Building Better: Getting started creating stunning structures
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| Art deco inspired home |
Before we dive in, I just want to state very clearly that there is no "best" way to do something in Minecraft... just different paths to success! Just because I or others build a certain way, doesn't mean it's the only way! I’d strongly encourage you to try different techniques and find your own dynamic style.
What's important is:
1. Did your solution or approach work or satisfy your requirements?
2. Did your build challenge you in new or unexpected ways?
3. Did you learn something new?
4. Did you have fun?
Don't be afraid to try something new next time and remember: no project in Minecraft is ever truly finished... it's just waiting for your next inspiration!
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That said, the following tips are little kernels of experience I've discovered along my own Minecraft journey, and I'm noting them here for your benefit and consideration.
These skills have not come without a great deal of time spent invested in both Creative and Survival modes in Minecraft and I hope they provide you with some shortcuts! As with any skills, you improve them with practice over time and at no point do I consider myself a "master" at the art of building. I think of myself of being at some point along a journey with no end with room for improvement, and many new learning opportunities.
I think my one of my early weaknesses as a builder was that I really gravitated to symmetrical structures, and stylistically I tended to prefer older architectural styles. One of the challenges I gave to myself was to try imagine and explore new structure builds that are outside of my comfort zone.
I would love to share some of my early work with you to demonstrate my progress, but unfortunately I did not have the presence of mind to screen capture any of my earliest builds... I promise you they were quite rudimentary!
We all start from the same place.
Getting Started Building Tips
Tip 1: Dream Big, Start small: Experiment with building different types of houses and different types of roofing. Building the Taj Mahal on your first creative outing is an admirable goal, but may cause you a lot more frustration than you really need when starting out. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!
Tip 2: Start with what you know: Start with styles or techniques you're comfortable with and build your skills from there. I started with symmetrical buildings. These were easier to plan out and build.
Tip 3: Build along the XYZ axis: In other words, use the Minecraft environment to your advantage and lay your structures out and follow the XYZ framework in straight lines and 90 degree corners. This is what will probably come naturally anyway. Trying to build structures that look good inside and outside that are laid out at 70 or 35 angles (etc, etc) are really, really challenging even for experienced builders.
Tip 4: It's Hip to be Square: Building circles, ovals or other irregular shapes in Minecraft can give you heartburn. When you first start building, I recommend you stick to nice happy squarish structures. Once you've mastered that skillset, and have learned some building tricks, then stretch your muscles and try other shapes.
Tip 5: Don't hit your head: Raise your ceiling. A lot of beginner crafters will stick with two block high ceilings... this doesn't give you a lot of interior space to get creative in. Try three, four blocks or more for your interior ceilings. You'll find your creative options explode.
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Tips for those who have been building for awhile
Tip 6: Get out of your rut: So at this stage you can probably rock nice squarish, symmetrical structures and you probably have a preferred architectural style you tend to gravitate to. It's a good time to explore outside of your comfort zone. Try different architectural styles, different types of roofing, and introducing elements like dormers.
Tip 7: Double your fun: Double up your exterior walls and interior walls where needed. This provides rooms with different colours or textures, as well as an overall different block texture outside. It also conveniently leaves vertical spaces that you can place redstone element in for light switches or other mechanisms.
Tip 8: It's not just for bugs: Create a one block empty space crawlspace between floors of levels. This leaves space for redstone, command blocks, secret hiding spaces etc.
Tip 9: Don't build just for you: Minecraft champions itself as an accessible and inclusive platform and with good reason. When you're building, consider how to integrate accessibility and inclusivity into your build. I like to include lifts and other accessible features like larger hallways and better lighting as it makes structures more welcoming and easier to navigate... just like in real life! Aesthetic considerations aside, also take into account colour choices, and signage. Well marked and accessible signage is important for those with various challenges (colour blindness, anxiousness in unfamiliar surrounding to name just a couple). The Buildability world in the Minecraft Education Library is an excellent lesson for learning more about these considerations.
Tip 10: Let there be light: Think about how you can get "natural" light into interior spaces (like skylights), or how you might creatively add additional light sources to make you build inviting, easy to see and navigate, and of course to shine a light on all the decorative details you've created. Ideally, the placement of lighting should be not only functional, but placed decoratively as well and match the style of your creation. There are many types of light source items in Minecraft... torches, candles, lamps, lanterns, etc. You can also always use the light_block, a hidden item that provides various levels of light without a physical artifact!
Tip 11: Block furniture: I like to challenge myself when decorating the interior of structures and try to only use "Vanilla" that is existing blocks to create furniture and decorations. You would be surprised at what some students have created (fridges, stoves, showers, toilets, wardrobes, tvs) just using the materials available from the inventory. There are certain bragging rights that come with crafting something unique in blockbench that you can import, but I'm often equally or even more impressed by someone pulling off a household item with some basic inventory materials.
Tip 12: Don't be afraid to upscale: Scaling in Minecraft is, well... just weird. Consider that the Minecraft door and your avatar are both two meters tall... so perspective is a little off to begin with. I frequently upscale by a small amount. Just enough that the doors don't seem out of place (at least at a casual glance), while allowing for much more flexibility. As in tip 2, most buildings don't have 1 meter or 2 meter thick walls, but you can work with these confines without them being very obvious (place doors in the middle between double block walls, add glass windows in one layer, and oak trap doors on the outside layer). It's all about disguising the scaling discrepancies.
Tip 13: Mundane everyday fixtures can be flare! Try to add as many real features as possible to your builds, for example: boilers, furnaces, radiators or central air vents, air conditioners, exhaust pipes... no detail is unimportant (which can be tricky when the smallest you can typically get is one meter!) People are often amazed at the realism and detail that I achieve... what is mundane in the real world is often noticed as "wow" factor Minecraft. I aim to have jaws dropping on the floor... just because I added some wee thing that you would normally overlook.
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| Fig 1. Cutaway reveals some of my techniques |
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| Fig 2. Cutaway reveals additional build techniques |
Advance Tips
Tip 14: Try non-symmetrical building and unusual shapes. This may not appear to be a very challenging idea, but constructing non-symmetrical structures is much more difficult than it appears. Try different shapes by introducing domes or circular structures. The codebuilder can be really helpful (here's a link to a video I created on using codebuilder to create circular towers).
Tip 15: Your structure should be as nice looking on the inside as on the outside. Whenever I'm building something, I take into account the interior spaces and how I can integrate the exterior and interior so that they both work well together without any large gaps, crunched or awkward spaces.
Tip 16: Don't let your build become a prison... and what I mean by that is typically I have imagined, in a very detailed way what my build should look like. When translating that to an actual build, I often encounter elements or things that just don't look or work right, or fall short in some way of what I've imagined. Minecraft is meant to be a fluid, evolving building environment. If something isn't working, remove what doesn't work, and try another approach. I can't count how many times I've bulldozed a build back down to the foundations to replan something that just wasn't reflecting my original mental construction, and I'll repeat the process until I'm happy with the results.
Tip 17: Planning and builds will vary in how you approach them in terms of where you start and whether you lay out the foundation or not. Historical reconstructions of building usually work best with a rough foundation laid out (that you can adapt as needed) as you get the dimensions and scaling right. Builds from your imagination work better as a fluid exercise. I typically decide on a defining feature of the structure and build out from there (think grand staircases, entrances, fireplaces or large rooms). How I go about constructing the structure could even be based on something as small as how big a stove or fridge looks within a space and building out from there.
Tip 18: Minecraft is more than just buildings... don't be afraid to try your hand at crafting vehicles. Yes, they will be a little larger than they would be in real life, but the point is to make the most realistic vehicle, the smallest you can make it. Where do I start? Use slate steps to make wheels. Smaller vehicles, I'll use four slate stair blocks, larger, I'll have a core block, and surround it with four slate stairs, and four slate blocks. These make for some really large wheels, but once you've scaled the rest of the vehicle around them, it looks pretty good. Tracked vehicles are probably easier to scale down, and making tracks is actually a lot of fun. I'll start with several core (usually carved stone blocks), and surround them with either slate, or stone stairs. Buttons on the middle bits can add a bit more texture. A backwards chemistry table, or an oak or iron trapdoor can serve as a steering wheel. Walls can serve as exhausts, bumpers, traps doors as grills, and glass pains as side mirrors.
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| Various construction vehicles |
Tip 19: Particle effects and Sound effects: There are a ton of particle and sound effects in Minecraft (if you want to get really, you can even make your own). Use particle and sound effects to add some additional flare... a whisp of smoke or vapour to an exhaust pipe or chimney, drips or sprinkles of water from a water fixture... clanking noises that run when you enter a machine shop or blacksmith. You can find a complete list of particle effects, here and sound effects, here.
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