Temple Priest
Cultist
Most of the builds you see in terraria are actually rather nice and fun to look at, especially on public servers. I'll be using one of my favorite public servers and some of my own building styles to hopefully guide people out of just building a straight up wooden box, save for the silly people that make really nice-looking wooden 'boxes'.
Foreword: Building nice houses are not something you should finish in a few minutes. they should be something you should take at least a good 20 minutes for even a small build. Large scale should take a few days to a week or two. As silly as it may sound, building builds is an art, and it should be treated as art, regardless of whether its a game or not, taking thought and care into each block you use, and editing and tweaking issues days after the initial creation.
Building a house:
•Adding details
http://prntscr.com/aqdljo This is an example of a simple, useful house.
This house is simply a box and as someone i know put it: putting a lot of boxes together make it look nicer somehow. This is true to a large extent. Most houses can easily be made nice by using a lot of 'bricked' squares or what would be normal houses put together. After you've made a larger house with multiple rooms in it, you should add some details, like changing the shape of the roof, adding a lot of furniture on the inside, putting smaller details, like pillars or actuated blocks on it, and even hammering can make a HUGE difference to your general build. Here are some examples of houses that are simply boxes that have been fancified: http://prntscr.com/aqdmp3 ; http://prntscr.com/aqdn3z ; http://prntscr.com/aqdnd1 ; http://prntscr.com/aqdnsl
•Lanscape
Depending on the house, landscape can either be all, some, or none of the build: http://prntscr.com/aqdojd ; http://prntscr.com/aqdoyv ; Its done by making something that looks natural or at least semi-natural. This is done with organic blocks, hammered blocks, etc. Some hammered blocks look more natural than others, and it is on you to find out which what goes with which other what.
•Shape
A lot of the time, simply changing the shape of classic squares and rectangles to rounder arches can greatly increase how nice something looks. a Fibonacci sequence is the best way to go about making these, unless you know what you're doing and can make nice looking arches on the fly.
•Repetition
Building over and over again takes you from simple creations that you got from fancifying the houses you built for your npcs, gets you to the really nice houses that you'd want to live in yourself. Take pride in your building and develop your own styles, including repeating some of the ideas of other people.
Making Details:
•Details are things like curves, arches, walls, and pillars, paint, furniture, etc... they define what is nice about a house. If you just can't learn how do make these things on your own, you should definitely look up videos of how to do it, and look at other people's works to incorporate it into your own. This requires creativity, and if you aren't a creative person, you're going to have a ton of trouble building a nice house anyways.
•How to add it: Cram as much of it as you can into a single spot. Learning how to do details is something you'd often make by mistake while recreating a build you've previously made. You can use furniture to create the most detail, and being able to incorporate furniture into more than just furniture. Floating furniture is also a good way to create really interesting looking pillars, arches, walls, etc. They are glitchy, as they are a glitch, but when everything lines up, it looks really nice. Another key part of details is the ability to smooth blocks between other blocks and walls, and finding which blocks connect and which don't. By connect i mean how when you place mud next to dirt, they "fuse" together to form a solid 2x1 brick, but when you stick say, dynasty and regular wood together, they remain as two single blocks. For instance: Dynasty wood, stone slabs, and Frozen slime blocks don't connect with anything except marble, and marble connects with everything, not to mention that some painted blocks with their walls, possibly painted or not, look nearly the same, and connect really well. Finding ways to use this in your own builds is a matter of how you direct your style. Some examples of use of details: http://prntscr.com/9t89d8 ; http://prntscr.com/9g3mdv .
•Tips
As seen in the pictures, some arches can be made smoother by the use of platforms. and some pillars can be beautified by furniture.
Just because its a building doesn't mean it has to be functional. Some builds' only real purpose is to look nice.
Painting organic blocks will cause the lush that they grow to be the same color that you painted their blocks. (Trees are the exception)
Placing blocks in between and on walls that are separated by a single space can create the illusion of walls being in front of or behind each other http://prntscr.com/aqdxok
Placing walls behind hammered blocks can create a lot of detail in large sections of solid blocks.
Building a ....not house?:
•Sometimes you just want to build something that just looks nice, but doesn't serve a function. Like a tree, or a background structure http://prntscr.com/aqdwhj this is something that requires you to be good at adding detail, because that's all this is. There is no curve for lack of detail sacrificed for functionality. This is done by taking simple details and mashing them together into a gross abomination, and then using your skills as a new artist to smooth everything together. This is why smoothing is so important, because its what separates a unique creation like this from a soup of things you've thought looked nice. Now you want to go beyond what makes sense in terraria, and create something that makes sense in the real world, such as how pillars should align, symmetry, and angles.
Combining them all together:
Now that you've practiced getting good at design, and how to properly set up a house, you can slap them all together. The goal of doing this is to cram as much detail as humanly possible into a large space that you can still travel through. This is done by learning how to create space to walk in, inside of a build that's jam-packed with detail, with losing as little of the original detail as you can. the less detail lost, the better the build will be. Building a lot of detailed structures where a wall would normally go and then actuating the whole thing is a great way to minimize the detail lost by having an open space, rather than just solid blocks. Using actuated blocks as walls: http://prntscr.com/aqdzhj ; http://prntscr.com/aqdzsd . Another large part of building nice-looking things, is finding out what colors look nice with each other. You don't want a huge rainbow of blocks everywhere, which is why people hate the overuse of rainbow bricks, but you don't always want a solid color. Similar to color, you don't want a noticeable variety of blocks. You want to use different blocks to create little details like these: http://prntscr.com/aqe0m7 http://prntscr.com/aqe0r3 . A lot of this smoothing of blocks is created by a harmony of paint and different blocks together. I'm going to revisit connecting certain blocks again, to show how the connection between them can create details. and its just the little details like these that matter: http://prntscr.com/aqe1ty . The whole collection of these little details, and these things that might cause some serious inconveniences, like actuating a whole wall... Create gorgeous structures like these: http://prntscr.com/aqe2fp ; http://prntscr.com/aqe2n1 ; http://prntscr.com/aqe2u5 .
I hope it helped!
I've always believed that be the best builds come from having the most detail possibly jammed into even a 3x3 square of space. The sheer amazement of seeing something done like that in a game where blocks and walls and furniture look like just that at first glance, but then are turned into something much more spectacular by creativity, and happy mistakes. Whenever i build something to be amazing, I try to make it look as different from the traditional feel and look of terraria. I've always wanted to have someone see something I've built and think to themselves that they have a lot more to learn about the game. I feel that these builds are the best builds, and the kind that everyone should strive to create. And remember, the only way you're going to build something great in your own style, is if you can learn how to detail everything to death and still have it look nice.
Foreword: Building nice houses are not something you should finish in a few minutes. they should be something you should take at least a good 20 minutes for even a small build. Large scale should take a few days to a week or two. As silly as it may sound, building builds is an art, and it should be treated as art, regardless of whether its a game or not, taking thought and care into each block you use, and editing and tweaking issues days after the initial creation.
Building a house:
•Adding details
http://prntscr.com/aqdljo This is an example of a simple, useful house.
This house is simply a box and as someone i know put it: putting a lot of boxes together make it look nicer somehow. This is true to a large extent. Most houses can easily be made nice by using a lot of 'bricked' squares or what would be normal houses put together. After you've made a larger house with multiple rooms in it, you should add some details, like changing the shape of the roof, adding a lot of furniture on the inside, putting smaller details, like pillars or actuated blocks on it, and even hammering can make a HUGE difference to your general build. Here are some examples of houses that are simply boxes that have been fancified: http://prntscr.com/aqdmp3 ; http://prntscr.com/aqdn3z ; http://prntscr.com/aqdnd1 ; http://prntscr.com/aqdnsl
•Lanscape
Depending on the house, landscape can either be all, some, or none of the build: http://prntscr.com/aqdojd ; http://prntscr.com/aqdoyv ; Its done by making something that looks natural or at least semi-natural. This is done with organic blocks, hammered blocks, etc. Some hammered blocks look more natural than others, and it is on you to find out which what goes with which other what.
•Shape
A lot of the time, simply changing the shape of classic squares and rectangles to rounder arches can greatly increase how nice something looks. a Fibonacci sequence is the best way to go about making these, unless you know what you're doing and can make nice looking arches on the fly.
•Repetition
Building over and over again takes you from simple creations that you got from fancifying the houses you built for your npcs, gets you to the really nice houses that you'd want to live in yourself. Take pride in your building and develop your own styles, including repeating some of the ideas of other people.
Making Details:
•Details are things like curves, arches, walls, and pillars, paint, furniture, etc... they define what is nice about a house. If you just can't learn how do make these things on your own, you should definitely look up videos of how to do it, and look at other people's works to incorporate it into your own. This requires creativity, and if you aren't a creative person, you're going to have a ton of trouble building a nice house anyways.
•How to add it: Cram as much of it as you can into a single spot. Learning how to do details is something you'd often make by mistake while recreating a build you've previously made. You can use furniture to create the most detail, and being able to incorporate furniture into more than just furniture. Floating furniture is also a good way to create really interesting looking pillars, arches, walls, etc. They are glitchy, as they are a glitch, but when everything lines up, it looks really nice. Another key part of details is the ability to smooth blocks between other blocks and walls, and finding which blocks connect and which don't. By connect i mean how when you place mud next to dirt, they "fuse" together to form a solid 2x1 brick, but when you stick say, dynasty and regular wood together, they remain as two single blocks. For instance: Dynasty wood, stone slabs, and Frozen slime blocks don't connect with anything except marble, and marble connects with everything, not to mention that some painted blocks with their walls, possibly painted or not, look nearly the same, and connect really well. Finding ways to use this in your own builds is a matter of how you direct your style. Some examples of use of details: http://prntscr.com/9t89d8 ; http://prntscr.com/9g3mdv .
•Tips
As seen in the pictures, some arches can be made smoother by the use of platforms. and some pillars can be beautified by furniture.
Just because its a building doesn't mean it has to be functional. Some builds' only real purpose is to look nice.
Painting organic blocks will cause the lush that they grow to be the same color that you painted their blocks. (Trees are the exception)
Placing blocks in between and on walls that are separated by a single space can create the illusion of walls being in front of or behind each other http://prntscr.com/aqdxok
Placing walls behind hammered blocks can create a lot of detail in large sections of solid blocks.
Building a ....not house?:
•Sometimes you just want to build something that just looks nice, but doesn't serve a function. Like a tree, or a background structure http://prntscr.com/aqdwhj this is something that requires you to be good at adding detail, because that's all this is. There is no curve for lack of detail sacrificed for functionality. This is done by taking simple details and mashing them together into a gross abomination, and then using your skills as a new artist to smooth everything together. This is why smoothing is so important, because its what separates a unique creation like this from a soup of things you've thought looked nice. Now you want to go beyond what makes sense in terraria, and create something that makes sense in the real world, such as how pillars should align, symmetry, and angles.
Combining them all together:
Now that you've practiced getting good at design, and how to properly set up a house, you can slap them all together. The goal of doing this is to cram as much detail as humanly possible into a large space that you can still travel through. This is done by learning how to create space to walk in, inside of a build that's jam-packed with detail, with losing as little of the original detail as you can. the less detail lost, the better the build will be. Building a lot of detailed structures where a wall would normally go and then actuating the whole thing is a great way to minimize the detail lost by having an open space, rather than just solid blocks. Using actuated blocks as walls: http://prntscr.com/aqdzhj ; http://prntscr.com/aqdzsd . Another large part of building nice-looking things, is finding out what colors look nice with each other. You don't want a huge rainbow of blocks everywhere, which is why people hate the overuse of rainbow bricks, but you don't always want a solid color. Similar to color, you don't want a noticeable variety of blocks. You want to use different blocks to create little details like these: http://prntscr.com/aqe0m7 http://prntscr.com/aqe0r3 . A lot of this smoothing of blocks is created by a harmony of paint and different blocks together. I'm going to revisit connecting certain blocks again, to show how the connection between them can create details. and its just the little details like these that matter: http://prntscr.com/aqe1ty . The whole collection of these little details, and these things that might cause some serious inconveniences, like actuating a whole wall... Create gorgeous structures like these: http://prntscr.com/aqe2fp ; http://prntscr.com/aqe2n1 ; http://prntscr.com/aqe2u5 .
I hope it helped!
I've always believed that be the best builds come from having the most detail possibly jammed into even a 3x3 square of space. The sheer amazement of seeing something done like that in a game where blocks and walls and furniture look like just that at first glance, but then are turned into something much more spectacular by creativity, and happy mistakes. Whenever i build something to be amazing, I try to make it look as different from the traditional feel and look of terraria. I've always wanted to have someone see something I've built and think to themselves that they have a lot more to learn about the game. I feel that these builds are the best builds, and the kind that everyone should strive to create. And remember, the only way you're going to build something great in your own style, is if you can learn how to detail everything to death and still have it look nice.
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