Nelson Chu has been focusing on the research and development of a novel digital paint system, the resultant system attracted the industrial giants Adobe and Sony, who licensed the technology in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Nelson obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and was a Visiting Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in Spring 2008.
朱紹恆從事毛筆與水墨模擬技術研究，2007年獲香港科技大學頒博士學位。其研究得Adobe 軟件公司與Sony電子公司賞識，科大分別於2006 與2007 年售軟件源碼使用權予兩公司。2008年春，於新加坡南洋理工大學任客席研究員。
I got my first graphics tablet in 1993 to go with the existing computer drawing tools. I soon realized that such a paint system simply cannot give what I can get from a real Chinese brush, which I think is a superb lining instrument. Unsatisfied with the existing software, I dabbled on the research of digital painting technology from 1999 to 2007. I named the resultant paint system “MoXi”. The philosophy behind my work is to bring the distinct charm of Chinese painting and calligraphy into the digital art scene and to further develop the art traditions in the computer era.
I love Chinese calligraphy. I think the joy of calligraphy can only be felt by actually practicing it. Thus, in building a digital calligraphy system, I hope to facilitate hands-on experience of the art without the real-world hassle. I hope one day, pen-based input devices would become as common as computer mice today and everybody can enjoy painting on a computer.
Most of the artworks produced using MoXi you see today are imitations of real-world art. However, imitation is only our first step. I want to create new effects not possible in the real-world, which is a better reason why artists would want to use our tools.
我家很早就有電腦，九三年我買了我第一塊電腦繪圖板供作畫之用，但不久發現，繪圖板加上當時的軟件，是根本畫不到毛筆的效果。我覺得毛筆是個很利害的的繪畫工具，惜市場上的繪圖系統就是沒有毛筆的模擬，原因該是繪圖軟件大都是由西方人開發，而他們可都不太了解毛筆的特性。就在這情況下，我萌生了將來自己開發虛擬毛筆的想法。九九到零七年，我在科大進行毛筆及水墨模擬技術的研究。我把想法實現，成一水墨畫軟件，我稱之為〈墨戲〉。其背後理念，一是要把中國筆墨的優點帶到電腦藝術去，二是要把水墨藝術，在電腦世界裏再發展。
我愛中國書法。我覺得書法之樂趣，是只有寫過的人才能感受到的。〈墨戲〉的開發，其實也是為了讓人更容易嘗到書法的樂趣。我希望筆式電腦輸入，將來能像鼠標一樣常見，以使電腦書法可得普及。
現以〈墨戲〉畫的作品，大都是模仿真實，但模仿只是開始。電腦世界很廣，我們要開拓新效果，新形式。
