I’m Zivao, an advanced Programmer with 4 years of experience. The main reason I chose programming over building was that I was never really good at building, and I’d always struggle with scaling, texturing, and just getting into building generally.
I have made friends with a ton of talented builders throughout my Roblox career, and I’ve always been so shocked and taken in by the talent of builders. I’ve tried to get into building myself soo many times, but I just become unmotivated once I enter Studio and trying to create things that don’t turn out very attractive at all.
I know it takes a while to build on style and talent when it comes to building, I’m more into modern and realism rather than low-poly and cartoony just due to the fact that I’ve hardly got any experience in modeling software.
The purpose of this topic is to ask for recommendations when it comes to texturing, building resources, tutorials, or any other type of advice you could share with me.
Thanks for your time!
I really have no clue to terminology when it comes to building either
when I feel “empty” and need insperation I look at art on insta and think about how I can recreate it in roblox, as for recomendations I use F3X to build, whenever I need a texture that I cant find in the toolbox I just go on some free texture site, theres thousands so explore those when you want, and I find that tutorials dont work FOR ME, if you think a more structured system of building works for you just look on youtube for build tutorials of what you want but try the chaos method first as I feel its a more versatile way to build, then just add onto the basics to create your own style of building
I will say to you like I would say to anyone else “Developing isn’t easy whether working as a team or working alone” its best if you take your time to a learn a thing or two one at a time, because if you don’t it will effect your developing skills and you’ll end up not knowing what to do. I alone develop games why? because “I’m an independent” person. But than how do my games increase the success rate? “Take my time and make a list if I have to”. What im saying is if “Building isnt best suited for you, develop your game along side one that has that building skill” or if your independent like me, id suggest you make a list like a guide to what level of building “only you can reach, and your limits to how far you can go”. Building is not my thing i can admit, but dev a game alone is so taking your time to develop skills you still have yet to master is best. Combining skills your already good can even help with building and coming up with solutions. Good Luck!
Low poly is a great place to start! Low poly is easy to do, and it gives you a lot of experience fast!
Realistic builds is a bit more advanced, but if you combine the two, you can really get some nice builds and like I said, a bunch of experience. It’ll teach you a lot about different styles and give you a lot of ideas! This has for sure worked for me, and hope it’ll help you as well.
Its just really up to what you wanna build, like what do you wanna create…
There’s two types of builds you can start off with, either low poly or realistic. If low poly, its all about cartoonish style type of builds, and not a lot of details is needed in it. Although, you can model the meshes of your low poly builds in Blender, but still can be done in Roblox Studio itself.
If you’re like, nah low poly is for kids, I need to go for the next level, then go for realistic builds, as obvious, high levels of detail needed, and it won’t look that cartoonish looking.
Hi,
I believe that you should practise the style of building that you like, because if you prefer modern & realistic builds, you will aim for your builds to look similar to that, and therefore get better at that style if you keep practising. Like @KevinRexFromDk said, low poly is a bit easier, but If you don’t like that sort of building then I suggest that you do go into realistic first. I used to watch building tips on Youtube, and I think that helped me become better at building in Studio, and when my country went into lockdown, I really started to practise my building and I believe all that time I had nothing to do, I practised building, and I became a lot better from where I was. I also quite like realism and I do build in that style lots, but it’s really just up to you and where you want to start building. Good luck!
When you mention low poly your likely referring to the cartoony style, this can be achieved in a 3D modeling software and studio itself using smoothplastic use of lighting to reflect those vibrant colors. Learning how to do any of these things is to just start researching and practicing:
Developing a style will take a bit of experimenting it’s always good to try new things, including finding your own style and theme something that you feel comfortable using and working with. If you find a style and theme you like strive into developing in that specific workflow process.
If your into realistic looks with modern tones 'answer is you practice and learn is a part of improving, as overtime you will learn how to achieve these certain styles. A lot of the recommendations you listed in your thread can be found under; #resources:community-resources (e.g. tutorials - resources - texturing).
If you’re wanting to dive for realism builds it comes down to using textures, meshes and proper use of lighting. Textures.com is used for gathering variety of textures look at real life photos to have by your side and learn how to recreate them to your best of your own abilities.
can you send a picture showing your building level so I can suggest improvements/tips based on what you can do and what problems there are in the build?
I also highly recommend using increments, unions and building plugins
Useful plugins which I use:
• F3x
• Resize Align
• Archimedes 2
• Gap fill
When I run out of ideas, I tend to hop over to the Unity Asset Store and look up whatever theme I’m building in. Then I just recreate the assets from there into Roblox Studio.
I wouldn’t listen to the people that say " Learn Blender." Blender takes forever to master and you’re better off learning Roblox first, as its it’s significantly easier to figure out.
Get references for your work so you have an idea of what to make,
Organise your work in a notepad/trello/discord server
^ do the same with ideas
Look at showcases on roblox and other games that have lots of buildings and copy their style/work around with their style
Realistic builds are not hard if you use the right steps, make sure to give them a future lighting with PBR Textures, Blender is suggested for meshes
Overall just keep practicing your skills will develop overtime and work with others so you can learn more.
Blender is easy , what are you saying? It takes a one tutorial to learn how to create a specific asset needed. It’s relatively easy, it’s just your motivation to learn new complex things. This topic is building tips, not opinions so. Blender is a big factor in creating complex shapes, whether or not it is complex you should take the time to invest in it if you want to compete in advanced architecture. Your comment is biased.
It’s not that complex if you watch tutorials this topic is asking for tips, that is a tip. Henceforth my wordings. “Invest your time” when someone says invest, it should be self-explanatory.
Building on Roblox is really time-based. Sure, there are a few tricks, like making proper use of hotkeys, and knowing how to use unions, however the main thing I find is that everything building-related just takes time. That’s really all that goes into my work. It’s easy to get unmotivated too, that’s why I usually take long multi-month breaks without touching studio once. What helps me get over this is find a goal I want to achieve or image I want to try to replicate that gets me really hyped up and ready to build, and then I spend a couple dozen hours on studio within a week before going silent again.
Once in studio, I usually take it slow and steady. Make things small, work bit by bit and refine your build as much as possible. Many people who are new to building in Studio or external programs usually think that the minimum is enough, but if you ever want to get good at building that is no the case.
Building also requires a lot of creativity and imagination too when you’re not building off of a reference picture. There are multiple style guides out there that can help with good combinations of colors and materials that will jump-start your building process like shown in my own guide here.
Here’s some terminology tips too:
Building is creating a Roblox game/structures.
Modeling is creating things in a 3rd-party software.
Decals are user-generated single images, while Textures are user-generated repeating images over a part’s surface.
Blender is harder to pick up for most people, but really easy to get good at.
Studio is easy to pick up for most people, but harder to get good at.
These are just my generalized opinions of course, so it can be different for everyone.
Use good plugins like qCmdUtl, Archimedes Torso, F3X, Reflect, Resize Align, Material flip, Curve cutter.
Learn to use studio building features, learn how to union and stuff.
Look at other peoples build.
Have motivation and try to be creative.
Try out what works and which does not.
Use materials and textures properly.
