Accepted Zepubbar Artist Application

[ZePubbar]

Date joined: Officially in April 2014, but I just became active again around a month and a half ago

Jobs: Did a couple river/terrain jobs with Daddlio, also a few ruining jobs with Thomas in the CoL

Themed Builds: Tol Morwen, White Pillar, Noirinan, Forest Gate, Elwing's Tower

Interests: I really like doing all sorts of building, but I think my preferences would be Dwarvish and Gondorian styles, particularly castles and/or fortresses. Outside of LOTR I enjoy building villages and small houses, particularly those in the countryside or the like.

Motivation: As with most members of the server, I have been a life-long Tolkien fan and when I first discovered this server almost 3 years ago, it was like a dream come true for me. When I rejoined again after years of inactivity, I rediscovered that same love for building Middle-Earth in Minecraft that I had before, but this time with the added bonuses of experiencing the great community for the first time and getting to explore the extraordinary builds in more detail. While I may not be the greatest builder, I feel compelled to contribute to this server which I love and assist all the great staff and members whom I admire. Whether you decide to accept me or not, I would love to hear what all you talented builders have to say about my work, because I enjoy learning about building almost as much as I enjoy building itself.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Hey @ZePubbar!

Thank you for your application! I would like to give you some tips to improve your chance to get Artist.

Your Tol Morven looks nice though I would not use planks for trees. In Rhoan pack there are stairs with log texture. In other packs you are limited to full blocks for trees. Also you could add a few more details. Some flowers, a fallen tree or a small stream would be nice.

For your Elving's Tower you made some nice terrain, very important to pay attention to that. But I would suggest not to place a grass block ontop of each stone block. It would be more interesting and realistic with the grass distributed less equally. Make some bare, stony areas where the terrain is very steep and more grassy patchen at other places. Also don't use only stone for the cliffs. There are a lot of other blocks with similar texture you can mix in. Best to make patches and lines with the other materials (lots of examples at the main map in Andrast).
The tower itself looks a bit repetitive. At the corners you repeate the same pattern of four blocks from bottom to top. Try to avoid this and make a bit more sophisticated patterns. Aside of this the tower has nice details.

It's very good that you made some interior screenshots. Interiors are important! Show us more

Your white pillar has nice wall details. The upper parts seems too massive and heavy to be supported by the lower structure. Main issue to improve here are the floors which are made of one material only without any patterns. Also try to use the empty space around the tower for more details either nice terrain or more buidings.

Looking forward to your update,

-Eriol

 

[ZePubbar]

Some stuff I worked on today.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Nice!
Listening and understanding feedback is very important for Artists. You did that very well.

 

[ZePubbar]

Anything else you want to see improved? I'm on break so I have some time on my hands

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Interiors

 

[Finrod_Amandil]

Hmm it's a bit tricky to explain, but I'll try nevertheless: Concerning the exterior of your tower: You seem to know that just flat walls make it look boring, but what you have now, is probably having added too much detail. The shape looks too complicated to understand it, theres many random slabs poking out of the core of the tower, but somehow it doesn't look natural, or sensible. Try to somewhat group the details into larger connected bits, just like the window frames you have now. Beside them, all details are somewhat shapes or color variations, consisting of one or two blocks each only. Or in other words, try to make the shape simpler again.

Also, don't spread the mossy white bricks evenly, only add it where its regularily moist / wet, usually the bottom of the tower.

 

[ZePubbar]

Update: Small house I did in single-player

 

[ZePubbar]

Update: A little tavern/inn I built in single-player

 

[ZePubbar]

Hey I know everyone has been pretty occupied lately, but I was wondering if there was any progress here. I don't want to seem impatient, and if you do not think I can become artist thats fine, but I'm just curious. Thanks.

 

[Finrod_Amandil]

Hey ZePubbar!
Sorry for the long time it took me to reply, please excuse me Thanks a lot for the updates!

I'd like to satisfy you with some more feedback and not a promotion yet, it's for your own good that you're not overwhelmed with what we expect from Artists

• Your Mindo Eldaliéva TB has a very "un-elvish" shape. It looks very sturdy and heavy, also the small spikes give a bit an evil touch. Elvish architecture, at least as we interprete it should rather feature soft and flowing / continuous shapes and towers should look slender and elegant. We had this TB a long while ago already, here's what I built back then, to clarify what I mean:
  
  Spoiler

  
• The small white/gray tower: Don't make roofs out of stone bricks! Either make a flat top or use shingles! Stone would be very hard to build and support in such a shape.
• Your singleplayer farmhouse: The exterior looks very nice! Very good job with the two-layered walls, nice choice of materials and shapes! The only small thing I'd change is the shutters on the lower floor, reduce them to shutters on one side of the window only, looks better than on both sides if the shutters add up to 2 blocks wide but the window is only 1 wide.
• Interior of the farm house: Don't forget to cover the roof shingles from the inside, i.e. with wooden planks! Add doors between the rooms!
• Sandstone house: Again very nice exterior, looks very appealing! A critique point tho is that the roof end / the arch along the roof edge ended up really thick and massive. May be possible to do that, but is probs really tough to construct as this will have a very large weight.
• Interior: Try to bring in some more materials, don't make everything out of birch planks! Use different sorts of materials for the chairs and tables (i.e. you can use the piston heads for nice tables)
• The main room with the bar and the large table I would pack more densely; the innkeeper probably wants to accomodate as many guests as possible so I'd rather make many small tables with chairs around it rather than one big table.

Please give another TB a shot! Especially your exteriors are very good already and I am confident you'll be ready for Artist very soon! Keep it up!

~ Finrod

 

[ryttyr]

Hey ZePubbar!
Sorry for the long time it took me to reply, please excuse me Thanks a lot for the updates!

I'd like to satisfy you with some more feedback and not a promotion yet, it's for your own good that you're not overwhelmed with what we expect from Artists

• Your Mindo Eldaliéva TB has a very "un-elvish" shape. It looks very sturdy and heavy, also the small spikes give a bit an evil touch. Elvish architecture, at least as we interprete it should rather feature soft and flowing / continuous shapes and towers should look slender and elegant. We had this TB a long while ago already, here's what I built back then, to clarify what I mean:
  
  Spoiler

  
• The small white/gray tower: Don't make roofs out of stone bricks! Either make a flat top or use shingles! Stone would be very hard to build and support in such a shape.
• Your singleplayer farmhouse: The exterior looks very nice! Very good job with the two-layered walls, nice choice of materials and shapes! The only small thing I'd change is the shutters on the lower floor, reduce them to shutters on one side of the window only, looks better than on both sides if the shutters add up to 2 blocks wide but the window is only 1 wide.
• Interior of the farm house: Don't forget to cover the roof shingles from the inside, i.e. with wooden planks! Add doors between the rooms!
• Sandstone house: Again very nice exterior, looks very appealing! A critique point tho is that the roof end / the arch along the roof edge ended up really thick and massive. May be possible to do that, but is probs really tough to construct as this will have a very large weight.
• Interior: Try to bring in some more materials, don't make everything out of birch planks! Use different sorts of materials for the chairs and tables (i.e. you can use the piston heads for nice tables)
• The main room with the bar and the large table I would pack more densely; the innkeeper probably wants to accomodate as many guests as possible so I'd rather make many small tables with chairs around it rather than one big table.

Please give another TB a shot! Especially your exteriors are very good already and I am confident you'll be ready for Artist very soon! Keep it up!

~ Finrod

Wow. That's harsh Finrod. Is this how you usually judge Artist applications?
This dude builds far better than I do and shows it immensely better than I did in my application yet you still don't accept him into the rank of Artist?

Why do I suddenly have a feeling that I was accepted as Artist more due to the dire need for Artists at that time rather than my actual skills as a builder?

 

[Finrod_Amandil]

Oh I do not think that's true All that may is that ZePubbar made a mistake which I was not able to identify in your builds

 

[ZePubbar]

Thanks for the feedback Finrod! Here are some pictures from this weeks theme build. If you have any more suggestions or things to improve on I would love to hear them!

 

[ryttyr]

Thanks for the feedback Finrod! Here are some pictures from this weeks theme build. If you have any more suggestions or things to improve on I would love to hear them!

Whilst I'm here may I just add my two bits and say that, following real life building mechanics and physics, the cobblestone ceiling in your third picture there would colapse in on itself unless it was vaulted like an arch shape. Just saying.
I have no idea whether this is something that's even considered as a problem on the server but it irks me whenever I see something that isn't quite physically possible. Okay, that was my two bits. I'll leave now.

 

[ZePubbar]

Sorry for not updating in a while, I have been away for a week and couldn't get on to build. Here are some pics from the Dol Amroth themed build from last week. Didn't have as much time as I would have liked so any feedback is appreciated.

 

[BWOT]

Hey ZePubbar, I like most of you exteriors and really hope you get artist. I have a few tips for you so hopefully, you can get it quicker. Your interiors are what a standard artist will do however if you want to give it a little more zing and zest: check out the houses in southern gondor like in methrast or lostfalls and you will see how much detail can be packed in one room. Also for your fountain from you last tb try next time to have a center to it, this will make it look more complete. Also in the streets add more things like more crates or baskets or clothes overhead to make your builds look more lively. You are really close and I hope you get the rank soon.

 

[ZePubbar]

Another update on the quest for artist. This time we got this weeks theme build. As always feedback is appreciated.

 

[BWOT]

Another update on the quest for artist. This time we got this weeks theme build. As always feedback is appreciated.

He ZePubbar, you have some really nice ideas in your build like the base of the bridge. However, even though all that you make is okay, some parts of you builds need to be brought up to MCME standards and level for artist. The top and pathway of the bridge is quite bland and basic. To create a more interesting pathway, use more variations, different blocks, and level (not all flat but use slabs and staircases to make depth) . The cauldrons on the side are good in making but do not really fit for a bridge, (maybe in like moria they would) but on a bridge giant cauldrons aren't found on bridges.

 

[ZePubbar]

Lets have some fun with these.

Artist App Episode I: The Phantom Purple Nametag

A long time ago in an MC server somewhere in Europe (forgot country its hosted in), a cow built the Glittering Caves.

Oh and thanks BWOT for the feedback on previous builds.