Terraforming Help..Tips

hi guys. very new to terraforming. i plan to buy a 16,384 sqm homestead parcel as my home. id like to terraform island to my ideas. as many have mentioned, the manual in world tools are tough to get good with. unfortunately, i wont be an estate owner...just buying a 1/4 of the sim. i believe this would prevent me from using more precise terraforming with photoshop .raw files etc.. is this correct??

anyways, i will be terraforming manually in world. its tough to practice terraforming skills without land..hhhaaa. or, if you dont wanna screw up your new land.. is there such a thing as a terraforming practice area out there?

i watched the basic linden tutorial on manually terraforming, and it is BASIC... i was hoping you guys could share some tips.. or point me to some detailed terraforming guides. i know the tools are basic, but the use is particular.. for example.. i recently read that the flattening option only does its job, if you left clik and hold on a height you want it to be, while moving cursor. before i read that, i was clicking and moving, clicking and moving... making a mess, wondering, why it wasnt flattening..hehe. this is basically what i need.. detailed info on what each tool does and how to use it effectively. plus any tips or hints on how to do this manual thing as well as possible.

thanks for the assistance

That's about it, unless the estate owner wants to play along with the project too.

One of them is on Torley's psychedelic island.

https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/tnt/blog/2009/05/04/land-learn-terraforming-by-doing-it-at-torleys-landbox

thnxx..found it.

any tips on properly using the tools...

my biggest problem right now, is getting the water-line, coastline, smooth and flowing. im lookin to have curving coast..not just straight edges. i can get the basic shapes i want, but, its jagged, not smooth. i have an idea that the smooth tool is what i need to use, but, cant seem to get it to do what i want..hehe.

when it comes to seams and edges you'll need to have subdivide and join access for that land if you don't you'll be lucky to get the land of the sims to join up nicely. the real trick actually is to just make sure when you make something like a island to not terraform no more then 10m near the edge of the sim. this will give you enough room to smooth and sculpt with out to much trouble. I paint sims using heightmaps that i convert to .raw and have become quite successful at it. if you need any assistance in your design i'll be glad to help you for free.