Hermitcraft 10 - Skull Cave - Ep.9 

Skull as part of the terrain = Terror-forming

I can't believe the snail killed someone and left their skull in the mountain

Everybody always builds skulls. You never see a giant pelvis or ankle.

WAIT, no, Scar DOES want the giant snail on his train, just not on that particular car!! That's where the herbivore feed car goes!

Hi Gem! Long time fan here - I'm also a bioarchaeologist (fancy word for "I know a lot about bones") and I think I have some ideas which can help you out! I am SO excited for your build. :D The cheekbones are actually called the zygomatic bones, they sit at the side of the face (where your little crescent shape is), and then there is a little gap between the skull and the zygomatic for your "chewing" muscle. The maxilla bones (which form the under-eye, nasal, and alveolar/upper jaw regions) are short and slightly concave under the eye. The nasal bones typically protrude at a 45-degree angle from the brow. I think this will make the biggest difference in your build. I am a BIG bone nerd so this is soo cool. I may steal this idea for my single-player survival world - I'm really excited to see how you work in the grass/moss to make it look like its a part of magic mountain.

I've been a fan of Etho for many years, and I think his interactions with Gem are the most wholesome fun entertainment. I literally can't keep from smiling when they're doing anything together

I love how honest Gem is as a builder. She really shows how long building all of these things take. She talks about using tools like creative and litematica to help brainstorm, but also how she doesn't use them too much, a lot of it is pure survival. It's really great to see how she thinks through everything and goes from nothing to something, promblem solving along the way

One reason why your skull may be feeling "off" to you is that you've recessed everything below the eye sockets. If you look at an anatomically correct skull model (as opposed to an artistic model--many artists make this same mistake) the front is nearly vertical, with the nose bone poking out a bit and the jaw and teeth directly under the front of the eye sockets. If this is an artistic choice you've consciously made to make it more cave-ish, though, rock on! Either way, it's looking great and I can't wait to see it all weathered and covered with moss and dirt!

I think having a big ol' eel or like a long fish snaking out of one of the eye sockets would be *chef's kiss*

Gem I love the direction you’re going this season. You are a fantasy and cottage core genius which is making your move into a gothic/horror direction so fun. I know you’re getting a lot of suggestions because we are all excited but I wanted to say whatever you choose in your own artistic vision is already amazing.

I really appreciate you working through block by block, rather than taking the timelapse approach. I know you talked about doing it on purpose, but getting to hear your thought process and seeing it in action is really helpful for someone trying to figure out how to plan and do larger builds

Stress Monster has some experienced building skulls. You could ask her for her opinion

The scale of the skull is literally PERFECT. It feels grand and huge, but doesnt take up too much space, and fits in with the mountain really well

The "you got mail" flashbanged me I haven't heard that in so long omg

Ohhh that foggy shader pack suddenly makes everything feel so much more Lovecraftian. Excited to see how/if they get used later

Xisuma would be a good reference for advice on the skull since he did the buried skeleton build last season. Looks really good so far though!

Gem casually talking underwater like it's nothing will NEVER fail to give me a chuckle

8:00 this is why i love how Bdubs would mostly consider how Etho would react to his builds before he considers the build 'finished' 😆😆

Putting a jawbone on the ground, like it was detached could be really cool. It would create a entrance for the cave.

Sculpting terrain on-camera is like watching someone draw or sculpt in clay. I'm quite fond of that sort of process. It looks good!

im sure that skull will make a acceptional landmark; that will me remembered long in the future. great work Gem!!!!

15:00 I'd call it TERRORforming

I actually really enjoyed the building process with the skull. It's very informative and helpful for my own Minecraft projects

I _love_ it when someone thoroughly explains procedures and thought processes! Tutorials aren't as good sometimes, because of course you often want to make changes to meet your own taste, but when you get the _why_ and _how_ like this, you can do that so much more effectively! Although this is the sort of thing that's perfect for doing in livestreams, I'm really happy to see it in a video occasionally. 😊

With the shape of the skull, I’d say to bring the bottom of the skull, specifically the area beneath the nose cavity, forward a bit and with a slight angle outwards at the very bottom. Basically it would have the same shape as a pair of dentures.

When it comes to the shape of a skull, there are a couple things you could change to make it look more accurate. Firstly, the nose... You have punched a nose-shaped hole through the base sphere which looks alright, but it would look a lot better if you extruded the edges of the nose. A human nose is mostly cartilage, but there is actually a ridge of bone that protrudes from the skull around the top of the nose hole to make up the beginning of the nasal structure. So working the edges outward to create a slope from the top, outward, and then from that outer edge, a slope inward toward the cheekbones as you go lower would be very helpful to improving the shape of the face. And the cheekbones need to run to the bottom of the nose-hole. Right now, the bottom of the nose hole goes further in than the bottom of the cheek bones, which is not right. So if you were looking at the skull sideways, the arrangement should go -- Ridge of nose, slope down the nose ridge toward the cheekbones, the lower nose ridge which sticks outward slightly from the indented ridge, the cheekbones (which should run a bit lower ending around the same height as the lower ridge), and then the indented "plate" that the teeth would sit on. The lower part should also have alternating ridges on the face of it to denote where the teeth would have sat. But over all, you've got a very strong shape and I can't wait to see how the final product turns out. If my explanation is too convoluted, looking at a skull's side profile will probably make it make more sense.

I’m loving how the builders are all getting a bit more involved in showing their build process as well as the redstone doing more technical deep dives into how the redstone works this season!! MORE OF THIS PLEASE!!!

Would love to see Gem show off her builds with shaders more often. That specific shader she used at the end really sold her build as the dark and creepy docks, especially made the angler look super creepy and love the aesthetic.

I had an art teacher that worked in a hospital drawing medical illustrations. When it came to drawing animals or people he had us drawing skeletons and muscles. If we understood HOW the human body worked under the skin we could better draw them. That said human heads are difficult because our brains are programmed to notice when something is off. (Like the uncanny valley). You are seeing something wrong with the skull but you aren’t sure what it is. The part I noticed was the cheek bones and where it transitions to upper teeth. The cheek bones should stick out quite a bit with a deep sunken area beneath them (above the molars) you can feel this sunken area if you press beneath your own cheek bones. That same area on your skull could also be too wide. The bottom jaw attaches up under/behind those cheekbones. Right now that area of the skull is the same width as the top of the head roughly. I hope this helps. This is in no way criticism. The human head/face I by far the most difficult to create artistically for reasons I listed above. To be able to do it in a blocky game like Minecraft is quite the feat!

I’m really loving how the ones near magic mountain have all their bases really blending in with each

I must say that I am loving this season of hermitcraft. Folk seem so relaxed and like they really focus on enjoying themselfs and the company. And I especially love the artistic feeling I get from it, if that makes sence. Like you taking us through the process and getting getting pointers from your just as artistic friends. It just makes me smile so much

gems comment section feels like the happiest place on earth! my exams are soon and ive been so stressed and your videos always manage to calm me down.

I was watching 3 hermits last season, and now I’ve found myself watching 9. I think I’ve overwhelmed myself and have missed multiple episodes of multiple hermits.

Oh I was thinking it would be really cool if you and grian posted shorts from the perspective of the snails Basically in a snail skin it is a silent video of the snails doing whatever (building a giant snail, eating a building) so that we can still see it happen but doesn’t break the immersion maybe with dialogue/text written out on the bottom of the screen

I know it possibly won't be included; but it'd be nice if there's a crystal ball in the skull; giving the eyes an eerie semi glowing effect, and inside it'd be a nice site; like a little observation area

Cool skull things you could add, from an archaeology student: zygomatic bone & arch (cheekbone) separation from the main part of the skull, sutures, especially the coronal suture (across the top of the skull, if you put the top back on), some cracking at the top of the nasal bone (pretty common on old remains), maybe a broken and disarticulated (not connected) mandible across the ground, so many options! looking at diagrams of real skulls will probably help out a lot, but it's looking really good so far!

Amazing Skull!! Maybe getting X to come take a look, or Stress, since they have both done skulls before in the past, they might have some pointers that we haven't thought of when it comes to building it. Can't wait to see the process!

Gem, I love that you actually showed your whole process of building the skull. You could've just put it all into a 30 seconds time lapse, but you instead took your time and explained every detail that goes into creating such a huge build. Thank you!

I love the contrast between the spooky, foreboding skull, and the bright, cheery voice telling us about building organics

really do honestly always love your chats about your process and the "behind the scenes" looks at how you worked things out in your creative world etc. Getting to know the process is such a big part of the way i learn, and its really helped being able to see yours!

Current theme of the season: boats, skulls and cyberpunk. I love it 🙏🏽

gems entire process for this makes me think of sculpting in blender. From my limited understanding, people have a sphere and they slowly draw it out until they have something crazy that i would never have thought used to be just a ball

Holy cow, I am so impressed at watching you make a big organic like this in survival. Without even having elytra too! That's something I would think would be too hard to do. I also really appreciate you taking the effort to show the process of how you do it.

You might already know this, Gem, being a fellow Atlantic Canadian, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. The lighthouse at Peggy's Cove here in Nova Scotia had a post office in it from 1975 to 2009. Thanks for continuing this great maritime tradition!

Maybe having the bottom jaw protrude a little more would make the Terror Formed Skull look more realistic?

Beacon glass should be orange and purple to match the fish

I really appreciate you taking the time to break your process down for us- I’ve been struggling with feeling like a terrible builder of late cos I feel like I have to keep going back and moving three blocks and looking at it and coming back and moving them again and looking at it and coming back …

For the water fixture, I think a waterfall coming out of one of the eye sockets would be really cool, kind of like the skull is crying.

So the bottom jaw may be a block or two too long if there’s no teeth (old skulls will usually loose their teeth before their lower jaw) Also the lower jaw hinges at the ear so without muscles to keep them closed it falls open. If you plan on doing that, it would be in the ground and would make a cool entry point into a little cave :)

Gem builds a skull cave: My millennial brain: "Goonies never say die!!"

25:57 as someone who is very new to actually building something other than the usual square-house in minecraft, seeing a lot of the process of different builds is very helpful! a lot of times (atleast as far as i have seen) people just show the actual building, not so much the planning or how to tackle different obstacles (like trying to make a sphere). i hope this turned out somewhat readable! thanks!

Howdy I know this will probably get drowned out. I’ve watched Hermitcraft for a while and you building this gives me nostalgia for my favorite Hermit Monkeyfarm. I’m excited to see the build in its final form with everything else you’re building. Keep up the lovely builds.

Thank you Gem for periodically giving us a tour of the sorroundings. It really helps when people don't have time to watch all perspectives. (One week left for me after I have time again) Thanks

i don’t really comment on videos too much, but i just wanna say that gem gives off such happy and comforting vibes, and her videos are also very enjoyable to watch, her giggles are so hearty and contagious as well, please never change gem!!

can't wait for the blackstone to come in, it will bring back the darkness of Dredge and the rocks at the base of the lighthouse! Great job Gem. I also must say that I love your base with shaders -- so shadowy, dark and ominous, exactly like Dredge!

Skulls looking great. Few tips though, nose placement is good, but typically the hole for the nose is a little less triangular. Also usually a small bone running through the nose hole. Walls for this maybe? Also, the outer walls of the eye sockets typically go a lot further forward than people think. Like the entire eye socket walls are almost as far forward as the teeth. Lastly I think I agree with etho that the top of the mouth extends too far down

7:04 you should also hook it to a custom sound jukebox that plays a fog hornin place of the bell to alert you to new mail. You could even set it ti have a moderately large radius to help you hear it across your base (... or even so the neighbors can hear it too...)

It wasn't boring at all I truly appreciate you going through that whole process with us in the video. I understand not doing it all the time, but once in awhile it is so refreshing to watch the whole process. I appreciate the angst you go through, placing, breaking, replacing blocks. I do the same in my builds, and seeing an accomplished builder do the same thing just validates that it truly is a process.

One thing is if you pay attention to how ppl draw heads, and even the skins in Minecraft is that eyes are fairly low on a lot of ppl’s heads, especially since a lot of ppl are gonna be viewing the skull from below the eyes are gonna look even closer to the top so you may have to extend the forehead

every hermit interaction with Gem are so vibrant i love it 💞

Am I the only one that keeps being surprised by the incredible talent of gem?!

a little tip for moving stuff around in Litematica: you can hold alt and then use scroll wheel. It will move the blueprint along the axis you are currently looking at

The process of getting started on the skull was super useful to me. It gives me an approach I can do for large organics when I didn't know how I'd build stuff like this before, thanks Gem!

Honestly Gem I love your chats, you’re the first person I go to when I’m doing tasks and activities (like I’m painting right now)

I didn’t really expect the skull to look like this. (I under estimated gem) because the skull is SUNNINGG

Gotta love the hermitcraft vibe of seeing a giant skull and immediately headcanon-ing a connection between it, Xisuma's season 9 skeleton, and Pix's Empires 'ancient giants' lore. Great episode Gem!

Perfect addition to your spooky vibe I can't wait to see how this turns out

Gem is a great teacher and really understands the challenges builders face. I always enjoy her content and the style she adds to it.

I ended uo buying Dredge because of Gem and I was hooked on it for a few days trying to unravel the mysteries of it. Wish there was more!

I was so bored and then this popped up and now I’m so excited!!

Woah, that looks really *scool* ! I'm sure down to the *bone* that it'll become real *sansation* when more people see it! I wish me *lazybones* could put so much *backbone* into my work...

Hi Gem! I’ve take an osteology class in uni, and something thats really helpful to study bones are 3d skeleton apps! We use them all the time for reference, and you can move the bones about on your screen! Hope this helps:)

That skull looks UNBELIEVABLE WHAT ON EARTH????? I loooove watching you do organics ❤️

Can't wait for scar to take down the mountain

I love the chats so much, I’m wanting to be better at building and watching people explain the process helps alot

I appreciate the behind the scenes thought process.

I personally enjoy hearing about the build process as you work. It's interesting to see how different artists tackle a project, and you are absolutely an artist, Gem.

somehow caught the vid the MOMENT it came out,this is my first hermitcraft season and I’ve loved ur pov so far!!

This is exactly what I have been wanting to see on Hermitcraft!! All the tools and steps to how you make your builds! Thank you!

You have to add skeletons hanging on the shore warning pirates not to come there. And maybe some treasure on the beaches which is trapped or plays spooky sounds when you come near it

I really appreciate how you explained your process Gem! Somehow it makes the build even more impressive seeing the time, patience and effort required up close.

I always got so excited to see a new gem or joel hermitcraft episode

i really like that you show the building as i have also always wondered what all does a person go through when making a big build at the same time i know what you are worried about when you say we might find it repititive, honestly if i didn't watch multiple people play hermitcraft and only saw your gameplay i would have found it repititive too or if i was seeing it all in one but i really like it for now

28:15 Sheep placement is the only thing that gave that transition away. Extremely well done, and in an unexpecting way.

Killing Etho’s OCD with the slanted roof 😂 Also love seeing the thought process. Watching multiple people then helps me to adapt mine and look at certain things differently which has improved my own craft.

Fellow commentors, is it just me or do Gem and Grian just give off sibling vibes every time they interact? I, personally, think it's amazing ^^

The skull is absolutely amazing! Loving all your creativity and energy this season. *It would be really cool if another gigantic snail came along and got on/in front Scar's train - that was Wizard Scar's snail from the beginning of season 7. It could be a fun throwback... or another interdimensional time warp such as Grumbot Jr....

im loving how Gem is taking us through the process! It is really nice seeing how she tackled a difficult project like the huge skull. also i found it kind of funny how she's almost like chipping away at it gradually which resembles a bit how it would get formed irl. slowly taking shape, and chipping away to form

Hey Gem! One thing that can help with a skull. Typically for people the distance from the tip of a nose to the upper lip is the same distance from the tip of the nose to the brow. Counting the block distance from brow to nose you can make the same number of blocks from nose to the teeth. Great work though, looks amazing!

Eye sockets are actually in the middle of the face between the chin and the top of the skull. That’s always a good first guideline when creating a likeness of a skull. Even just looking up some simple rules of thumb for drawing a face would be a good way to do this, it’s actually pretty easy once you understand how the face is laid out.

Stressmonster did a skull base in season 7 and I think she did it again this season. she might be able to assist more about shaping. Loving the creepy/ spooky vibes this season.

the skull rock seems like a fun way to collab with X! he did build a giant one last season after all, he might have anatomy tips :D

I wish more of the hermits would put more content like this out. I like to hear your thought process while you build things like this and it helps me when building myself. I guess what I'm saying is we like to hear you think out loud while building lol

Love the episode! The speed of this was perfect, and I really appreciate when these big projects are split into multi episodes, I think it really helps sell the scale and importance of elements of the entire area. Banter with Etho was a classic as usual and always love to see Pearl. Your season is shaping up so well!

I really appreciate you going through the process of a build like this, I have in my head that I'll never be able to do something like this, but you've really shown me that it is possible with work and time!

I love the skull with shaders on! And I think Etho's right, especially with the dirt off the eye sockets are too round and big, needs to be smaller. And I think the jaw needs to be bigger and longer and jut out from the mountain since the skull seems to be looking upwards slightly

I really love how you explained your process here, I'm trying to get better at building, so to see and hear the inner workings of your process, really helped :) I know you mentioned while Impulse was live that you felt like you talked to much, so i just wanted to say i appreciated it :) amazing build as usual! :)

Your explanation on the process is really cool, it's interesting to see how you design it instead of just watching a time lapse as a lot of youtubers do. Thank you for this episode, it was amazing!

I love how you share so much of your building process! I wasn't bored one second of you making the skull and explaining everything! I'm always so curious about the process when I see such amazing builds either on RU-vid or other places online, and you sharing this with us gives a lot of inspiration and makes it easier for us to figure out how to go about building stuff like this ourselves! So thank you for that! ☺️💛

Susan got a friend