Blockscape Architecture Series (Summary)[]
The Architecture Series is a series of tutorials designed to help new and experienced users become better at building in Blockscape.
The series will be broken up into multiple parts where we start with basics of building (Not Blockscape controls) and then we will build a small house using those basic elements.
Part I - Materials[]
Choosing the right material is one of the most important things in architecture wherever you are. It can create or destroy your creation, it is used to show what you creation is made of and to control the flow of the eyes, it is beyond important and must be used correctly to get the best build you can.
So the first thing you may want to do in Blockscape may be to build a simple house made of some wood planks so obviously you would use a wood planks material. Here's one I prepared earlier.
http://i.imgur.com/2F4gdG5.png
As you can see I have purposefully made it pretty bland but it gets my point across there is no variation and the only thing that looks ok is the door and that could still be better because the top planks were used wrongly.
Picking the right material for the job can sometimes be tricky but as I will show you these materials can be grouped into a few different groups like stone, wood, glass, colour etc... or there is another way to group them which is by the way that the material directs the eye. There are 3 basic materials vertical, horizontal and neutral whereas you can have diagonal as well which is a rare material for games such as this and there can also be combinations of these too, but for now that's as far as I will mention them.
Neutral Materials[]
These materials are generally considered to have no flow or are both vertical and horizontal enough to cancel each other out. A good example of this is stone which is generally just a flat repeating texture with some variation of moss on it. These materials are usually used as a filler type material.
http://i.imgur.com/Rbz5JQg.jpg
Horizontal Materials[]
These materials have a horizontal flow that push the eye along a creation adding width or depth to your build. The oakPlank and oakPlankZ are good examples of this flow because they are all horizontal but the clay bricks have a vertical element but there is more horizontal than vertical so it is not a Neutral or a Vertical but still lessens the flow somewhat.
http://i.imgur.com/8kUNnDE.png
Vertical Materials[]
These materials have a vertical flow that push the eye up a creation adding height to your build. The oakVPlank is a good example of this flow because it is all vertical but there are other materials out there with a greater vertical flow than horizontal so it is a vertical but still lessons the flow somewhat.
http://i.imgur.com/AEacOwd.png
The Exception[]
There are exceptions to this where you can have a wall and just one neutral block runs the length of it then that could be a Horizontal Flow or if it ran up it could be vertical. The same can apply for all the block types you just have to experiment and see what works for you.
http://i.imgur.com/TOVlgvC.png
Getting the right material is crucial to the build and adding in flow to the build gives just another hint of realism and can make something seem larger than it actually is.
Examples[]
Here are some examples of flow can be used to make a build seem wider, deeper or taller or even a combination.
http://i.imgur.com/OAYByI9.png
http://i.imgur.com/Go1SaRR.png
http://i.imgur.com/XVYOyNO.png
Putting these methods together I take the house I made at the start and add some flow to it. The red arrows in the second image indicate the direction of flow which makes the building appear bigger than it really is.
http://i.imgur.com/HNqSZV1.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ml8PkWF.jpg
Resources[]
Each tutorial will come with some accompanying links where I get information from or think can be helpful to expanding on what I have said here.