So, I decided to make this “fugue tingyun banner” the other day. Just a little something for myself, you know? Had this grand vision in my head. Tingyun, from Honkai Star Rail, but with this intricate, layered, “fugue” like musical quality to the design. Sounds pretty cool, right? That’s what I thought too.
I dived right in. Fired up all the fancy graphics software I have, even considered learning a new one just for this. Watched a ton of tutorials on advanced blending modes, particle effects, the whole nine yards. I was going to make this the most epic banner ever seen. Or so I thought.
And then, well, reality hit. Hard. Turns out, having a grand vision and actually executing it are two very different things. My layers weren’t ‘fugue-like’; they were just messy. The effects looked tacked on. The whole thing was becoming a digital migraine. I spent hours, days even, just fiddling with settings, undoing, redoing. It was frustrating, to say the least.
It kind of reminded me of this one place I worked at, a while back. They had this massive project, and they insisted on using every new, shiny technology that came out. Microservices for everything, a different database for every tiny feature, a complex CI/CD pipeline that no one fully understood. You know the type. It was supposed to be state-of-the-art.
What it actually was? A nightmare. Nothing worked well with anything else. Simple bug fixes would take weeks because you had to navigate this labyrinth of interconnected, over-engineered systems. Everyone was a specialist in their tiny little silo, and no one saw the big picture. It was all just… complicated for the sake of being complicated. They were building their resumes, not a product.
Anyway, back to my banner. I was about to give up. Then I thought, “Why am I making this so hard for myself?” I took a step back. Scrapped the whole complex mess. I went back to basics. Simpler composition, fewer layers, focusing on the core feeling I wanted to convey for Tingyun. I used the tools I knew best, not the ones that sounded the most impressive or would look good on a checklist.
And you know what? It started to come together. It wasn’t the hyper-complex, technically dazzling thing I’d initially imagined. But it had a certain charm. It felt more authentic. And most importantly, I actually finished it. It wasn’t going to win any awards for technical complexity, but it was mine, and it was done.
It’s funny how we get caught up in trying to be fancy. Whether it’s a personal art project or a multi-million dollar software system. We think more features, more complexity, newer tools automatically mean better. But often, it just means more headaches, more unfinished projects, and more stuff that’s impossible to maintain. Sometimes, simple and done is a whole lot better than complex and perpetually stuck in development hell. That “fugue tingyun banner” taught me that lesson all over again. Or rather, reminded me. Some lessons you just keep learning, I guess.
