gear everyone and welcome to another minecraft video now instead of just showing you how to create a build i made in this video i'll be showing you how you can come up with your own now of course i can't really do that in just one video so i'll be making this into a series where i'll cover many topics such as houses and castles to interiors and landscaping also be sure to leave a comment with your suggestions for future episode topics so this first episode is just going to cover the basics of becoming a better builder and what i personally did to improve find a theme you enjoy and stick with it whether that being modern futuristic medieval or anything in between i recommend picking a theme you're passionate about and sticking with it for a while by doing this you're building up a repertoire of techniques designs and details all to do with that single theme which in turn is also building up your skill i find this to be a more efficient way of becoming a better builder because you're solely focusing on one theme instead of trying to do them all so definitely try to keep laser focus to that theme and constantly figure out new details and designs and you'll slowly build up your personal style and when i'm talking about personal style i'm basically saying that even though two people can build in the same theme let's say medieval for example they can both still look vastly different between people use reference when possible especially when you're first starting out your building journey let's say you wanted to create a modern house how do you start that's a question i get asked a lot and i always say use some reference images head on over to google images search what you would name your build when it's completed and take a look at what's there use those images as inspiration for the shape size and details for your build and try to make it your own even i still do this from time to time when i can't figure out a nice unique shape for a house or building and i highly encourage you to do the same learn some details and designs specific to your building style for this part i'd recommend looking at other minecraft builds that are in the same theme as yours and get some ideas from them obviously don't just blatantly copy them make them into your own and customize them for example some detail that you might search for is the pillars of a medieval house something that i pretty much always use in my smaller medieval houses is this technique here of offsetting the pillars out one block from the house and connecting them all up together at the top with fences and fence gates and this is something i learned from my good friend extra builds learn what looks good and what doesn't look at some great builds by great builders and take note of everything that makes them look good for example let's take a look at another great builder cryptozoology some things i would take note from this particular build of his are the walls are super unique the roof is interesting and not bland the entire house itself has a really cool shape to it and i mean the list can go on but you should get the idea by now learn all of the things that make a certain build look good and apply it to your own also as a little bonus tip here is to watch out for under or over detailing this is something that plagued me for quite a while and was really holding back my builds quite a lot that being over detailing in this build here you can see that the roof is way overdone like this thing is absolutely cooked but sometimes even using less detailing can become your personal style similar to sword self another amazing builder they tend to use a lot less detail than the average builder with big flat walls and small windows but they supplement it with other things like brilliantly executed gradients and bringing in the details in specific locations their builds are the perfect embodiment of less is more and i highly recommend you check out their instagram page just as a quick side note all the builders i've mentioned in this video will have their social links in the description use the right blocks for the job this one is a no-brainer make sure to figure out an interesting block palette to use for your build i've posted a couple up on my instagram page for reference but i do encourage you to find your own that you love also when i create a palette to use i always like to keep the block separated for instance i'll get the pillar block and keep it aside and then i'll get the blocks for the walls and keep them together so on and so forth also for gradients obviously find blocks with a similar color and texture and use those together the only gradients i can really help you with is the only ones that i've actually used myself which is this one here it goes from moss blocks to mossy cobblestone mossy stone bricks to stone bricks this one is great for bridges and builds that are situated in water and makes it look like it's been there for a long time and has given the moss a chance to slowly creep up the walls of it plan out your builds some people like to use wool to mark out the walls of a build others like to just wing it i utilize a sort of in-between and you can see that at pretty much the start of each of my house tutorials when i'm planning out the shape of a build i always like to use the pillars to plan it out i find it to just be an easier way for me to visualize how a build would look as opposed to using brightly coloured wool on this subject as well i'll note that planning out the length of your walls is something that is extremely important when it comes to detailing i usually struggle with detailing even length walls so i tend to build in odd numbers usually spacing out the pillars of a house in threes fives sevens etc however you might find it easier to build in even numbers so always keep that in mind practice makes good i don't like to say perfect because it's very hard to get a perfect build without spending hours and hours on one so when it comes to practicing i'm basically meaning to just create a build at least every couple of days this is definitely the most important aspect out of everything mentioned in this video and it's the way i improved pretty quickly in my opinion i'm in no way saying that i'm a good builder but you can definitely see a great improvement from my older builds to my newer builds and i'm not just saying that in the actual ideas of the builds so focus more on the detail work the roofs the walls and how much they've improved compared to the older stuff and this is something that can only really be achieved over time you can of course speed this up by building daily or even multiple times a day but be weary of burnout you don't want to spend all this time and then just get sick of it because you're doing it too much i'd know because this almost happened to me a few times i was creating a build every single day for a few months but i knew i had to dial it back or else i'd get burnt out so put in the time i'd recommend creating something at least every three days or so and keep the bills relatively small definitely don't start out with massive mansions or you might get overwhelmed with how to detail such large areas so that's pretty much it for all of the main tips but here are a few bonus mini tips for you if you're building in creative i strongly recommend using world edit you can get this as a mod or as a plugin for a server and it helps with speeding up the building processes for all of the boring parts say you wanted to make a massive tower well all you have to do to create the walls is literally type in walls with your block of choice and bang there they are along with well did it i also recommend voxel sniper which unfortunately only comes as a plugin but it's an amazing tool for landscaping you can landscape with world edit however voxel sniper is a little bit more intuitive and easy to use another tip is that you can save hot bars by using certain keys and you can check what they are for you in the control section this just makes it a little bit easier to switch between different block pallets without having to search for them in the menus every time i personally have one saved for all the different types of wood stone blocks decorative blocks and other random stuff and now the final bonus tip is actually pretty important and that is to get feedback on your builds it's a great way to find out what areas you may be lacking in and how to improve on them and actually have a channel in my discord server where you can post your builds and get feedback on them from other members and also myself as well build competitions are another great way to get some feedback and i'm hosting one right now over on my discord all you need to do for this one is create a castle it doesn't need to be massive or over the top as i'll be judging based on detail creativity and originality not size or scale so head down to the description and join my discord server chat with other builders and get some feedback on your own creations another great way of getting feedback on your builds would be to post them online if you're wanting to go down this route i recommend posting to reddit instagram or both reddit is great as you can get a post to do really well without having any following at all the only caveat being that it has to be something pretty original and interesting instagram is kind of the opposite it might start off really slow but you'll build a following and gain feedback through every individual post instead of only the really good builds that make it on reddit you'll also need to know how to take better screenshots of your builds so you don't end up posting something like this and thankfully i have a tutorial video on just that link in the description all right so that pretty much does it for everything i wanted to cover in this first episode the basics like i said in the intro future episodes will be more specific to a certain topic like houses and stuff so i really want to hear what you guys want me to cover in future videos whatever aspects you might be struggling with like texturing or anything like that really also be sure to leave me some feedback in the comments on what you thought of this video and what you might want me to do differently in the future episodes cheers for watching everyone and i'll see you in the next video