Dear Hamanaka,
you're very welcome, it's my pleasure entirely. Here's my voice then...
Why I develop this softwareI've written fluid dynamics routines for visual effects many years ago for the movie "Gothika" for the first time and became fascinated with them then. I always wanted to continue writing more, but never got around to it until a few months ago. I had an idea to try using the graphics hardware directly to compute fluids and it worked out immediately. As a little sandbox to experiment with it I made a simple brush and color selector. After only a few brush strokes my heart jumped and Verve was born. I knew then what I know now and that is that Verve is a powerful diamond in the rough that needs to be raised higher and higher, because it brings out a power of digital art that I myself had only dreamed of until then and it promises to be the foundation for something of even more potential. I need to explore this and it's such a pleasure to share this with everyone.
Any hardships during developing Compatibility issues between graphics cards has been very painful to deal with and Verve is very hungry for processing power, even if it's just a tiny app. I keep optimizing it, but at the same time I want to move forward with even more complicated aspects of fluid simulations, but to do so I cannot immediately optimize everything. So there is a constant dilemma of sorts. Other than that, it's all a pure joy, joy and joy again! The only other hardship is the fact that I develop Verve out of pure love for it, but can't dedicate myself fully to it since I need to make a living in the meantime, too. I want to keep Verve free, but I hope to find some way to allow users to help fund my endeavor eventually, if they can, allowing me also to know that people really want me to do this for all of us. I believe that a software that enables people to explore their own creativity, have some productive fun, should always be available to them without any regrets or second thoughts. Here we have a chance to enrich each other with our human powers in priceless ways, regardless as to our origin, social standing or privileges (besides having access to a fairly powerful computer
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How to use the softwareIdeally you have a graphics tablet such as a wacom intuos or the likes. But even with the mouse you should have some fun times to be creative with Verve. The current user interface is highly simplified and not all functions are available through it. Please, read the manual to find all other functions before I get around to take the interface up to the next level. You will find the "Fluidity" amount defaulted to 0% just to help older computers along, but to really enjoy Verve you should raise it up! Even normal painting I ordinarily do at 20% Fluidity. For more tips and examples, please, come visit the forum!
Update plans for the futureThe next big thing will be interface improvements, but much more entertaining will be the brush interface and technologies I have planned as well as post processing effects and editing options, which put Verve even more on its own feet. Image import and more export functions are also part of the plan as well as more intuitive ways of dealing with colors. So many things are still meant to happen to Verve, not to mention all the excellent suggestions people make on the forum. For me a big part of the plan is to work with a great variety of artists of all levels and also see what we all like, what we would want and how far I can go with giving something "new" in a way that could work. Last but not least I may be looking into supporting more mobile devices...unclear just yet, but I'd like that as well as compiling Verve for Mac and Linux, of course.
Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:16 am 
