Clara
Terrarian
I made a thread recently on the Obsidian Academy Building Group with simple building tricks and tips. I recommend joining this group if you are interested in building. I got some ideas from the group and included a lot I have learnt and compiled a giant list of little simple building tricks or tips. If you have any ideas that can be shown simply with one sentence and image then post them in this thread and I shall add them.
Here are some other good building resources and guides:
-Block List
-Furniture Themes
-The Builder's Toolbox
-No Wood Boxes: A Building Guide
-Fancy Builds
-Top Rated Steam Builds
-TCF Building Forum
-TO Building Forum
-Obsidian Academy Building Group
-Wiring Forum
Bamboo - Long vertical sticks of hay painted deep line creates great bamboo
Fruit - Painted single pumpkin blocks look like different fruit
One Way Doors - Players are only able to go from left to right in these two set-ups, it is also useful to note that projectiles will go through the first door also
Open Teleporter Doors - Place shadow paint over a teleporter in a rectangle area to create a blackened out door that can teleport you
Curtains - Banners placed next to each other can create curtains, different banners work better than others
Taps - Slime banner looks like flowing water
Coloured Waterfalls - Waterfalls change colour depending on the colour of gemspark block they come from. Rainbow bricks cause them to change colour constantly
Single Chain - A single chain creates a circle, many uses such as a bolt or door handle
Actuated Blocks - Actuated blocks have a lot of uses, such as pillars and 3D background effects
Gemspark Walls - Gemspark walls will light up blocks they are behind
Platform Doors - Platforms can count as doors for NPC and sleeping housing
Alphabet - Basic 3x5 pixel alphabet
Snow Tops - Placing a single layer of snow creates a simple and easy snowy effect
Pillars - Most blocks/walls work well as pillars, good to use underneath buildings, especially over uneven surfaces
Painted Grass - Custom biomes can be made by painting grass and trees, normal paint works better than deep
Cobwebs - Easy way to make a build look old, abandoned or creepy
Flags - Single post of blocks with sail walls connected create a flag, cloud wall is good for large flags as light goes through it
Painted Candy Canes - Get different flavour candy cane blocks with paint, normal works better than deep
Bubbles - Bubblegum block painted blue looks like bubbles
Nostalgic Look - Using gray paint over an area gives a nostalgic look
Potions - Create different potions by painting bottles
Slime Banners - Create different slime banners by painting them
Support Beams - Hammer blocks placed in a zig-zag pattern to create support beams
Lava Blocks - Place lava on top of actuated blocks, then actuate the block. The lava will light the block up, though it disappears on world reload (needs confirming). Link to more details
Gray Dungeon Bricks - Gray painted dungeon bricks are good alternatives for stone slabs/gray bricks and for castles/foundations
More Wood - Painting different wood types brown gives a large variety of different looking wood, for example brown shadewood looks good as single line posts
Painted Living Trees - Painted living wood and leaves can create different biome living tress, normal paint tends to work better than deep. Examples include purple leaves and gray wood for corruption and lime leaves and red wood for jungle
Fence Windows - Fence walls work well for windows
Static Screen - Gray painted waterfall walls create an animated static screen
Painted Waterfalls - Paint waterfall blocks and walls to get different types of liquids, like a poison or candy type
Painted Living Fire - Paint living fire blocks to get different types of fire
Smoke - Cloud looks like smoke, paint it gray or black for thicker smoke
Placeables - You can place gems, crystal shards, coral, seashells and starfish
Coins and Bars - You can place coins and bars
Natural Walls - Use the clentaminator on stone, grass, flower and jungle walls to create corrupt/crimson/hallowed stone/grass walls
Mushrooms - You can place glowing mushroom blocks down and create large mushrooms
Painted Minecart Tracks - Minecart tracks can be painted, intersections make the paint fit smoothly, deep paints work best
Building in the Sky - Use the ice rod to place a block in the sky you can build from
Flowers - Deep painted cloud blocks look like flower petals, leaves can be used as vines/stalks
Candles - You can place living fire blocks on top of single platforms to make cool looking wall torches, the named platforms work best
Fancy Window - Use 4 platforms and a table
Fibonacci Roofs - Use the Fibonacci sequence to make roofs and curves
Background Waterfalls - Use deactivated blocks to make waterfalls look like they are in the background, use painted active blocks next to them to try to get the inactive blocks to match
Black and Yellow Barricade Tape
Waterfalls - Using cloud, raincloud, waterfall wall and living fire block
Here are some other good building resources and guides:
-Block List
-Furniture Themes
-The Builder's Toolbox
-No Wood Boxes: A Building Guide
-Fancy Builds
-Top Rated Steam Builds
-TCF Building Forum
-TO Building Forum
-Obsidian Academy Building Group
-Wiring Forum
Bamboo - Long vertical sticks of hay painted deep line creates great bamboo
Fruit - Painted single pumpkin blocks look like different fruit
One Way Doors - Players are only able to go from left to right in these two set-ups, it is also useful to note that projectiles will go through the first door also
Open Teleporter Doors - Place shadow paint over a teleporter in a rectangle area to create a blackened out door that can teleport you
Curtains - Banners placed next to each other can create curtains, different banners work better than others
Taps - Slime banner looks like flowing water
Coloured Waterfalls - Waterfalls change colour depending on the colour of gemspark block they come from. Rainbow bricks cause them to change colour constantly
Single Chain - A single chain creates a circle, many uses such as a bolt or door handle
Actuated Blocks - Actuated blocks have a lot of uses, such as pillars and 3D background effects
Gemspark Walls - Gemspark walls will light up blocks they are behind
Platform Doors - Platforms can count as doors for NPC and sleeping housing
Alphabet - Basic 3x5 pixel alphabet
Snow Tops - Placing a single layer of snow creates a simple and easy snowy effect
Pillars - Most blocks/walls work well as pillars, good to use underneath buildings, especially over uneven surfaces
Painted Grass - Custom biomes can be made by painting grass and trees, normal paint works better than deep
Cobwebs - Easy way to make a build look old, abandoned or creepy
Flags - Single post of blocks with sail walls connected create a flag, cloud wall is good for large flags as light goes through it
Painted Candy Canes - Get different flavour candy cane blocks with paint, normal works better than deep
Bubbles - Bubblegum block painted blue looks like bubbles
Nostalgic Look - Using gray paint over an area gives a nostalgic look
Potions - Create different potions by painting bottles
Slime Banners - Create different slime banners by painting them
Support Beams - Hammer blocks placed in a zig-zag pattern to create support beams
Lava Blocks - Place lava on top of actuated blocks, then actuate the block. The lava will light the block up, though it disappears on world reload (needs confirming). Link to more details
Gray Dungeon Bricks - Gray painted dungeon bricks are good alternatives for stone slabs/gray bricks and for castles/foundations
More Wood - Painting different wood types brown gives a large variety of different looking wood, for example brown shadewood looks good as single line posts
Painted Living Trees - Painted living wood and leaves can create different biome living tress, normal paint tends to work better than deep. Examples include purple leaves and gray wood for corruption and lime leaves and red wood for jungle
Fence Windows - Fence walls work well for windows
Static Screen - Gray painted waterfall walls create an animated static screen
Painted Waterfalls - Paint waterfall blocks and walls to get different types of liquids, like a poison or candy type
Painted Living Fire - Paint living fire blocks to get different types of fire
Smoke - Cloud looks like smoke, paint it gray or black for thicker smoke
Placeables - You can place gems, crystal shards, coral, seashells and starfish
Coins and Bars - You can place coins and bars
Natural Walls - Use the clentaminator on stone, grass, flower and jungle walls to create corrupt/crimson/hallowed stone/grass walls
Mushrooms - You can place glowing mushroom blocks down and create large mushrooms
Painted Minecart Tracks - Minecart tracks can be painted, intersections make the paint fit smoothly, deep paints work best
Building in the Sky - Use the ice rod to place a block in the sky you can build from
Flowers - Deep painted cloud blocks look like flower petals, leaves can be used as vines/stalks
Candles - You can place living fire blocks on top of single platforms to make cool looking wall torches, the named platforms work best
Fancy Window - Use 4 platforms and a table
Fibonacci Roofs - Use the Fibonacci sequence to make roofs and curves
Background Waterfalls - Use deactivated blocks to make waterfalls look like they are in the background, use painted active blocks next to them to try to get the inactive blocks to match
Black and Yellow Barricade Tape
Waterfalls - Using cloud, raincloud, waterfall wall and living fire block
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LoveSpreader
Terrarian
Hey, this is pretty nice. The last image, Candles, is broken for me though.
Clara
Terrarian
Thanks, I believe it should be fixed, it's probably because the url was in a private forum.
Fingers Martinez
Terrarian
Some really nice touches there, thanks for sharing.
ZeroGravitas
The Destroyer
Fantastic index of build concepts. Almost got enough here to publish a little, glossy game companion book... Very helpful of you to post up for everyone. 
The Google drive repository reminds me of my own collection of favourite images downloaded from Reddit posts and such. Shame that kind of collation tends to anonymise the creations, loosing context, etc, but the ideas are the key thing of course. Thanks for the T-MEC link too!
Edit: to make your post even more compact you could edit the spoiler box text to that of the description above... Although I'm pretty ambivalent about the use of these in general; very neat, but having to click each one is very cumbersome - hard to get a quick overview f you're more visually minded (or to refresh one's bad short-term memory).
The Google drive repository reminds me of my own collection of favourite images downloaded from Reddit posts and such. Shame that kind of collation tends to anonymise the creations, loosing context, etc, but the ideas are the key thing of course. Thanks for the T-MEC link too! Edit: to make your post even more compact you could edit the spoiler box text to that of the description above... Although I'm pretty ambivalent about the use of these in general; very neat, but having to click each one is very cumbersome - hard to get a quick overview f you're more visually minded (or to refresh one's bad short-term memory).
Clara
Terrarian
Fantastic index of build concepts. Almost got enough here to publish a little, glossy game companion book... Very helpful of you to post up for everyone.
Yeah I got that collection from a certain anonymous forum, there are quite a few builds there I recognize from reddit and other places. As for the list of tricks and tips I expect there are a lot more things that can be added, I might spend some time looking through as many builds as I can to get more. I'll wait a while to see if anyone else has anything to contribute. I also plan to make another thread linking to all the different Terraria communities, guides, resources, maps, mods etc as they are all so separated.
BAD-BADGER
Terrarian
neat, I like it I will be using this alot
rubeszilla
Terrarian
Learnt a few new tricks here. Thanks for that!
Mistergrey
Terrarian
This is really useful, thanks for posting it! I've been trying to compile my own list of blocks that go well together, or that look like something else when painted, so this was a great reference. If I find enough good ones I'll suggest them later, thanks again
Brick Creeper
Duke Fishron
Wow this will help me a lot, thanks for making it!
rubeszilla
Terrarian
Here's a way to make a simple fancy window:
4 platforms and a wooden table.
4 platforms and a wooden table.
Passthejampls
Official Terrarian
interesting, I'll be sure to use some of these tips when i build.
Firexia
Empress of Light
That bamboo one is a lifesaver for me. I've actually been puzzling on how to make it for the last couple days, and your idea is a lot better than any I've come up with.
Reanna Erika
Terrarian
Fibonacci roofs. The first 2 are the Fibonacci sequence with every member repeated twice, like this: 11 11 22 33. Everything else is the normal Fibonacci sequence arranged in some way or another. I have made versions that fit the width of both odd and even buildings.
Black-yellow barricade tape.
Waterfalls
http://a.pomf.se/qmjyxu.webm
Black-yellow barricade tape.
Waterfalls
http://a.pomf.se/qmjyxu.webm
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Clara
Terrarian
It is not an idea I came up with but rather something I learnt from looking at other builds and I think deserves sharing, it's one of my favourite little building tricks.
Great tip, I often use the Fibonacci sequence to do curves in Terraria, it works really well.
plantszaza 🌳
Living Tree
It's a very great tip! I'm sure when I build something I'll take a look at this page for a reference.
OniDeidara
Empress of Light
Living fire blocks painted white make a better replacement for Clouds in the Waterfalls.
Reanna Erika
Terrarian
I know, that's why I posted a webm(http://a.pomf.se/qmjyxu.webm) so you could see how it looks like in movement. The problem with living fire blocks is that they glow orange-yellow, so you need some other light source nearby to nullify that light they naturally give off. Keep in mind that the images are to give you an idea of what can be done and some nice combinations. They're general guidelines you have to choose from and combine however you want.
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OniDeidara
Empress of Light
Yes, I have found this topic really useful and it gave me ideas I never thought of. Thanks for it.
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