As a builder, how do you plan your builds?

More planning for builds doesn’t necessarily mean your build will turn out better. It really just comes from practice/trial and error. I started building 8 years ago and have come to learn so much over the time. When I do plan however, I usually just try to imagine what I want the design to look like in my head, or even look for real world comparisons. I based the design of this haunted room on the basic shape of my room, then edited it to my desire and built the remainder of the spooky house.

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Toontown! :smiley:

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Just focus on every last detail, especially the ones in the characters view. It mainly takes practice, but you need to start with simpler things, and work your way up to more complex things. (I’ve been developing for 3 years now) Eventually when your as good as me, you can get to building things like these: ![](upload://145ayOz2a0f9FwWSMfcYTcqivNh.jpeg not finished yet!)**

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Hey!

(Disclaimer: This is just how I build > don’t hurt me :c <

Building is just like cooking, you add flavors as you go. It’s just having the discipline of telling yourself, “Alright, this is a start, let’s add more depth and character” and not giving up after it looks “bad”.

Patience and genuine desire to create is definitely an important factor, it’s honestly something I lack. I’m very short term goal driven, I do projects very well and very quickly…or I sometimes don’t do them haha.

Here’s a more concise breakdown:
1: Layouting

When I quickly do layouting, I create a mesh wall object. Why? Meshes can stretch, have more performant characteristics, and are all around superior.

Pic: https://gyazo.com/bda7c949b287e8dca750f3234b054cfd
Pic: https://gyazo.com/3e40689189d1bb9bd0713a6db10e0c75

2: Creativity

This is honestly the most vague part haha, this is where layering, colors, and creative thought come in. You really can’t and shouldn’t structure creativity, you should be flexible, and want to create something truly unique to you. (That’s why I can’t really break it down haha)

Examples:
https://gyazo.com/6b7feb43e2f7df37fdf92a005860bc2c
https://gyazo.com/8ebf1814f83a2f2849a0cca08239df83
https://gyazo.com/59c9c4f3edc92852eb05503bc6f3358c

Although some of these aren’t too great, it’s important to revise and revise until you’re happy. Patience and hardwork is what gets you to the top! Keep hustling!!

Goodluck!

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@Hadiisepic Thanks for your reply. That image looks very realistic! It definitely is time consuming but I guess that’s the price you pay for a good build.

@BloodSpring Wow, those are some nice builds! I mainly struggle with the creativity part of building. It just seems so hard to create my own style of build. I think your advice is valuable — Experimentation is key. I think I will try out recolouring them instead fixating on a specific set of colours. Thanks!

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It’s very time consuming, I barely get 3 things done per day before I give up! :rofl:

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There are some very helpful posts above nevertheless, I will give you guidance of how to plan out your build.

  • Refer to an inspiration for the map

  • Plan your story-line out

  • Plan your map out

(drafting/ drawing it out is best)

  • Make a rough draft of what you think you want until you get to the point where you think it is okay.

(may take weeks/ months, just remember to keep on track, and focused)

  • Think of what you can do better

  • Apply what you think can look better

  • The map should now be carefully planned out, and advised to be unique

    Now, after a presumed weeks/ months of work, you have finished your dreamed map(harsh practice, and effort REQUIRED)
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When planning a build, no matter how big or small, I’ve found that one of the best things to do is to draw out a sketch on paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just getting the idea that is in your head out of your head. After that I’ll typically try to find some reference pictures close to my sketch and then build using the sketch and reference pictures to keep me on track.

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Well, I’d say, look around your own neighborhood, see what inspires you, and what styles you like. Once you’ve figured that out, experiment a little to see what fits you the most. I started out as a terrible developer, and right now I can say that I’m sort of a good builder. The most important thing though is practice. I think it took about a year for me to become as good as I am nowadays. I hope that this helped you out a little. :wave:

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Depends what I’m building. When it’s realistic buildings, I put the floor first to find out where I want rooms. If it’s two floors I’ll put the floor plan for the second floor out of the way and put it in when I’m done with the first. If it’s a full on map the landscaping/terrain obviously comes first, and I’ll think up places for certain things like venders, land marks, and towns. My ‘planning’ comes more in the form of building the bare bones first and deciding what I want to do with it, I won’t say it’s the most effective way but I like it.

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Well there are multiple requirements to plan your build. Firstly, if you’ve been building seriously for over a year, you should have a certain way and style of planning your build. If you are new to building I can suggest a few things.

Organization

Try organizing all your thoughts or builds first. Have as much as possible planned out on a notepad or even mentally. Use brief bullet points and write your plans in chronological order.

Chronology

Always work on one project before moving to the next. Some builders I have encountered rushed all over the place, don’t do that. :wink:

Consistency

Stick to one theme always. Use plugins and all tools available (other than free models). Make sure everything matches and have a building schedule.

Hope this helps. :+1:

Note, this is my opinion.

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You may want to read Aotrou’s reply on this post. It helps with planning and organization.

First, imagine.
Get a clear idea of ​​what you do.
After, start thinking about things you can do in your construction, even if small and simple, always write, because in the details dwells perfection.
After that, you can share your ideas with friends and acquaintances, they can help you in the process and before you begin.
How can I get started?
Remember, most ideas come when you’re in the middle of work, that is, do not stick to doing exactly what you’ve planned (this is the charm of the builders, each one has yours!)
The rest goes from person to person, each one has his style and way of doing things, be yourself and do the good works of art! xD

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What I do:

Have a ground base on what I’m going to be building. After I’ve done that, I gather ideas and try to put them together, eliminating those that might not fit with the theme.

After I’ve done that, you get to the stage of planning what exactly your build is going to look like, but note that this isn’t going to be a quick and easy process. Thinking of how your build is going to look, and appeal to your audience isn’t going to be the most easiest thing when it comes to building.

When you’ve got all of the above done, and you have a basic layout as to what your build is going to look like, it all comes down to building from that layout, and tweaking things that you may find unfitting.

If you have trouble trying to add detail, I suggest looking up a google image of what’s similar to your build, and try to implement it there. As for what you’re doing (futuristic area), I would search up a futuristic area, or futuristic city.

As I said again, adding immense detail to your builds isn’t going to be the absolute easiest thing to do.

The most easiest way to improve your builds is practice. Practicing is without a doubt, one of the most easiest ways to improve your builds, as much as you practice, you’ll definitely see a difference in your builds.

I wish you good luck with this! :smile:

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All you want to do, is just sketch your build out on paper and list the following items:

Properties
How it works
What materials you will use
Shape
Size
Parts used
And way more of your imagination!

I use this strategy to plan my builds! Also, if something does not look right, change the build and re do it, also you could try to get criticism from fellow members of the Developer Forums.

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Heres what I recommend you should do to organize/plan out your builds!

-Making a sketch of any ideas in your head. (Add annotations throughout your sketch describing certain aspects of the build.)
-Using a photo reference helps me personally the most. (You can also add annotations to the photo pointing at specific things you might do when building)
-If you have trouble with certain parts of your build and don’t know what to add feel free to look up photos and art related to the topic of your build to give you inspiration.
-If your creating something fully from your imagination, start building a very simple layout with the basic shapes of what your build might look like. Build anything that comes up to your head to your best ability in a simple form first. Then you can use the other techniques to start adding detail to certain parts of your build.

Try to use all four techniques to your best ability!

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draw a little plan for your map, like a sketch

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When building and planning out maps, I recently started using a three stage method suggested to me by a friend. First, you get a general idea of what you want in the map and where you want things to be. Secondly, you need to make a layout, by layout I mean a non detailed general shape of everything that will go on the map and where it will go, mainly the structures/buildings. Third stage is going over all the buildings adding detail in layers sort of like layering finish/paint on wood; you add the detail in layers to every building until you end up with what you want. This method may not work for everyone, and i’m sure there are better and more efficient methods out there but this is what works for me.

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Love the idea of stages. I’m always a fan of a good, effective step-by-step process that covers everything from the large scale to the details.

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Frankly speaking, I am not that great of a builder. I’ve just started building in 2019 and personally, I’m really proud how much I have became better over a span of a couple months.
But I do have some tips for you.

some of the tips are based on your futuristic build

Inspiration - Inspiration is a massively important. Without inspiration there’s little what you can do. Most of the builds by ALL builders (99% of them) are inspired by something. You said you are making a futuristic build, and don’t know what to put in. Google future and look in the images tab, there must be something that you could be inspired from. Also, inspiration is not “copying”.

Details - Details are important for a game, but sometimes, some places don’t require details while some others require a lot of details. You must look on the part (For example the floor) first and not give a lot of details if you think a player will not generally look on it for an amount of time. But, if you think a player will look at a part for an amount of time (For example a wall) you should put details on it.

Variety - Variety of details is important. If you make 2 futuristic buildings and copy paste them around the whole city, it’s not going to cut it. The game will look very bland and dull because of the almost negligible variety in the game. That’s why I suggest making 10 buildings for a small-medium map and putting them around the map, and making 20 buildings for a big map. If you want you can always make all the buildings different, but its up to you. I generally don’t do that because it will take a long time.

Details type - Details can also be heavily influenced by inspiration. I suggest testing out random things here and there and see how it looks. For example, try putting a trash can or maybe a futuristic bill board, or even a futuristic cafe, etc.

Blender - Details are mostly modeled in blender. In Roblox studio its hard to make good looking assets, so I suggest learning blender and improve your modeling skills. It will help you a lot.

Feedback - Feedback is really important. Part of my improvement is due to a lot of other good developers giving their feedback on my builds. Some places I personally get feedback is in #help-and-feedback , #help-and-feedback:cool-creations , and in discord servers.

Practice - And finally, practice. With practice you can make one of your dream builds. Keep practicing.

That’s all, hope you will use some of these tips.
Thanks for reading, and keep up the great work. :heart:

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