As a way to celebrate the launch of Minecraft 1.8 on the Vizzed Minecraft server, I'll be hosting 2 competitions this month and will be awarding a total of $300 worth of cash prizes for these competitions.

In this competition you must create the best Christmas structure on the Vizzed Minecraft Server. The structure can be of almost anything as long as it's Christmas themed in some way. You can present your submission in the form of a video or screenshots. The structure can be built anywhere but it is recommended that you build it in the new snow sector of Megod City (you can find the portal to it from within the main structure of Megod City and you can find a portal to Megod City beneath Town Square of the main Vizzed Ville island). If you do a video then you must upload it to the Vizzed YouTube Account. If you do screenshots then you must upload them to Vizzed and then post them to this thread.

Staff will vote on the submissions after the competition is done. They'll vote based on structure uniqueness, difficulty, how christmassy it is and the presentation of the video or screenshots.


Instructions for taking a video and submitting it to the Vizzed YouTube Channel:
You can use Camtasia (probably the best and has a free trial available), Camstudio (free), Xsplit or any other program to record with. You may also edit the video however you want (example, adding music, subtitles, etc), just make sure it is less than 5 minutes long.

Once you've recorded the video, you'll want to upload it to the Vizzed YouTube page and add it to the game's page in the Video Game Room. You can do this by going to the game's page (link found below) and then scroll half way down the page to the 'Minecraft User Submitted videos' section and click the 'Click to Upload your Video to Vizzed Youtube' link. Once the video has been uploaded, be sure to place a link to it to this thread, otherwise your submission will not count.


Rules:
-Up to 3 submissions per a user


Prizes:
1st = 150,000 Viz or $100
2nd = 45,000 Viz or $30
3rd = 30,000 Viz or $20
4th = 20,000 Viz
5th = 10,000 Viz


Competition ends:
December 24th

Competition starts:
Now


For information on the Vizzed Minecraft Server, go here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=75152

I may have more chances with that competition. I'll stop my mystic fortress for a while and work on that idea I got yesterday. It should be amazing for the Vizzed server

Laian : I can usually count on you to make something great for these competitions so I look forward to it.

I am actually building something in the Snow City... before even knowing about the competition. No guarantee how Christmasy it is, but I'll be submitting something to this one, since I'm already doing something.

Alright, below is my submission. I'll put the screenshots below (12) and work on seeing if I can get better shots, if I upgrade further. Note, the only thing that is mine in these submissions are the things that are on the raised elevation.

I can't upload a video, because of how laggy my computer is when it comes to Minecraft. Any video I make would be low in quality.

So, here is the story of this build... when I heard we had a new Snow City being built, I decided to jump in (without knowing about the competition) and build something close to the entrance, because I've always been late to the party. As you can see in the first picture (which is taken from the TP Spawn), it is right in front of you, and impossible to miss (at this time, I will suggest if you have time to check the place out for yourself. Especially when it is snowing).

I had a very clear idea in mind for this build, a rest lodge coupled with an ice skating rink that would make it a prime tourist attraction and your first stop in Snow City.

The idea is that you will start at the ice rink, as it is what will catch your eye once you get close to the plot. From there, you will climb the stairs to the rest lodge, where you can rest, and set a spawn point (because you know how things are in Minecraft, you can never be too safe, and Megod/Snow City is a fair deal travel from most people's spawn point).

I had a lot of trouble getting the ice to work in the rink... in part because I'd never really worked much with water, and never with water in a snowy climate. I was correct in my assumption that water+snow biome=ice, but I also learned that it couldn't be flowing water, and that it had to be still water. The pictures do not properly show this, but there's a lot of blocks of water there, and it took well over 3 hours to just get the water to flatten out all over the ice rink.

Once it was finished, my next order of business was to surround the ice rink with a layer of dirt (If you have not build in Snow City, the ground level the plots start at is basically just one level above bedrock, which you cannot go through). So I had to raise the level of the water and the dirt, simply to make the thing work out as planned.

Once I finished filling in my plot (which is 9 plots) with dirt, I needed to plan out the rest lodge's area, so I didn't end up having to redo something.

So I built a dirt structure that was essentially a glorified dirt spike, and cut from there, a cliff side that you can see approaching the building. I built a gradual decline from the lodge, with a cobblestone road and cobble slabs leading to the exit of my build, although you can also just head back to the ice rink, because ice skating is fun.

I then checked my sheet (which had my base plan drawn on it) and took an estimate of how many trees I needed... but unfortunately, something didn't go as planned.

See, I had originally planned on using Dark Oak or Spruce (as they have a dark profile, which would have contrasted nicely with my snow build) but no matter how much bonemeal I used on it, the tree wouldn't grow, and yes, I did check my spacing. So I changed the plan to Birch, which did work.

I know I could have just chopped the birch down, and put in blocks of spruce/dark oak, but I wanted to only do things that reasonably made sense in real life when possible. You can't chop down a tree in real life, and change the type of wood it is. Plus, it would have required me to use the open world to chop down dozens of oak trees which would have required too much travel time (I have an incredibly laggy PC, so the less travel the better).

Once I planted the trees, I had to wait for snow to come before letting them grow. For the most part, this went as expected with few patches, but then, real snow has patches too, so I think it adds a touch of realism.

Once the snow came and covered every inch of my terrain, I got to work applying bonemeal to the numerous trees, which surrounded the ice rink and allowed a path to be built that wouldn't be fully covered with snow.

Once the entire project was done... I more or less had to wait for the snow to come back and take the pictures.

Divine intervention saved me, and I was able to get the pictures and finish my build in a little under 10 hours.

It's not entirely finished though. I may go back and add fine details, but the general idea is there (I don't want people stealing this idea ;D)

Without further ado, enjoy these few screenshots.

So, I just noticed this today...

"Rules:
-Up to 3 submissions per a user"

I think I'll use up my 2nd submission right now.

Shortly after I finished work on my first build in my first post in this thread, I set out to work on a second build. If you want to read my story (which I'd suggest, if you are into that sort of thing) continue. If you want to get to the images, do a control+f for "LEGGY'S PROJECT #2" (without the quotes).

See, I had recently left snow city and found a "lot" of sheep outside of the city, continuously spawning. Choosing to use them as inspiration, this project started as a pen to keep the pests in a pen, and away from Snow City and the teleporter.

However, it quickly became something else. A vision. And I was determined to see it through.

Below, you will see pictures of the outcome, a place that is both a sheep pen... and a family restaurant. A place where the sheep can both serve a purpose and stay out of our way.

I will preface this, by saying that all the materials used in this build came from the mViz I got for shearing their wool. At first, it was slow, as I had a 4x4 block for the sheep to wander in, and only two sheep.

By the end, I have this monstrous cell for the sheep, and so many sheep I couldn't count if I tried.



Finally, before I get to the pictures, a story about my process, if you wish to skip this and just want to get to the images, then do a control+f for "LEGGY'S PROJECT #2" (without the quotes).

As I said above, I started with just a few wood planks and two sheep. You may be thinking to yourself, that's not much to work with, and you are right, it isn't. At first, it was slow. I had 0 mViz, and none of the OPs were on, so I couldn't transfer Viz into mViz. It took a couple of hours before I had made enough money selling things like dirt (I originally dug a hole into the ground, that's how I saved up for the planks!) and trying to earn up, bit by bit.

I eventually made enough mViz, and had enough room to purchase something that would be integral to the project, wheat. Wheat, you see, is used to breed sheep. You probably see where this is going. I started breeding like crazy, and had about 20 sheep in the next couple of hours in a small hole, that I was widely expanding.

Once I had a big enough number of sheep, I decided it was time to build my next piece... a small wooden shed that only I could access. At the time, this was open territory, and I had yet to claim it. So I went to the store with the little amount of mViz I'd saved up, bought more wooden planks and golden shovel. Upon buying said shovel, I marked the land I had planned to use. And the land was huge. I decided to essentially make two claims, thinking far ahead. One big plot and one slightly smaller plot.

The sheep pen as it is is in the big plot.

I built a large wall, about 60X30X3. This would give the sheep a ton of room to move around, as well as keep the wall high enough to prevent escape by the sheep. The empire had truly begun, as at this point, no one else was allowed to touch these sheep.

Hours passed, I had used wheat to breed an army of at least a hundred sheep, and bought dye packs to dye my sheep varying colors, namely purple, blue, black, and for a time, red. I sheared the wool on the red sheep, and had a stack or two at a time, but discovered it was more time efficient to just buy the red wool with the mViz I was presently making off the wool from the other sheep.

I began work on the roof, which was a huge triangle. The process of doing that room was painstaking, as I had to crouch cheat to get on the edge, and build an impossible wall to begin with.

Once the basics of the roof were outlined (just a straight line of wood across each diagonal to the other side, 60 blocks away (remember, this is also 30 blocks long, so I ended up using about 1800 wooden blocks for this part, or about 29 stacks of wood).

Once that was finished, I began work on the outline for the window panes.

I had a clear vision in mind for the theme. I wanted it to be representative of both Christmas as well as symbolize night and day, and how even though it may not be Christmas, it's never a bad time to act like it is. It may be day, but if you want to have fun like you do at night, go ahead. My goal was to convey both acceptance and difference of opinion.

So I got to work on the tedious process of designing a stained glass window.

I had never worked with stained glass before, and actually had to ask how it was done in Minecraft. Even when I got that done with, I have zero artistic ability, so I had no idea how to progress.

I ended up making a couple of Microsoft paint mockups. One for each side. I ended up designing a sun peeking over the clouds and a moon both over the same sky but at different times.

Upon completion, I set to work laying in the stained glass windows. I liked the end result, and it is my favorite part of this build.

All that was left for framework was to build the final walls, and then I could get started on details.

At this point, the sheep shed is a wooden box with a triangular roof, and only one door, for me to enter and exit. There is no stopping the sheep from leaving if someone opens the door.

The walls were finalized, and I got more serious about the design of the shed.

I wanted to go with a Christmas color for the roof, so I ended up going with the first color I thought of that didn't hurt my eyes. Red.

So I got on the roof, and started placing the Red Wool I already had. To my dismay, this ended up being more of a chore than laying the woodwork. I put the red wool on top of the wood, so the wood would appear on the inside, but the wool would appear on the outside. I ended up covering the entire roof in wool (barring about 90 places where I put down cobblestone) which means I used about 1700 red wool blocks.

Once the roof was covered in red wool, I decided to get to work on the restaurant. I built a small room that started near the end of the first claim, and went into the second claim, and put in two sets of doors. One made of wood, and one made of steel, the wood ones leading to the shed, and the steel ones leading to the restaurant.

I did this, because remember, this is two land claims, meaning they have separate trust permissions. By placing the steel doors in the second claim, I can close off people from exiting if I want the shop to appear "closed" at any time, without affecting the permissions of the first claim.

I then went back into the first claim (shed) and built the fence that would keep sheep from exiting unless I want them to leave (only the land claimer can activate a fence gate, and since the sheep can't jump the fence, it works out).

I then did the boring work of replacing all the wood (remember, the walls were made of wood) with brick for a stylistic appearance. and built little wooden supports (again, stylistically) on the inside to give it a better feel. I added glowstone on the "morning" side of the pen, and tried to keep the "night" side dark while keeping it bright enough that I could see myself.

Once pleased with the shed, I was done with the interior of the shed, and could focus on the exterior of the house. To this point, it was just a shed and a house. I added a small wishing well (don't we all like to wish on the holidays?) and a path that I would later mostly cover up.

Next on the list was adding interior decoration to the restaurant. It was very bare. Just wooden floors and brick walls and a couple doors. I added fence posts (to simulate walls) steps (chairs), more fence posts and carpet (tables) and carpet (carpet).

But something was missing. Something that made it feel like it was the same place that the shed was.

Glass art. With a smaller space, this wouldn't be easy, but I needed to make it work. And so I did. I built, again, two glass arts with stained glass. One, a moon which would be kept on the darker, more romantic side of the restaurant. Second, a sun (with a glowstone lamp to provide light, in the middle of the sun) on the bright, family oriented side. With more space (I was running low on it, so I had to make cuts) I would have made double tables on the family side.

Now, the majority of the project was completed, but what remained would be time consuming as well. I had to cover the ENTIRE BUILD in white wool carpet, white wool, and otherwise hide the fact that this build wasn't in Snow City. (This build is right outside Snow City, where it doesn't snow).

I placed white carpet over every single inch of my property, removed some, placed wool blocks where I wanted to simulate hills, and otherwise make the property more "winter-like".

This took several hours, as I can only carry so many things at once, and often found myself having to run back and forth between my sheep, Vizzed Ville to buy wool, and back to my build outside of Snow City.

I probably spent as much time running back and forth as I did actually building. Remember, all of this build was payed for by the wool my sheep provided.

A few days later, this is the end result. This is the project that will likely be my last submission in this competition. If you read to the end of this, you are a trooper. I am probably omitting something small, but if you are really interested in hearing more, you can just ask me. It's 10 AM, and I've been up for about 16 hours to finish this project by the deadline.

Oh, and for the control+f people out there...

LEGGY'S PROJECT #2 (Pictures!)
















(Sorry for the quality on the last one. It was above 250 KB, which Vizzed doesn't allow, so I had to make it smaller, and resize it using HTML.)

Again, if you have time, I would suggest seeing this place for yourself, rather than take these images at face value.

After like two weeks of being busy and working hard on this project, I am proud to say that I have managed to completed it. Also, please pardon me if I didn't know that using of any kind of mod is against the rules, but I used the Shader mod.





This is the front of the train, next to Schnee Station.








This is the front of the station. The purpose of my choice of the wall was because I was trying to make it look like a giant present box, which was the reason why it lacks windows.








This photo shows that I was on the stair that lead to the outdoor garden 'slash' diner area. The next couple of photos will be based on garden/diner area.

















Top view of the steam engine.








Along with the view of the cars from the top of the roof.








The back view of the train cars.








If you haven't noticed, I added a portal in the very back of the train. The sign there said that only a magical objects can go though it. However, what I do mean is that if you are inside of the train, you will also go though the portal.








And now we're inside. This is the indoor table area.








One of the ticket area indoor.








And now, here's the last picture of me in front of Schnee Train!











Fun fact: Schnee is a German word for "snow", so in other word, if it was translated to English, you would be calling the station and the train, "Snow train" and "Snow station".

Alright here is my submission this was really fun to make I stood up to 3Am so I could finish it xD. Here it is Santa's Village......No Santa cause I kind of accidently killed him beforehand sorry! I couldn't post this at all and it was really annoying is there another way to show my screenshots as I can't post them?
http://puush.me/account?pool=2480053 Hopefully this works cause it's my only option.

Edit: I'm starting to get fed up with this. Guess i'll try to edit the links and see if it works that way.

http://puu.sh/dGu6P.png
http://puu.sh/dGu7F.png
http://puu.sh/dGu8l.png
http://puu.sh/dGu91.png
http://puu.sh/dGu9D.png
http://puu.sh/dGubq.png
http://puu.sh/dGuci.png
http://puu.sh/dGucE.png
http://puu.sh/dGudF.png
http://puu.sh/dGuea.png
http://puu.sh/dGueG.png
http://puu.sh/dGufp.png
http://puu.sh/dGufZ.png
http://puu.sh/dGuqd.png
http://puu.sh/dGupU.png

I have finished my third project

This one, I honestly think, is my best work. No long, drawn out explanations.

There was nothing to this except 20 straight hours of work, and buying tons and tons of wool.

I have no idea how many wool blocks I used. I don't want to know. I don't want to think of how many blocks I placed, replaced, and outright destroyed.

All I have to say, is "Marry Christmas, Vizzed."









If you want to visit my shrine to the Peanuts Christmas Special, then you can get to it by going past the train in Snow City, and exiting the city. You literally cannot miss it. And yes, I only used wool for this build. That's why some things look awkward. I wanted consistency.

Here's a Christmas Tree I made along with a couple of presents (with actual gifts inside) and a 'Merry Christmas Vizzed' sign.

I had no idea it'd be so hard to make a Christmas tree in Minecraft in the form of a real tree. Basically leaves die if they're 4 blocks away from the actual tree wood so designing and sculpting the tree was very difficult.

Vizzed Christmas Tree

Competition over, this will now go into voting.