Build Some Bigger Projects

Hello everyone, it's me, ya boi.
Haven't posted any builds in a while, that's mainly because I hit a sort of creative standstill when it came to structures and didn't know what to make. So, I thought.. fuck it, I'll try getting better at VoxelSniper!
Soo uuh I did that I think, these builds are in no way perfect but I am pretty proud of them.

Spoiler: Massive Tree and Islands [#1]

Right, it is a big tree. There are islands neargby. That's the build, there are a lot of imperfections, especially the trunk and some branches, but it is a first attempt at such a large scale tree AND it also burnt down so I couldn't uhh.. fix it.

Spoiler: Massive Tree and Islands [#]

Wow, a different angle. Isn't that amazing? I would've showed more of the islands but 25 render distance doesn't seem to cut it to show everything properly.

Spoiler: Islands and DWAGON [#1]

I love this build but I also fucking despise it. I spent five very fun hours making the islands and the nature on it, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then by large part due to @OnlyANeko spamming DWAGON I decided to make a dragon... which took six very painful hours.

Spoiler: Islands and DWAGON [#2]

Yeah, it's just a different angle.

Big shout out to @A Human for enduring my talks about builds, and also to @Snerp for making me wanna do terraforming since he's pretty epic. I've spent probably 20+ hours building the past two days, this is not healthy. I'm drained and going to sleep

 

yes dwagon

 

shame about your whole tree burning down, i think the islands really could have looked better if the arches were like the roots of the tree, with mounds of dirt all over them.
Also the dwagon could probably look a bit better in a different colour, i think that with the green it just has too much green, because of the grass, so either change the dwagon's colour, or you could, i guess, go for a completely burnt-down kind of look on the ground, using coal blocks and.... other.... stuff.... (i'm bad at building, ok?)

also this was my first time giving proper feedback on a build so please bear with me

 

to be honest I just finished the dragon and was like "never again". I thought about making it more brown but I felt really tired. Also yeah the tree was my first time building at such a big scale so there was a lot left to fix

 

Flying Snake whit wings

 

tree go burn

 

Very nice builds. I would personally place more leaves on the tree, but I guess if some of the tree burnt down, that might be the reason for the lack of leaves :)

 

There were definitely some touch ups to be made on tree, but the burning down kind of got in the way of that yeah lol

 

You have improved alot, and I really like the direction where these builds are going. Honestly there are so many good things about these builds that I could go on about them for hours, keep up the good work. Heres a couple of tips

In General
I think you've completely messed up the building order in the dragon build.

People generally build things in order:
1. terrain, fully colored
2. structures + detail
3. random shit. trees, farms, dragons ETC

By adding the dragon before the structures it makes it hard to add structures later on and integrate the dragon into the build. This is because if you want to portray a convincing scene, the dragon, being "alive and breathing" so to speak, should act according to what is surrounding it. while buildings, seeing that they are stationary structures do not react to their surroundings so therefore should be added first.

I know you were getting pressured, but hey, theres a tip for next time.

Composition:
I see which direction you are going with the tree but the composition seen in the "dwagon" could use some improvements maybe try make the dragon fly through the valley so it, dipping its claws through the water. not only will the valley accentuate the dragon and highlight it for the viewer, but it will also make what was before a rather static scene seem a bit more lively.

Organics:
This is not bad for a first organic, I mean you got the basic shape down and I can see an attempt at basic facial expressions and posing, but generally the dragon looks extremely stiff, the legs are extremely thin and wonky compared to the body, and the wings have really sharp edges which is bad, very bad for an organic since you want smooth flowing lines.

Dragons are extremely difficult to make and you being a beginner I think this attempt was ok.

The small trees in the build look really good but the big tree isn't that good. The branches are way to thick, and it seems like a messy blob of sphere brushes.
For refrence see THIS video

Skip to 1:40. Notice in here how the branches in gemini's tree flow? and how they each branch out into smaller branches and the leaves are placed on there? Try doing what she is doing and use the curve brush for your branches.

Terrain:
As for terrain the number one thing you DONT want to do is to use //replace randomblock random block. In my opinion it makes the whole thing look extremely messy. Try coloring terrain with gobrush, using gradient blocks to accentuate certain areas with highlights and add shadow to other areas. Also try to have small rocks, and sharp peaks dotted about in your terrain. Flat smooth land, does not look good. Try using //br rock, or //br blob for rocks and boulders.

Furthermore try utilising heightmaps, //br height [height map link] this will give you ultra realistic terrain with water erosion contours and all that fancy jazz real life terrain has with one click of a button. I promise you that kind of terrain is going to look way better than the blobs you are using right now.

 

Thanks a lot for the tips! Colouring terrain and organics are definitely my weak points alongside composition, currently trying to work on that quite a bit, my next build is gonna be a recreation of the tree most likely. With that said though, do you have any reference pictures/videos you think would be useful to look at besides the one you just sent?