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    Minecraft Middle Earth is a Minecraft community that recreates the world described by JRR Tolkien and his writings. Everyone can participate in organized events in which we collaborate to create major landmarks, terrain, caves, castles, towns, farms and more.

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Artist/builder Feedback

@WardenWolf
So the minas house and osgiliath house are good and pretty basic, so I won't go into those unless you really want to. I don't see any major mistakes with them.
The edhellond theme build could use more improvements, so I will focus on that one for now.

First thing I imeadiatly notice is flatness. The walls, the tower, the terrain, it all looks prety flat and plain. The tower walls don't have any depth or decoration to it, the walls of the central wall doesn't have anything special about it, it doesn't grab people's attention.
Small example on how you could improve this:
Take a look at the railing/fences/sides on the wall. Now imagine yourself a medieval wall out in sea, protecting a cove made by one of the most creative surreal creatures on a fantastical earth. It's kind of difficult to link those two together, doesn't it? How would an elf make that railing? Probably safe, sober, some slender shapes, maybe some sections with details. Does the wall have a function? Well it needs to be accesable for allies but not for enemies. Alright, so we might need cover spots against attacks... and so on and so on...

You certainly need to think about that, I would make the top of the wall slanted, have some higher wall sections for cover spots and place them so they form a pattern that gives the wall an elvish look. Take a look at some medieval walls or try to find inspiration from other fantasy drawings or stories.
I would also add some visible structural parts on your wall, like support sections, overhangs, broader parts and the likes. Maybe I could use some rocks on the bottom that could function as a natural foundation.

I would add more terrain features to it, like rocks in sea, parts of the cliff, maybe a small flat beach on the side, anything that would improve on the atmosphere of one of the only elvish harbors in middle earth.

With the tower, I would use the same techniques to improve the detail on it, especially the lower and middle parts. I could go on and on about tips and tricks, but quite frankly those are either on the builderschool or are discussed in previous posts on this thread. Take a look at other examples of towers on minecraft, fornost, minas tirith, ost in edhil, osgiliath, rohan, rivendell, tharbad, lond daer, those are plenty of locations to check details and towers. And with looking I don't mean juwt glancing at it, but take note on how it's made and what blocks are used and in what way they are used.
You talk about too little space but you have loads to spare on your theme build. I agree you shouldn't cramp stuff in it but you shouldn't leave 40% as open water. What about a boat, or a dock, or terrain, or the cave entrance, or storage space or flags, or two towers instead of one or guard posts. Not all at once but you seem to have only thought about a simple wall and a lighthouse/tower.

And lastly, this goes for so many people trying for artist: TAKE PICTURES OF THE INTERIOR OF THEME BUILDS. Not too many but a few with overview shots. For all I know you made a massive tower and you can't get in it. From your pictures, I can't see the back, the interior or the top of your tower. I don't think anyone could make a fair analyses based on 3,5 pictures of a theme build. This is the basic shots you need: front arial view, back arial view, enough zoomed in pics if needed, and about 2 to 3 interior pics that give an overview to the build. Not 3 pics of the front bottom view.

I think your main worry is that you get into trouble if you have to tackle weird shapes that aren't symmetrical. Since you had tr8uble with that pretty simple osgiliath roof, and you have pretty much only symmetrical builds, I'd practice with some irregular shapes. I'd like you to try a bigger dome or a multilevel roof on a house. Maybe try your hand at sails of a big ship or a river turn. And try out a tree, those are probably the most difficult basic thing you can make in minecraft.

Saying that, I'm quite surprised of the ships you did. Those are really well made and they seem sollutions of all the things I just mentioned in this post. But I still see that you only tackle straight stuff, for example the cannons are all pointed straight forward which makes me wonder if you could build them pointing towards the air or to the sides. The basic shapes of the ship are also pretty repetitive and although they work fine for this build, it again makes me wonder if you can pull off non lineair builds. Building a lothlorien or fangorn tree would probably prove you can.
So keep trying and keep imagining new things for builds. Good luck and feel free to ask for help when needex.
 
You'll see with my next Osgiliath house. I'm finishing something someone else started since they left for the month. But once I started I discovered some styling mistakes that meant I had to cut the entire thing down to the second floor and remove the roofs entirely. I don't have any problems with asymmetrical builds. I just have to think about them a little more.

This aforementioned fixer-upper DID have one issue that forced me to change the pillar spacing on one side. It had asymmetrical pillar spacing between two sides of the structure. This would not be a problem if it was done well, but it was done incredibly awkwardly such that two pillars only had a single block between them. Asymmetrical structures are often designed so roofs only work in a particular orientation over a given section. Otherwise they wind up 2 blocks wide at the crown. I did a lot of checking and verified this was the only way of doing this roof and having it come out right. And, no matter how you play it, a single-block pillar spacing looks bad and pushes the limits of Osgiliath styling. I'm pretty sure it was an oversight on the part of whoever laid down the outline.

Regarding the battleship, one of the turrets was done sideways at one time The problem is largely the scale of the build. It's around .6 scale. While it still allows me to do most of the interior (I need to get more screenshots showing the engine and boiler rooms and mess hall), it creates problems with walking the deck if I rotate the turrets. The reason for the scale was the 5-inch guns. At this scale, a lever can easily stand in for a 5-inch gun and look well. At larger scales, you wind up with very awkward-looking guns with half slabs used as guns and the overall size being larger than it should be. The turrets themselves are modular components which are designed in such a fashion that the whole thing can be cut out and moved as need be.

The Arleigh Burkes are pretty basic. They were cut and pastes, because these ships are almost all the same anyway (except for the Flight I's). Both these ships and the battleship were made in Minecraft 1.0, and are continually updated as new blocks and features become available so as not to go stale. The deck of the Arleigh Burkes, which were originally carpeted grey, were redone with grey clay once it became available.

I should get some photos of the Star Trek-style starship I did. I built it for a friend, who modified the exterior very slightly afterwards. It's in the style of Voyager, and features a glowing colored deflector and nacelles.
 
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BeatHeav3N said:
Thought I'd get some feedback from here :)
I don't think I need a lot of help with wood, because I'm fairly good with that. But since we're working on Gondor, and I expect a lot of themed builds to involve stone, are there any general tips you could give me as to working with stone. This obviously doesn't mean other tips aren't welcome.

beatheav3n.imgur.com
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, almost three quarters of a year later...
 
Bombur8 said:
Could I have some feedback on my Dol Amroth gatehouse ? Is plot 16.
Click to expand...
Ok, first of all, I would be delighted if you could give me some screenshots next time since I don't always have the time to hop on while doing this and also so we are looking at the same thing while discussing something.

Textures:
So, you're build is a dol amroth gate. Since dol amroth is more south a lot of the guys used beige textures for the walls but you did something different with the white blocks. I like the change and the way you guys try to experiment but you also got to realise when something looks good and when it doesn't. The white tops on the towers doesn't look good. It looks to me as if someone screwed my texture pack over and it isn't supposed to be white.
Same thing with the heads on the statues in the middle of the gate, it looks like wool for me in my recent gondor pack, and I don't know if this is intended but it looks weird. Like a derp.
Same thing goes for using gray wall fences in some windows, the gray and the beige look pretty 'clumsy'. It works in the floors where the ballistas are, but not in the windows. The frame also doesn't line up perfectly with the window.
Another thing I don't get texture wise are the orange shingle blocks on the rim of the two bigger towers. Why? Looks like you forgot to erase a mistake.
Another way I can tell you don't have a lot of experience with textures is the side columns on the bigger towers behind the wall. There is a sort of small pillar at the bottom made out of 7 blocks of smooth sandstone. This block looks like a keystone and should be used sparcely instead of the other way around.

Basic layout:
Another thing is what I don't really get, is why build a pond with a more narrow bridge inside the gate? Doesn't really function for a main gate or for any really functional gate. It might be a cool design trick but not fit for the atmosphere of a main gate. The gray bridge itself also clashes a bit with the other textures.
The bigger towers and smaller towers look alright in terms of architecture although I think it looks a bit iregular at times, some parts are pretty flat while others are too clashy and hard on the eyes. But that is just my OCD detail checker turning on so don't worry about that much.
The ballistas also look cool, but I would try to build them a little smaller or leave them out anyway. There isn't much surface on those towers and with a ballista, there isn't any room left. This makes the gate look a bit too busy and crowded and ultimately is not good for the style.
I would also try to do something more interesting than 1 block hole windows, try make less windows but better looking ones.

I like the overall architecture of the towers, they're not bad but I am focussing more on the extras and the details in this feedback. So basic tower skills are good!

On the interior:
This is pretty basic. You have the room for a 2 by 2 spiral staircase, for a straight staircase, yet you guys opt for the simplest and in my opinion, ugly looking 1 block wide spiral staircase. It's a bit sad that you didn't try something more epic and fitting for the front gate of a city.
You try to make a diverse interior but you don't really succeed in this completly. Try to give each room a function and design from that function on. Don't just place stuff near the walls, but use all the space you have. Like the armor/weapons room at the left rear tower just has 5 swords and some item frames with stuff in. Instead you could have gotten rid of the overkill of windows and made a small weapons repair room.
There is room for railings near the staircase everywhere, yet you don't put any in. I think it might be tricky to make them, but right now it looks too simple and too minecrafty (as in a survival base looking thing, not creative build world).
Also I like the cauldrons with supposed 'oil' on the top of the towers but 2 things pop into my head: It doesn't look like oil but like water so it doesn't give a good impression and why put oil on the back towers instead of the front, where the enemies are?

All in all, I think you guys need to check our builds on a different level more, and try to construct a more realistic image of a build. Not that you guys didn't try that, but you have to think about what your build does to someone else. How does it look, what atmosphere does it bring up, what stories does it tell... and so on. Some things work in minecraft and some things don't, and you guys have to be a little more harsh on what you cut and what not. This feedback might look horrible and destructive but I think with some new spirit and some experience you guys would improve VERY much.
 
First of all, many thanks for the feedback. I did'nt post any screenshot because I wanted a general opinion.

Just a few things : I designed this gatehouse to be as utilitarian as possible (with a sacrifice to beauty with the swans on the higher tops), and that's why we left many free room and build only but many little windows (although I'm not satisfied with their shape myself, I need to improve my window skills :p ). That's also the point of the inner bridge and pool (you know, Khazad-dûm principle). Also, the white blocks on statue and tops were intended to be marble.
Finally, there are no columns behind the towers and I don't see any orange blocks except the beaks ...
 
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I wonder if I could get some feedback as well please @Will_em

the themebuilds are

White towers of elostirion (warp lucky1 (gondor RP) )
Chamber of Mazarbal (warp lucky2 (eriador RP))
forest gate (warp lucky3 (eriador RP))
fords of isen (warp lucky5 (eriador RP))

and 2 themes that i unfortunatley couldnt finish but did spend alot of time on especially the latter
pelagir (warp lucky4 (gondor RP))
Dol Amroth (warp lucky6 (gondor RP))

it would be much appreciated as I have been on the watch-list for quite some time, admittedly I have been absent for a while but I would still like to become an artist so I can contribute to the server more , I just need to know what to improve to make the leap to artist.

Thanks :D:D
 
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