Share building tips and resources

  • Are you a builder at heart, overflowing with imagination, but lack the skill to make your dreams a reality? Or are you a seasoned pro overflowing with wisdom? We can all benefit from a different perspective. In this thread, let’s all be a resource for each other!

    If you’re new to building, here’s a spoiler full of hand-picked tutorials and resources. Watch and read only what applies to you!

    Display Spoiler

    Feel free to skip around. I don’t expect you to watch everything, only what interests you!!!

    - Make a Pinterest account. I cant overstate how useful it is for finding references and inspiration!!!!!!!

    - If you're just starting out, try AdieCraft's Building 101 playlist (59 mins total):

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    - Geometrics (architecture and geometric forms) Playlist: Grian's Build School (6 hours 18 mins total):

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    - Organics (animals, plants, and pretty people) Playlist: Planning, posing, shaping, modeling, smoothing, coloring, and texturing (4 hours 17 mins total):

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    - Download this mod. You’ll need it once you get into advanced selection types: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-m…deditcui-fabric

    - How to use WorldEdit, in detail: Selections, clipboard, rotating, scaling, replacing, masking, creating shapes, using brushes, filling, hollowing, landscaping, advanced selection types, advanced clipboard (2 hours 10 mins total):

    Follow along with this Google Doc to copy and paste any commands that she uses!

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    - WorldEdit: See this document (different from the one before) to learn about: WorldEdit Expressions & Noise Functions

    - Terrain: A heightmap is an image gradient from black to white, representing low to high terrain or brush intensity 0 to 1. As a Minecraft builder they will serve as the best possible brushes for WorldEdit, goBrush, VoxelSniper, and WorldPainter!!

    - Terrain: Speaking of WorldPainter, here's a playlist on how to use it (2 hours 54 mins total):

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    - Terrain: You can generate heightmaps from real-world map data with https://heightmap.skydark.pl/beta/. If your downloaded map comes back all black or all white, click the ⓘ at the top of the page and click both calculators to calculate the base level and height scale. Then try downloading again and it should work fine!!!!

    - Terrain: These are a few nice resources for WorldPainter: https://www.planetminecraft.com/collection/370…rce-collection/

    - Terrain: You can also try the free program WorldMachine to simulate real-world phenomena such as erosion. This is imported to the game by generating heightmaps from your various outputs which you combine and paint over in WorldPainter in layers as if you were screen printing irl!!!!!

    - TF lets you download any schematic on the server from here: https://freedom-webserver.totalfreedom.me/schematic/list

    - Read the WorldEdit manual!!! I promise it isnt dry and boring: https://worldedit.enginehub.org/en/latest/

    - If you are fortunate enough to have regular access to it, dont underestimate the usefulness of Stable Diffusion as a resource for concept art!!!!!!! Combine ControlNet with a sketch!!! I recommend the AUTOMATIC1111 webui. Always combine your AI output with your own creativity if you use it at all

    Then, let’s go full throttle: Share any lessons learned, resources that helped you overcome challenges, and share your best feueristic building tips. Talk and ask about building!!!! Please dont judge anyones skills, dont overthink it, and respect everyones individual styles!!! Specific questions are welcome

    Thank you and have fun!

    Edited once, last by img (June 15, 2023 at 7:30 PM).

  • JagWire February 24, 2023 at 10:46 AM

    Approved the thread.
  • I know this is an extremely memed-after opinion of mine (and I am personally very aware of this), but I do genuinely hold this belief:


    Do not randomize.

    Yes, I am serious.

    No, this is not a complete ban on randomizing textures - it often is helpful in creating variations of a same color and prevents from something looking too flat and boring. But when people make such pretty builds with unique structural ideas and awesome arrangements of components, just why would you randomize? You have been through fire and flames to get here, and now at the very end you're giving up your entire build's colors. Just... why?

    I could continue to complain about how much I hate people who do that, but I believe I can save you some headache by making a few pictures speak the few thousand words for me:

    2023-02-25_16.38.15.png

    We love our sponge builds. Well, at least I do. And that's good enough for me. Some rough structure ideas, some places where detail goes, looks fine. We'll throw on some color and some details:

    2023-02-25_16.38.15_1.png

    Alright, we're getting there. We now have some colors, and I made this a granite wall because who doesn't like some granite castle. Whatever. Now, we can further this build by adding color details by introducing variations of blocks we've used so far, we can mix it in and we get:

    2023-02-25_16.38.15_2.png

    We get this????? This???????????????????? This looks like wiping my ass with a cheese grater. This feels like the reason why capital punishment can be justified. This makes me feel a sense of disgust that is only topped by looking at Lyicx's Twitter. And that's a high bar. Before Satan comes back to fix this mistake himself - because if someone unironically does this, then god clearly doesn't exist - Let us correct this:

    2023-02-25_16.38.15_3.png

    Am I the absolute pinnacle of Minecraft Building? Well, I am, but for the sake of this post I'll pretend not to be. Even with an imperfect execution, you see how much less messy it made the build? By introducing pure random noise, you create unwanted and unneeded distractions on the build which just does more harm than good. Not to mention the fact that you are spending more time with your build, which just in general means you'll be getting a better result just because you've been staring at it for longer.

    Is this an absolute rule? Of course not. When has anything been absolute in life? Building is no different - some rules can be broken, if you are good enough to be better than the rule. If the blocks are close enough in color, if the intended viewing distance is far enough, if the stars align for you, of course you can just pull a little lazy one and just do some %block mixes in WorldEdit. But in general, you almost always only get benefits if you introduce at least some sort of pattern through your chaos.

    So please, for the sake of all of us - just don't randomize. It's not worth it.

    C'est la vie

  • As one of few redstone masterbuilders to come through the ranks, I'll pass on some of my knowledge.

    I learned most of my tricks from Mumbo Jumbo's series on learning redstone. T Flip Flops, RS Nor Latches, Monostable Circuits, etc. Trying to use them in projects really consolidated my knowledge of them.

  • This applies to people who build realistic things (such as myself) and my tip for those people is

    Get inspiration from real-life objects and buildings if you're unsure about a certain architectural style.

    For example, if you're interested in building a structure in a particular architectural style and are unsure about how to execute the style in Minecraft, look at a real-life example of something in that style and try and replicate it using in-game materials as practice. For example, I know nothing about the Romanesque Revival style so to learn some of it, I built an interpretation of a train station built in that style. I likely won't use the style in many applications but I can now make something in Romanesque Revival if I so please and it won't look like absolute crap.

    Once you feel confident in a certain style, you can now go and attempt your own original, unique works and let your creativity truly flow by not replicating a real-life structure in that style. You're always welcome to borrow elements from a real-life structure in the style of choice and see what creative things you can make or if you're still unsure about a certain element of that particular style such as material choices and ornamentation. Another benefit of this tip is you can make depictions of your favourite landmarks and learn about an architectural style along the way, expanding your building portfolio.

    I've provided below an example of the inspiration method I described above and the results that can be accomplished.

    In-Game Representation

    image.png

    Real-Life Inspiration

    AF1QipNv40h75_cq0968B5WHpetK2EVjdbW59ihQ8Kc7s1360-w1360-h1020.png

    javaw_VqNRNZdU6Q.png
    image.png
    image.png

    Edited 4 times, last by Alco_Rs11 (February 27, 2023 at 5:02 AM).

  • If you missed the tips at the bottom of my first post, check it out, there's some good stuff in there!!

    This post is a refresher on color theory. I wrote this to refer back to it later.

    In the RGB model, colors are a combination of hue, saturation, and value

    Hue is the base pigment or wavelength: csTQB5J.png

    Saturation is the depth of the pigment: Qq5ckLp.png

    Value is the relative lightness or darkness: fBadGP6.png

    Tints are when you add white to a color, tones are when you add gray, and shades are when you add black

    Color harmonies such as the monochromatic, complementary, and triadic color schemes give us a better idea of how colors can work together. The harmonies reach their full potential when you factor in saturation and value. You can get a better feel for them by playing around with this:

    https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

    Color harmonies help inform our use of palettes. You can create your own with the color wheel above, or explore some below:

    Color Palettes for Designers and Artists - Color Hunt
    Discover the newest hand-picked color palettes of Color Hunt. Get color inspiration for your design and art projects.
    colorhunt.co
    Palettes Color Palettes - Coolors
    Get inspired by thousands of beautiful color schemes and make something cool!
    coolors.co

    But we're not done yet. Once you find yourself a banger palette in RGB, you can turn it into a text gradient... or even a block palette!!

    Text gradients (for nicknames, signs, MOTD, MiniMessage, etc):

    Lucid's RGB Gradient Generator for MC

    RGB Gradient Creator

    Block palettes - including multiple block options, and even suitable decoration blocks:

    Block Colors | blockcolors.app
    Quickly find what Minecraft blocks match a certain color. Create a build palette on Block Colors and share directly with friends.
    blockcolors.app

    If you don't have a talent for it yet, the block palette tool helps you identify blocks with similar colors, which aids in creating more natural gradients and, assuming you use them right, avoiding randomization. You unlock a world of possibilities when you start thinking about blocks purely in terms of their colors rather than what they're supposed to represent. I encourage you to experiment with the decoration blocks as well to add texture!!

    Next, I would like to talk about accent colors. The snobs that design real-life houses for a living have a tip called the 60-30-10 rule. The point is to maintain the balance in a space by following a ratio for your use of colors and/or patterns. Consider roughly three colors.

    60% of the space gets taken up by your main color: typically the walls and floors.

    30% of the space can be another color, typically contrasting in some way. This shows up on accent chairs, curtains, furniture, and feature walls.

    10% of the space, give or take, is composed of your accent color(s), which shows up in cushions, lampshades, artwork, plants, or other decorations.

    Check out this sick-ass room:

    L9GysxXvZv4HNH3NigDm5j-768-80.jpg.webp

    The composition of the photo flips it around, but most of the room is white. Probably, anyway. Contrast that with our 60% color, black. The yellow sofa and table frame complement the analogous blue accents. The blue only pops so well because of the sparse use of color otherwise, and the layout of the room ensures the light catches the accents favorably.

    But hold the phone, either that's at least four main colors or I've lost my god damn mind.

    To use more colors without disrupting the balance, start small, and use color harmonies as accent colors. Hear me out:

    LVBUogUaCLomNyxa9PseSK-1024-80.jpg

    This space is mostly made up of white and off-white. We can use tints, tones, and shades without disrupting the balance because it's essentially adjusting a value slider. And our accent colors, introduced in small doses, follow an analogous color scheme: pink and blue.

    When working with only two colors, try 70:30. Between the accent colors in this photo, we can see that in action

    We are talking about interior design right now, but these concepts are transferable to buildings, terrain with flora, and organics, among other things.

    More examples

    Display Spoiler

    tbr2EVUQMA6eN4EeoHcTRa-768-80.jpg.webp

    60-30_rule.jpeg

    RoseStudioInteriorsbyCarlaChoyPhotography-992365b8879e4f9db7af7ba954cf8bdd.jpg

    3aweyD6.jpg

    fbcea8145696635.62a2aa0b7c5ab.png

    bc8e2e131320839.6192de21be14e.png

    Lastly, I’ll talk about biomes.

    Besides gameplay mechanics, biomes define the appearance of all enclosed grass, plants, water, fog, and the sky.

    Remember, my friends: Swamps are atrocious, and their only redeeming characteristic is the fact that blue orchids appear there!!

    End biomes have a dark sky. Jungles and mushroom islands have gorgeous green grass. Soul sand valleys have an eerie blue fog. Nether wastes have a red fog. When you mix the last two in close proximity you get a pink sky. The pale blue water of a warm ocean may evoke different feelings from the rich blue of a deep frozen ocean.

    O1uxOay.jpg

    You may or may not notice, but warmer biomes have brighter skies, and colder biomes have slightly purplish skies.

    Sky color from left to right: warm, temperate, cold, snowy

    Sky_temperature.png

    If you are at liberty to add a datapack to your gameplay environment, you can recolor your grass, plants, fog, and sky to any color hex you'd like. Bukkit currently lacks a biome API to allow us to create and change custom biomes on the fly, otherwise we'd have plugins to do that already.

    Now that TF has closed, I hope this thread remains helpful as a reference for your future projects elsewhere. Have fun building!

    Edited 2 times, last by img (October 10, 2023 at 4:38 PM).

  • Sky color from left to right: warm, temperate, cold, snowy

    Ill add my own tip here later because I do have a really good one to add for all those interior builders out there, but i just wanted to mentioned that I've been playing this game for god knows how long, I know so much about this game I could probably write a PHD Dissertation on it, yet, i did not know that the biome climate affected sky color, i knew about the water and grass and all that but not the sky stuff, wow