Over ten years after its initial release, the sandbox game Minecraft remains as popular as ever. Fan art for the blocky adventure title still pops up regularly on Reddit, and Minecraft speed runners still compete for world record times. Nowadays, the best speed runs finish the game in a matter of minutes, but one piece of fan art takes viewers from the start of the game to the end in a matter of seconds -- then repeats the process.
Minecraft is a game that is as much about creativity as it is about survival, so it should come as little surprise that the subreddit for the game is filled with unique fan art, made both in-game and in the real world. Not one to be put in either box, however, Redditor and Minecraft fan PlayArt20 states they used the 3D modeling program Blender to create their amazing looping animation.
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The animation shows a cube spinning around with each of its sides containing a scene in which a player is progressing through one of Minecraft's various thresholds. The first side sees the player with a crafting table in the wilderness, a scene that anyone who's played the game for five minutes should recognize, the second shows the player deep in a cave, mining, and the third shows the player entering a portal. Next, the player is seen picking up blaze rods in the Nether before returning to their end-game level home to prepare for the Ender Dragon.
From there the player hops into the ender portal, slays the dreaded Ender Dragon, and heads back to the overworld where the whole process starts over. Of course, PlayArt20's animation includes more scenes than there are sides on a cube. Evidentially the scenes are swapped out when the specific side of the cube is away from the camera.
Also, when visible, each side makes it appear that the cube is filled with that particular environment, only to be replaced as the next side comes around to face the camera. This effect is most impressive as a new side comes into the frame and two faces of the cube are visible at the same time.
Of course, the devil's in the details, and PlayArt20 added a lot of nice little touches to the piece. For starters, objects that players will likely obtain within each phase of their Minecraft journey float around the outside of the cube. Simple wood blocks and cobblestone orbit around the early-stage scenes, with more complex and harder to find Minecraft items orbiting the later stages.
If anything, the piece demonstrates that the Minecraft subreddit is truly a hotbed of creativity. From this 3D art by PlayArt20 to Minecraft paintings and a giant deranged Minecraft chicken, just when it seems like fans have done it all, someone comes along with a brilliant new idea.
Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.