I am terribly bad at this. I’ve had a project in mind for some time now but I’m struggling to get a design I can work with in-game. Something about how my brain works and my cacky spatial awareness I think. Anyway, it made me realise I’d be interested in any methods used by builders who plan.
So far I’ve not planned and the results have been… mediocre. So now I have a model I want to build - my character. (Ego much?) It’s intended to be an ad board/landmark to help boost the shop and those in the area around it by drawing people off a well-trodden path. To that end it will be big and visible unlike most of my other stuff and with that comes a sense of responsibility to do it well. I could just hack it out in game but I suspect that won’t end well.
Here are some approaches I’ve tried:
Screenshotted the pose I want from in-game
Tried taking the character model object & used Simoyd’s awesome tool to convert it to .obj
Tried running that .obj through Voxeliser but without much success
Tried pixellating the screenshot to give a rough model of block arrangement in 2d that I can work from
Tried drawing freehand in MagicaVoxel
Nothing has left me in a place where I feel able to build from the output. I would prefer not to be knocking down & replacing blocks all day correcting my own stupidity so thought I’d ask if I’d missed any good tools or processes you use!
How would you go about realising a 2d drawing into 3d? Can some tool output layer slices from ground up to make building ground upwards possible? Do you have a manual process on paper or in Photoshop or something to make your life easier?
If it makes any odds for this particular project I’ve got 4x5 plots across the base and obviously can go as high as I need to but that’d be dictated by the aspect ratio of the model - probably about 25 plots high? Even that I struggle to visualise thanks to my neural shortcomings.
I mostly just improvise. Just follow my gut, but this only work if you don’t have a plan I guess ^^
For your situation I’d recommend finding out what the bottleneck is.
If its the general shape, I’d say take a piece of paper and draw it. Programs are only useful tools once you “have” the shape. To understand the shape, I think you need to “feel” it and drawing, even if ugly or bad doesn’t matter, helps a lot there. Maybe even try to draw it on paper with a grid on it to “think” in cubes.The most important thing is to draw in-scale.
On the Spot i would build a stick figure to get the “bone-structure” just right. And add the “meat” only after the bones feel right.
If it is detail that have you stuck. Stop. Forget the details get the shape first. Refining is always possible.
For the details there is a simple trick although:
You plan on building a character. Try building a foot or a hand somewhere else, not on the final place, so you don’t have the pressure of it been “the hand” or “the foot” but it just being a test/prototype that you can disregard easily.
Once you feel comfortable add it to your build.
I don’t know what neurological shortcomings you have, all I know is when a problems seems to big to tackle, cut into smaller manageable pieces.
I’m not good at planning either though. Yesterday I plotted 64 squares of land for a new project after two days of trying to decide in my head what I was going to do next. When I finished shaping the general corners and tunnels of the land I unplotted everything because I felt something else might be more fun. In the end it works out, because with most thing I get good feedback from others and I feel satisfied a lot of times when it is finished.
I shouldn’t say this but first draw it roughly on paper and if you own minecraft. Make your general design in creative and keep in mind you can improve the boxy design with chisels in boundless to make 200% more beautiful ad realistic…yes it is time consuming…I know
