Chinese Calligraphy Automated Workbook

Calligraphy is a complicated art form that has been perfected and expanded upon for over hundreds of years. Expertise are included in the hand position around the brush, the rhythm of stroke making, the calculated grid that each Chinese character follows, the pressure of the brush, the order of the strokes, while all maintaining a creative interpretation. Calligraphy is a beautiful combination of practiced skill and self expression. For this project, we created a tool that augments the creativity of the beginner calligrapher. This system gives the expert skill of composition to anyone. 

This version tries to create the most simplistic UI so that the user can focus on learning calligraphy while also creating artistic compositions. This system utilizes a calligraphy brush with red marker, ink, a locking mechanism, a projector, a specially made table, and a camera. We use built in grasshopper pieces and our own Iron python scripts. 

Vivian, one of the three members of the group, has studied calligraphy for years and is fairly adept at it. She explained that normally a beginner has to work directly in a book on set grids because the brushstrokes one has to make are very precise. An expert can artistically design a composition for his/her characters on the page. We decided to work on giving that capability to a beginner. This tool allows anyone to learn calligraphy at the same time as making a personalized artifact, giving way to creativity throughout the user's learning experience. This project is a tool that frees beginners from the constructed grid and allows them to creatively compose their calligraphy pieces. 

This system has the user move their brush around which thereby moves the grid. The grid is then locked and unlocked by moving the yellow marker forward or backward along the X plane. The grid is then locked and the animation begins. The animation instructs the user on the speed at which to move the brush, the pressure with which to press onto the paper, and most importantly, the order in which the strokes should be made. Each bursh stroke of the character is broken down and shown twice so the user can watch it once and then preform the action accordingly. This chronological guide for the strokes should, over time, give the user an intuitive sense for the ordering of strokes for new characters that he/she has never encountered. The character being shown here is the Chinese character for "Fire"

The table was fabricated with an acrylic service, allowing the user to see projections from below, that will guide and instruct basic elements of calligraphy. If projected from above, the hand of the user would block the informative projection. The paper rested on the acrylic blocks any glaring light in the user's eye, preventing any misguided light that may hinder the calligraphy process.  

The animation shows the brush stroke slowly being created, the grid to work within, the outer edges to stay within, and the customary inner line which is included in all workbooks. These guided lines are crucial in learning basic stroke-work in calligraphy; they follow a certain path that allows the user to create the varying thicknesses and ends we see in all Chinese calligraphy. We began by explaining to the user how they must hold the brush. We then showed them how to lock the grid and begin the animation by moving the yellow key.

In Chinese calligraphy one must hold the brush straight up, perpendicular to the drawing surface. We had to explain this to each viewer. In further iterations, we would like to have the mounted camera recognize and correct when the user exhibits improper hand position. We had to work with the physicality of how the inked brush reacted on the paper verses the way in which we expected it to. We wanted people to put more pressure when the animation became thicker but they would often instead just do multiple strokes. 

Our grasshopper file contains multiple sections. The top video row is how the program senses where the calligraphy brush is and where the grid should go. The bottom video row if the system for locking the grid. If the marker is placed farther on the table the grid locks in place and the animation starts.