one again wowed by the combination of great software and hardware, which enable us to do what we couldn't before.
​
我們的Nelson 到了台灣，於New Surface Pro 的發佈會上當神秘嘉賓，從影片裡走到現場，為大家示範在全新Surface Pro上潑墨揮毫，這次非常成功的吸引到大家的青睞！

We thank Taiwan for having us!​   We'll definitely come back to meet with friendly Taiwanese people anytime!
​熱情的台灣人讓Nelson感受非常深刻，所以忍不住也寫了一下'有個熱情的地方名字叫台灣'的來感謝台灣！