Hello browsers of PMC!

This tutorial I'll be discussing the importance of planning, especially for giant builds, or maps, and I'll give you some tips on how to effectively do this.

Why's it so important to plan a build?

A thing that a lot of people seem to struggle with is getting some good architecture in their bigger builds and in the end, it ends up being endless walls with countless windows, or something like that. This is why you need to plan out your build. This is rather simple and not hard to do. Line out some shapes on the ground, using brightly coloured blocks such as wool and stained clay. Just give each segment it's own colour. Important is not to forget to make a legend for it as well. If you don't, you might actually end up forgetting what every colour was for in the first place.

Planning using blocks

The easiest way to plan out a build, is to simply do so in minecraft, using blocks. Just place blocks where you want to build stuff. This gives a very clear overview of what shape your build will get. You can easily tell from the shape whether it's gonna be a box or an architectural wonder. If you have a lot of very long, straight walls, try to put some different things in them, like gates, towers, pillars or just make some more interesting shapes in the wall itself. The picture below shows a very basic example of how to do this.
The layout in the picture is one of a part of a castle wall. I've put towers at the corners and a gate in the middle. The layout clearly shows that this will be a very square build as well, meaning that I should improve on the shape, by for example not making a right angle at the corner, but rather making it at a 45 degrees axis.

Planning using paint

Paint is a very easy tool for planning, and works a LOT faster than using blocks when you're building a big map. It's pretty similar to the way you plan using blocks. All you have to do is just paint a rought layout of what will be on your map. I do highly recommend using different colours, but when you do so, make a legend! You might think: "I'm not that silly", but seriously, I've forgotten what the colours meant often enough to know I can't be the only one who does that.
The picture below shows a layout I made for a survival games map. (Which will posted on PMC as well, in the very near future!)

Planning using a palette

A palette is used to decide which block types you're going to use. You just place these blocks down, one next to the other to see if the colours work together. When you've started your build it also helps you keep track of what colours you should use more or less. It's important that a build has some colour contrast in it and when you just start it off without a palette, it often turns out with only like 5 block types in it.
The example palette I made is for a medieval type build. I use two main colours, grey and brown, but I do have a lot of contrast, because I use both darker and lighter shades.
It's important that you look for block combinations that work together as well as possible. The acacia I put the on far right looks very weird with the rest of the palette, whereas the spruce wood blends in perfectly. If you make a medieval type build, it's important that you don't take colours that are too bright (like acacia), because it takes away from the medieval feel of it.



As always, I hope this tutorial has helped a lot of you out there who try to improve their building.

Please leave feedback about this tutorial, I love to hear what you think!
Also if you made a build inspired by this tutorial, feel free to link it in the comments, I'd love to see your results!

Good luck building!