笔趣 = Joy of brushwork

• Main Author: Ng, Woon Lam
• Other Authors: School of Art, Design and Media
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Ng Woon Lam 2021
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::General; Calligraphy; Animation; Brushwork; 3D
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/150913
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The objective of this project was to experiment with the essence of Chinese calligraphical brushwork and showcase its advantages for animation. The Maya built-in functions and its programmable environment provided us the flexibility to simulate the concept of Chinese calligraphy in depicting various brush and ink movements. The write-up by our local master calligrapher, Mr. Tan Kee Ser, summarizes the fundamental concepts of Chinese ink painting and how it applies the essence and abstract design of Chinese calligraphy. Computer programming has enabled 3D animation to borrow the merits of the Chinese calligraphy language. The flexibility and sophistication of the Maya software and its programmable Python interface have opened up many new possibilities. Its near omnipotent textural functions enabled Chinese calligraphy to be presented in a 3D visual environment, allowing its simple and illusional quality to expand the scope of 3D movement presentation. It verified the idea discussed in the previous exhibition and upgraded Chinese calligraphy from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional interface1, 2. In a 3D visual space, the programmed brushwork is reusable and different angles of the presentation can be chosen to achieve the best visual results. As a result, the charming characteristics and brushworks of Chinese calligraphy can now be combined with three-dimensional animation to showcase its strength in abstraction. This book also presents traditional two-dimensional animation clips as a comparison. The process of 3D brushwork development started with exploration of various built-in functions within the Maya environment. Since every function was not built for this purpose, additional adjustments were required to overcome the limits of each function. This was done through the flexible Python programming interface within the Maya software platform. We were lucky to have Dr. Fredy Tantri working with us. He is fluent in Python and trained 2 of our student team members in Python programming. Dr. Tantri made multiple mathematical adjustments to overcome the limitation of various Maya built-in functions, which enabled certain simulations of calligraphic brushwork in the 3D space. Finally, this E-book combines both 2D and 3D presentations of Chinese calligraphic brushwork. A series of artworks and two sets of 3D animated figures were developed for this demonstration. We wish to bring out the illusory quality of the Chinese calligraphy with animation and present to the audience.