Hey Guys, Arronsparrow here and today, I will be making an instructables for tips on Aesthetics in minecraft.

Lets Get Started!

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The guide will be showcasing a house being built for example and reference to the text.

The Resource Pack that I am using is Soartex Fanver which you can find here > Soartex | Vanilla Downloads

Step 1: Organics

To start off in Minecraft 1.8 you have several different kinds of wood:

Acacia
Jungle
Oak
Birch
Spruce
Dark Oak

Each of these Logs will give you a differently shaded color wood than the log, most of the time going off the color of the bark or the trunk. These are your main organic blocks that you will have encountered through your Minecraft Experiences.

Next we have Dirt and Grass:

Dirt and Grass are purely aesthetic when it comes to decor, but are great for farms.

Wool:

Wool is a great medium for many things, from pixel art, to carpets, to beds, etc. ( I do not mean to offend anyone by posting that flag, it was just taken from the server i was playing on) Wool comes in many different colors and hues, ranging from red to pink, light blue to gray.

Gravel :

Gravel is a Miner's Worst enemy, because it is commonly a nuisance when mining. However gravel is useful for paths, roads, showing decay, and in the construction of landscape.

Podzol and Coarse Dirt:

Podzol and Coarse Dirt are mediums for creating forest landscapes and do not look good in my opinion with anything else. Podzol is basically the undergrowth of a forest and coarse dirt is a type of dirt that grass cannot grow on top of.

Step 2: Stones

There are 3 different kinds of natural stones in Minecraft :

Stone
Cobblestone
Stone Bricks

You will encounter Stone and Cobblestone often in your Minecraft Experience, but to get Stone Brick, you need to smelt cobblestone in a furnace to get stone and craft it in a 2x2 fashion to get Stone Bricks. Stone, Cobblestone, and Stone Bricks are versatile mediums which allow the player to make more of an underground base or an above ground base. Stone brick is especially decorative in the cracked, mossy, and chiseled form.

Netherrack :

Netherrack is more commonly found in the Nether than anywhere else; being the only common block obtainable through the nether, it is mostly used for fireplace purposes rather than decoration. Unless you are making a nether base then Netherrack in my opinion is not the best medium for anything.

Bricks and Nether Brick :

Bricks and Nether Brick Blocks are obtainable through the smelting of Clay or Netherrack and crafting them in a 2x2 fashion. Nether Brick Blocks are also found in the Nether through Nether Fortresses. Bricks and Nether Brick are More commonly used for emphasis.

Sand Stone :

Sandstone is a block that you will uncommonly encounter through your Minecraft experiences. Sandstone is found under Deserts, from Sand Temples and Villages, and from crafting sand in a 2x2 fashion. Sandstone is a great medium as it blends well from Stone to Stone Bricks or Cobblestone. The variants of Sandstone also add greater detail to what is trying to be made.

Step 3: Visual Appeal

Visual Appeal is an aspect that makes Minecraft become more "realistic" or pleasing so to speak. Visual Appeal is created by making the objects of the game blend together in order to make a realistic viewpoint or something pleasing to the eye. For example, if one were building underground and wanted to liven the place up, then one would want to make his or her place have more vivid contrast in a room. Adding a kitchen for example adds a level of realism, but further furnishing, and decorating the room is able to make some feel of realism.

Step 4: Matching Blocks

While Decorating, a sense of visual appeal and the right blocks are key to aesthetics. Using the right blocks can not only make a build look better, but it can also add emphasis to a build.

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You can choose colors that complement each other, or contrast. Colors that complement each other are similar in color. For example, lapis blocks and purple wool. Similar in color so they could go well together. Also consider emerald blocks and yellow wool. Birch planks and sandstone seem like they would fall under the category of complements, although I could also see why they might be contrasts.

Contrasting colors are ones that seem opposite in the color spectrum. An easy example would be black and white. Obsidian is dark enough a blue that it contrasts well with snow. Likewise, the darker spruce wood contrasts well with white wool, snow, or things of that color. I've noticed that a wall of stone brick with a cobblestone pattern inside it looks wonderful.

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Once you have a theme, a group of blocks you want to work with, it's time to start looking at the overall design. Normally I build the front wall first, and generally it's either 8 or 13 blocks wide. There's something called the Golden Ratio, which is a number which people have seen for centuries as the best ratio of line lengths for beauty. In Minecraft, this can best be approximated using a series of numbers called the Fibonacci numbers. The first few are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21. Each number is the addition of the two behind it. So for my standard build, I'll make, say, an 8x13 house. A one-floor building will typically be 4 blocks high so it doesn't feel cramped indoors, but if you want to keep using the Fibonacci numbers, the height should be 5. Here is the outline of a 13x8x4 house. It will be used in further examples.

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Something I learned is that blocks, depending on their texture, have a sort of grain, or sort of direction to them, although I like to call it feel. Based upon their texture, they may seem to have vertical, horizontal, or neutral feel. Here's what I mean.Blocks that have vertical energy include logs, melons, the sides of pumpkins, and chiseled sandstone. Their textures seem to have a predominantly up-down direction to them. Logs in particular have this, which explains why they're so often favored as corner materials. Now even though I would argue that jungle and birch wood have more of a horizontal feel, we're so accustomed to using logs as edges that they would be acceptable.

Horizontal feel can be found in a lot of blocks. Double stone slabs are an example of horizontal energy and although many might disagree with me, I feel as though planks and wool also have horizontal feel. Sandstone also has a bit of horizontal feel. Their textures are predominantly left-to-right in the default texture pack. Sideways logs are other examples.

Then there are blocks which don't exhibit much of any kind of motion or feel. You might consider dirt, sand, snow, lapis blocks, obsidian, emerald blocks, brick, and stone brick to be neutral. These are good for filling in walls or when you want to switch from one feel to another.

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Step 5: Walls and Flooring

Walls and floors can be improved by adding patterns. Something I might do for a living room is have the outline of the floor be whatever the bottom border block was, then fill the floor with some kind of checkered pattern, or something else. Likewise with the ceiling. Note that roofs are still a bit of a challenge for me. I may do a future revision of this guide, with some tips for roofs.

Step 6: Depth

In order to escape the habit of making straight lines excessively, There are some things you could do. For instance, consider curving part or all of a wall so you have an alcove or some kind of semicircle. Experiment with it until you feel alright with it not being too pointy but not too flat. This is one of those things that is about personal preference. Most people won't be impressed by the exact arrangement as much as just seeing some curvature.

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Also useful are half slabs and stairs. When they first made it possible to place slabs and stairs upside down, I couldn't see the use in it. Now I'm glad they did, because it does a good job of breaking straight lines. They can be used to make arches, for instance. Alternatively they may act as extensions for support pillars. Half slabs serve as nice overhangs.

Step 7: The Third Dimention

Next piece of advice: take it to the third dimension! This is where the decorative blocks, which I define as ones that aren't your standard size, come in to play. I'm talking glass panes, half slabs, stairs, saplings, ferns, flowers, fences, paintings, beds, and so on. Trapdoors are classic shutters. Fences may be used as support pillars. Panes make for excellent windows as they are thin and flexible in shape. I would recommend using them instead of standard glass blocks whenever possible. Buttons look good even if they're just sitting there. Look for safe ways to include fire, lava, and water, since they have moving textures. Adding these small things break up the otherwise blocky feel of a building. Redstone wire doesn't have much appeal to me as anything except a functional block. Also remember to try including furniture on the inside, if it's appropriate.

Step 8: Realism

If you want to make the house look realistic, check out buildings similar to it. Pretend the law of gravity can pull down all of the blocks unless they had a good support system. By doing this you'll probably end up adding support pillars, maybe even changing block choice for realism. The basement of a house tends to be concrete, not sponge; likewise, glass won't hold up the side of a building.Windows are good to have. Small wooden huts feel a lot more open when there are windows.

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I added these shutters after I finished the tutorial. They add to the third dimension aspect.

Step 9: Variety

Lastly, consider implementing things that need to be made up of blocks. That's kind of vague, so here's an example: banners. Wool banners hanging from the ceiling, anchored to fences. Give that sort of RP, pretend feel a spin. For example, add a pathway leading to your house or a garden.

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The key to developing a style, outside of reading and observing others, is to experiment. Don't be afraid of asymmetry. Do a little pattern variation here and there.

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The example house I made here may not come off as the most elegant one ever made. That's because I'm still experimenting on how to make better ones. But I hope that what I've presented here is enough to help others like me get an idea how to make stuff that looks alright. No more cobblestone huts for us; now we are equipped with the basic skills to build an appreciable home.