Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Resurrection of Lenny the Line

I have, up to this point, been having a pleasant and leisurely time of learning Flash and its idiosyncrasies.  The starting plan is simple: resurrect Lenny the Line. 

Starting with the salvaged drawings of Lenny's original incarnation, I have been diligently working on learning the nuanced art of vector manipulation.  Or more accurately, honing the hand eye coordination that is required to maneuver the seemingly moody and inconsistent collision detection of the vector manipulator handles.

Now that I have reached the halfway point of tightening up Lenny's animation graphics, I find myself troubled about the inconsistency of his line weight.  It is one of those fun points where there are two clear paths, and neither of them is all that appealing at the moment.

Option A: Continue with the cleaning process I have been doing thus far, chalking up any quality issues as an acceptable learning curve, but be that much closer to getting a little of that desperately needed sense of accomplishment.

Option B: Research and experiment with different methods of getting consistent line weights, which would mean starting over, which could potentially mean a higher quality end result.

Option B really seems like the logical choice in the long run, but damn I need some accomplishment mojo.  I have been doing commercial art for 11 years now, and haven't expended much energy on my personal work for basically as long as that.

OR... just to keep myself motivated, perhaps I shall embrace the unmentioned Option C: do both.  I believe I shall go ahead with cleaning the drawings, accept that the line art is going to boil as if it were forged in a volcano, get it up and running, then go back and learn how to transform those lines into the stoic thick to thins I hold in my minds eye.

2 comments:

  1. "The perfect is the enemy of the good" - Option A all the way, baby! Spit out a quick and dirty one, get some good feedback from friends, and then when you go to make another you'll be high off of your sense of accomplishment, and you'll be that much more familiar with the medium and how to make it work for you. The only people you will impress with your perfect line quality will be art snobs anyways. The fact that it gets done at all is more important than that it gets done perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Dustin! But... but... but I AM an art snob! *sniffle*

    ReplyDelete