Wikifying the Builderschool

[Will_em]

Hey everyone,

You all might know about the builderschool on freebuild that I made with the help of many others. Now since the blocks on there are breakable and the school is not as viewable as it would be on other media, I'm going to try to copy the school into a document/text so it can be implemented more easily in sites and pictures. Now since this is quite a lot of work (and I'm not good at writing), I ask you guys to help me out and write down the stuff that's on the text. I'll do the formatting of the pages but it would be easy to just be able to copy/paste the text rather than having to write it down myself.

What to do if you want to help out:
Choose a level and a lane of the school and write it down in a reply on this thread.
Then write the title dictating which lot it is from a lane.
Then copy the text that's on the signs without any enters in between.

Check if you don't copy a section that's already written down, but if it's all on this thread it wouldn't be difficult to check that out.

I'll be sure to give updates on the links and if you want to add your own class into the builderwiki, you can do so by pm'ing me the text and pictures of your work. Please pm, because I don't want to get this thread too clogged up with new classes yet.

Edit: Link: http://wiki.mcme.co/wiki/Builderschool#The_Builderschool

Thanks a lot already fellas
Will

 

[LDC]

Spoiler: Class 2

Class 2 - Voxel tricks Part 1
Floating Torches:
with voxel you can place floating torches to make chandeliers and lamp posts, just place a torch on a wool block.

faceless log:
With voxel, you can edit a log so it has no front or back. This comes in handy when building trees. Don't overuse this though. Also not the direction of the faceless log. Make sure it doesn't change.

half doors:
This can be used to make wooden paneling. Or you can make troughs for animals. Watch out! These doors are easily break-able! Placing blocks next to them makes them break.

How to set up the trough:
Place red wool where the water is going to be. Then ask a staff to place the doors next to the wool and let them replace the wool with water.

Class 2 - Voxel tricks Part 2
Floating rails:
Detector rails are re-textured as rope. With voxel you can hang them in mid-air. How to set it up? Place red wool blocks under the rope where it needs to hang. then ask a staff member to remove the wool.

Piston heads:
With voxel we can place piston heads and use them as tables or wheels. Some even use them as mechanical wheels for windmill interiors. Be careful, these things break a lot when interacting with them or the space around it.

Floating ladders:
Note that the ladders are only visible from the front.

Trapdoor windows:
With voxel we can place trapdoors without having to place it next to a block. So you get this. click the trapdoor to see how it is attached. The same with this hoop. The block in the middle got voxeled out, so you get floating trapdoors. Just place a sand block beneath the cactus and ask a staff to remove it with voxel. Floating cactus with voxel- you can place cactus without having to place sand. In rohan and gondor tp, cactus is meat, so use this in butcher shops or the likes. EXTRA! use the rohan pack here.

Class 2 - Rohan Roofs
Wheat Roofs:
Rule 1: Hide the dirt! Especially on the inside, people tend to forget.
Rule 2: Be consistent. Also use wheat on the corners. Don't be afraid to try that out but remember to cover up the visible dirt!

Pyramid roofs:
Don't make pyramid roofs with wheat. it looks derpy unless you are really going for it. Which most people aren't because it's not pretty. Don't use this for big rohan houses.

Class 2 - Texture Pack Tricks
Rails:
Not only straight rails look different in the eriador texture pack, but bent rails also aren't normal.

Lothlorien leaves:
EXTRA- Use lothlorien texture pack here. Use the re-textured leaves of the loth pack to your advantage when building with it. Take a snow block and just keep right clicking!

Brewing stand:
The brewing stand has been re-textured to a chain hanger. So don't place a cauldron on rope but on the brewing stand instead. Like in the example! Also don't use the brewing stand as a regular stand, because it doesn't make sense if you see a couple of chains on the floor in your house.

Ender portal:
The ender portal has been re-textured in the eriador tp to a lower brick block. this makes it into a sort of lamp post or a brick foundation for anything. See rivendell for examples on usage in rohan tp, it got re-textured as a cheese board. This is excellent for interior design.

Cactus meat:
In the gondor and rohan pack cactus is changed into meat! We can place it everywhere with voxel.

Sapling,warts etc.
Tobacco in eriador tp, it's actually not a plant but the stake of a mellon plant. Just plant one and stop bonemealing it before a mellon appears. This is how we did the fields in the shire.

Chair seating:
A daylight sensor can be used as a seat with a half iron door as a backrest. Check the vocel class for more.

Class 2 - Big Trees
How to spawn a big tree made by captainDagless- Using this technique you can easily make big trees with saplings. useful when you don't have voxel. Go to i.dags.me/mcme/treetut.gif

Class 2 - tips on adding depth
Glass panes:
Don't use glass blocks for windows but use panes. it looks like a more realistic window and you add more depth to your build. this raises the level of detail in your build.

Double walls:
If you use a double wall for stone houses, you can make pillars and more details like using stairs. The arnor building style draws heavily on this trick. just check Lond Daer, tharbad or annuminas on the main build server.

Overhang on roofs:
When building roofs, make a slight overhang with stair blocks. it gives more depth and details to your build. you'll see this trick a lot on mcme.

Doors and depth:
Placing doors on the right side of the wall can make them look more itneresting. it also makes sure your wall design doesn't look flat and dull. Here at mcme we don't like flat things.

Class 2 - Bridges
A lot of people make good outer rim bridges. this means the bridge itself is a good arch but the stair inside are not. The stairs are, in this case too diagonal, whilst slabs give a better curve in this case. This is not the best bridge but it is just an example of what people tend to do wrong with the stairs. A great example of a good bridge is the brandywine bridge on the main build server made by ryanturambar.

Class 2 - Mountain planning
First off, plan the outlines. use a wool line to indicate where your mountain edge will approximately be. afterwards all you have to do is connect the different lines and you've got a mountain. big mountains are almost impossible by hand so staff use voxel. if you want a staff member to help you, you can aid him in placing the outlines and he will do the rest. notice that the example doesn't look good. Let's change that by adding more curves and rocks to it! See the next example for the result. Notice that i just added several layers to thicken out the wall. it takes a bit of trial and error to get a good result. look at the curves topic by captaindagless for more tips.

 

[lizzy_]

This is a lot of text so I'm inserting it as a qoute to not flood the forum. I've done all of class one.
For those that wish to put in a spoiler click insert next to the draft floppy disk then click spoiler. Give it a title and paste in everything within the square brackets.

Spoiler: Class 1

Before you start
Always finish your theme build/regular build.
Tip one: Put a comment sign/trademark sign up. This lets people know who made the build.
Make a plan. Place wool markers to calculate the blocks so things are symmetrical.
If you need inspiration, search pics on the internet of what you need to build. Try to copy those. Keep looking for the right pic of what you want to build. (bit obvious)
Planning 2: First build the bigger structures before bothering staff to place voxel things. Too many people ask for water while nothing has been made yet. Think your build out. Estimate the height, width and so on…

Physics
Floating blocks: Don’t place floating blocks like these examples. Even if one corner touches it seems like it’s floating.
Supporting extras: This structure has no supports so it seems like it’s floating. It would need pillars or fences or an arch. Be creative with this.
There could be a pillar here.
Top heavy structures: Don’t build irrational top heavy structures that wouldn’t last long in real life. Use logic.
Unrealistic block usage: Think about the properties of the block you’re using. For instance don’t make a stone house on logs. I have seen people building stone houses in a tree.
Gravel walls: Don’t use gravel as walls as the walls would just fall apart without any support.
Stacked slabs: Don’t do this. It isn’t realistic. Slabs ‘float’ and also it looks ugly. It’s fine if it is supported on both sides, however.

Stairs
Space: Use enough room when building stairs. Most people tend to make mistakes when they run out of space. Calculate this before construction. If you have to jump to get up, the stairs are usually wrong.
End wall staircases: Don’t let your staircase end up in a wall like this one. It’s not logical.
Handrails: Give stairs a sort of hand-rail or some anti-fall protection. It looks a bit unrealistic without it.

Fireplaces
Fire spread: Make sure all the adjacent blocks are non-flammable when building a fireplace. Even without fire spread it doesn’t look good.
No chimney fireplaces: Make sure every fireplace has a chimney of some sort. We don’t want people dying of carbon-monoxide poisoning. This is a bad example.

Water Physics
The unsupported waterfall: Make sure that you don’t get overflowing water on the smaller waterfalls. Keep real life water physics in mind.
Bodem texturing in lakes: Make sure that the bottom of the lakes you build are not all dirt or one block. Use different blocks according to the environment you are building. You can also place rocks to add more detail to your lake or river. Make sure it coincides with the terrain.
Add lilypads for detailing. Don’t overuse them though! It’s bad to have 20 in one pond.

Paths
How to make slight bends: This is a three wide road. This looks weird. It seems like it is two wide. Her it looks better, with four blocks instead of 3. So everytime you bend slightly, widen your road by 1.
Turns: This is a wrong turn. It looks far too diagonal.
This is a better turn. Try to experiment a bit with different turns.
Ruined Paths: Good example. On bends and turns in ruined paths, you got to make sure they seem evenly wide on all sides. To get this, try not to remove the side path blocks.

Log direction
Be mindful on how you place the direction of your logs in your build. Make sure they align right and be consistent further through your build. Make sure the outer edges or corners are always a vertical log.
A bad example of a wooden frame for a house. Notice all the different directions of logs you come across when 2 logs join up together.
This is a good example. The logs here are consistent and fit neatly in alignment and not random.
Another good example. Notice you can change the direction of the centre pillar but not of the outer ones. Personally I like the right example more.
Logs and Walls: Never make walls out of vertical logs. It looks terrible and isn’t realistic if it isn’t a lumberjacks hut. Even then we use planks.
Never place a line of vertical logs for support. It’s terrible and isn’t realistic. Logs can’t support stone, especially vertical ones. Stone on wood? Very bad.
The top bar is still not a horizontal line

Trees/Forests
Dirt tree: Never leave a dirt block under the treetrunk. You’ll see this along the whole of mcme. Don’t do it. Bad dirt block. Needs to be log.

Theme build mistakes
If you build a house for the theme build, don’t build a house that’s square which fills up the entire lot. Imagine your house being built for real. And think of the real size of it. If the real build is to big (like a city) build a part of it.

How to make small hills
Making hills look natural: Many people make their hill ascend very quickly, so you get some kind of plateau. The edges aren’t organic at all and they are made of one block. Making it more round and adding more space on each level, gives you a better result. Don’t make diagonal lines either but spread it our more. The examples give you an idea.
Staircase hills, notice the one block levels.
Same hills but each level spread out.
Make sure the bottom blocks are appropriate for the kind of terrain you’re making. Most of the times, dirt looks pretty bad. Instead use stone or gravel to mix things up.
Don’t make corners too diagonal. This example is an exaggerated one, but you can get the picture like this. Make more fluid lines when building hills.
Notice that making good hills requires a lot of space. Plan this ahead before building. It will come in handy.

 

[lizzy_]

And done. Due to the character limit and this being about 13,000. I had to upload it to a google doc. Here ya go. Class 3.

 

[Will_em]

Ok so that was fast. I started making the wiki and if you guys have any tips or tricks, feel free to suggest!
For the people that have editing perms on the wiki, feel free to help out.

If anyone also has pictures or guides like the osgiliath one that's already added, PLEASE post them here and I'll include them into the wiki.