Considerations for designing vanilla-adjacent block models
or “A Case Study in Bivalves”
I’ve spent a number of years working on Minecraft textures and models for various projects, from small retextures to hand-crafted mobs. Lately, I’ve found particular interest in the design philosophy of vanilla Minecraft, specifically, how complex ideas are illustrated in simple models. In coming to understand this design philosophy, I have been able to learn how to better design “vanilla-like” models and additionally discovered where I am able to push these boundaries of design without creating a disjointed experience. As I have worked through retexturing and remodeling the Prehistoric Nature mod for my personal resource pack, Vanilladendron, I have had to make many design considerations along these lines, and I hope my thoughts are useful to those considering creating vanilla style resource packs or mods in the future.
The design history of Minecraft is long and messy. With the earliest developers being programmers but not artists, a purposeful design philosophy took time to develop and left numerous exceptions, from the inconsistent pixel sizes between entities of different scales to greatly varying levels of detail in blocks. Despite this, with time, two general thoughts would prevail. First of these is that Minecraft is not a voxel game, and second, that objects should be represented by the simplest possible model that can accurately communicate their identity. Failure to align with either of these two thoughts is the primary way that modded aesthetics clash with vanilla Minecraft. This is not necessarily a problem, and may in fact be a purposeful design choice, but anyone wishing to create an experience congruous with the core of Minecraft must keep them in mind.
Thought one: Minecraft is not a voxel game.
In understanding what Minecraft is, it is important to understand what it is not. So, what are voxels, anyway? In an artistic sense (no, we’re not gonna talk about the coding or rendering of voxels), voxels are essentially 3D pixels. Rather than just representing points on a flat grid, voxels have volume - they fill three dimensional space. So, knowing this, in what sense is Minecraft not composed of voxels? While Minecraft uses pixel art and 3D environments, pixels never represent stand-alone 3D voxels. Instead, textures are applied to flat surfaces on larger polygonally-defined objects. If, instead, Minecraft were a voxel-based game, you could expect to see objects such as flowers represented by 3D structures, with each pixel converted to a voxel, as has been done by many resource packs, such as the fittingly named “Default 3D”. For examples of voxel-based games, consider Cube World or Teardown. Both games show how voxels can be effectively used to create an aesthetic very unique from Minecraft, with varying degrees of blockiness. Note how objects and character designs from each game would be greatly incongruous with vanilla Minecraft, which does not use a voxel art style. In designing models for Minecraft, it is often tempting to stray towards a voxel aesthetic, as this can allow for clear shaping and detailing in 3D space, but if a vanilla-adjacent look is the goal, this should be thoroughly avoided.
Default 3D resource pack displaying voxel-like models
Teardown, a game with a voxel-based art style
Thought two: Objects should be represented by the simplest possible model that can accurately communicate their identity
This thought ties closely to the prior, and discusses how objects are represented without being detailed 3D voxel structures. The vast majority of objects in Minecraft are blocks - cubes with six 16 x 16 faces. While this works well for many things, particularly pieces of terrain, there are many cases in which objects could not be communicated well by a meter cubed. In these cases, the simplest solutions are used. For example, rather than representing vines as a series of twisting voxels, they are a 16 x 16 texture on a single flat plane. Flowers and saplings - too complex for a single plane, are formed from only two faces, crossed. Of course, objects get more complex than that. Take for instance cauldrons, anvils, or hoppers. In these cases, the shape of the object is important in communicating the purpose of said object, and despite being more complex than most blocks, they are still relatively simple and do not stray into the territory of being mistaken for voxel art. It can be difficult to know how detailed to make a model. Even Mojang struggles with it. Sometimes they undershoot, creating a model that lacks necessary details, such as early versions of the campfire or archaeology pots. I am of the opinion that the redesigned campfires represent the most detailed block currently in Minecraft that still fits the vanilla aesthetic perfectly. Sometimes Mojang overshoots, such as with the dragon egg, which borders on voxel art, and which provides repeated frustration to the current Minecraft dev team. With this in mind, I view the dragon egg as the furthest extent of detail which can be accepted within “vanilla-like” models, and mods should truly go no further. You must figure out how to strike a balance between simplicity and complexity. If you are unsure how detailed to make your model, start with the least detail you can conceive and work up from there until you are happy with the aesthetic you have created.
The original, under-detailed campfire block
The dragon egg, an overly detailed block
Opinions by the developers on the dragon egg
Let’s apply these thoughts to a model from the Prehistoric Nature mod, specifically the “upright bivalve.” This is a model which has, to my mind, overshot the vanilla look in terms of detail. Specifically, it looks as though it is composed of voxels rather than larger, textured faces. Thus, it stands out greatly against vanilla blocks and other underwater decorations such as seagrass.
While I know where I would start in terms of reworking it, I would like this to act as a full guide, and so I will walk through my entire design process (which I usually do in my head) in the form of fully-fledged models, starting as discussed before with the simplest possible model, and then increasing complexity until we reach a design which I believe fits the vanilla feel of Minecraft and which I find personally pleasing.
Our first option is a flat plane, something similar to vines or glow lichen. It should be quickly obvious that this is not the correct choice. It’s hard to tell that these are even supposed to be shells, and certainly not “upright” ones at that.
The next level of complexity would be that of a cross model, like saplings. I personally feel this one has some potential, and with a bit of texture tweaking, it could work. I suspect that if Mojang were to add this block, it would look something similar to this. However, I don’t feel it fits the aesthetic goals of myself or the original artist of the mod, so let’s continue to tweak it.
Perhaps we could mimic the shape of the original design, but use flat textures. While I feel this does better represent the shape I want than the previous option, it still appears too flat to be the oyster-like shells that I’m going for.
So we finally land at the version I like (in fact, the one I originally designed, the others being merely representations of my thought process). It is very similar to the design from the mod, just with the voxel shapes being simplified down into clear faces. This design is likely a bit more complicated than would be added to vanilla Minecraft these days, but doesn’t clash horribly with what is already in the game.
There we have it! A vanilla-inspired remodel that fits both the default appearance of the game while generally following the ideas introduced by the mod. Here it is featured alongside a variety of other remodels that I have done for my resource pack.
Thanks so much for reading! I hope this guide is useful to up-and-coming resource pack and mod makers!
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