Tutorials/Creating shapes

Blocky shapes, such as squares and rectangles, are easy to make in Minecraft, because of the fact that the world is made up of square blocks. On the other hand, other shapes, such as circles and triangles, are harder. Although there can never be perfect circle or perfect triangle in the blocky world of Minecraft, this tutorial shows the closest to a circle or triangle you can make.

Usage and Basics
Knowing how to build triangles and circles can be very beneficial if you build very often. Although knowing how to build these shapes will not help you at all with survival skills, when making statues, pixel art, house, and/or large fountains, adding triangles and circles to your building will give it much more depth.

Once you know how to build certain shapes, you can do an infinite number of things, and impress other players greatly. Some ideas include a statue made only of triangles, a mansion which looks like a giant sphere from the outside, or a giant arm. There are so many possibilities - use your creativity!

The two main categories of shapes are 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional. 2-dimensional shapes consist of only 2 of the following: height, length, or width. 3-dimensional shapes consist of all 3. 3-dimensional shapes are usually either a combination of two different 2-dimensional shapes, or two 2-dimensional shapes of the same type but rotated different ways. To make specific shapes, read on.

2 Dimensional Shapes
These 2 dimensional shapes have only length and height, or only length and width. Most 3 dimensional shapes are based off of one or more 2 dimensional shapes.

Right Triangle
Right triangles are perhaps the easiest triangle to make, because of the fact that two of their sides are straight lines, going either vertical or horizontal. Only one side is diagonal. The following grids show how to make a right triangle with a 4 block base and height, and one with a 9 block base and height.



Equilateral Triangle
Equilateral triangles are a little bit more abstract than right triangles, but they still have a clear way to build them. First, build a line of blocks however long you want your triangle to be. Then, build one block up on the edges of the lines. Continue by building in sets of 2 blocks up, going 1 block inwards each time. Look at the following grids for examples:

Notice how the triangles look more triangular the bigger they are.

Circles
Circles are rather difficult to make in Minecraft, partially because of the fact that unlike triangles, there is not one way to make any size of circle; each size uses a completely different arrangement of blocks. As you look at the different sizes of circles, you will see that not all of them have the same shape, and none of them are a perfect circle. This is because different sizes of circles must have different arrangements of blocks, so that they can look as close to a circle as possible.

Circles cannot be explained, because, like mentioned earlier, each size is completely different. The best way to make a circle is to just experiment with different block arrangements, or look at images made by other people who experimented with block arrangements and made a circle.

Take a look at the following images. This is an example of one way to make all the circles with a diameter of 1 - 18. The bigger the circles get, the more similar to a circle they look.