Due to the lack of resources regarding ROBLOX’s tool, “Terrain”, and how to make it look well-polished, I’ve decided to make my own tutorial on how to use this tool to your advantage within your games and builds.
Note: Before following this tutorial, I’d suggest to change the default terrain color to what color you wish to place into your games. To change the color of your terrain, head into Workspace > Terrain, and then view “Properties”.
By clicking the colored boxes and/or changing the color code value, you can change the terrain’s color, which is incredibly useful for different types of styles! For example, a cartoony game may have brighter grass than a realistic game, etc etc.
Getting Started
To start off, the “Terrain” tool can be access through the “View” tab.
Upon clicking “Terrain Editor”, the Terrain Editor window should come up, and it looks like this:
Tools
Generate: I would recommend NEVER to auto-generate terrain, as the terrain generating algorithm does not generate the most realistic terrain, and you cannot get as creative with it as you can with self-made terrain
Add: The add tool is used as a quick and efficient way to add large chunks of terrain at a time. I regularly use the add tool to achieve large mountains in a short amount of time. I would never recommend using the add tool by itself, but rather, to create a rough draft of the terrain you wish to pursue to make. The add tool is useful for making structures alike to the one showed below, and is often combined with the “Grow” or “Erode” tools.
Subtract: The subtract tool is used as a quick and efficient way to subtract large chunks of terrain at a time. I regularly use the subtract tool to create large ravines or tunnels. Once again, this tool should never be used alone, and should be combined with either the “Grow” or “Erode” tools to blend it all together.
Paint: The paint tool is a quick and relatively easy way to paint a large portion of terrain at once. I would recommend this tool to color large areas, like a beach, or a desert. However, I stray away from using this tool for rocks, mud, or small areas of sand.
Grow: The grow tool is the most used tool when I’m creating my terrain. I use this tool to “blend” together added terrain. as well as “blur” rocks and other materials to make them seem more realistic.
https://gyazo.com/57fe4f8ee9f8e202379c71d51ee9fa48?token=37621018687b8d02acd2f2b6d41cc29f
https://gyazo.com/c76e5b6b653ee1acd9970e7c322fb3b5
Examples of the Grow tool being used with a “blur” technique.
https://gyazo.com/7b0fbb8c9f996a57e748902152eeb0a6
Example of the Grow tool being used to blend terrain created with the “Add” tool.
Subtract: Unlike the grow tool, the subtract tool cannot be used to “blend” materials. However, it can create a separate effect from the “grow” tool, when being used to smooth out terrain.
https://gyazo.com/c811f1eb8436ad48c715880486e2aec2
Example of the Subtract tool being used on terrain created using “Add”.
Smooth: I do not touch this tool all that much, however, it is a smoothing algorithm made for “smoothing” terrain.
Regions: The Regions tool can be used to add onto maps, copy/paste terrain, as well as useful for making bodies of water. I also use it to make perfectly flat spaces.
https://gyazo.com/d10f8785a85f4c4f882a9742fcb502ae
With the gif above, it is shown that the Regions tool is helpful for creating flat, smooth bodies of water.
Lighting
Lighting is crucial to help terrain to look well. My advice is to play with ROBLOX lighting settings, until you get something you’re looking for. Stray away from default studio lighting, is it adds too much dark shades to terrain, which is bad in terms of making your terrain look visually appealing.
Decorating
For decorating, I’d suggest to use many trees, rocks, grass, and shrubs (depending on how you wish to make your place), all varying in shape and sizes. For some trees you are free to use, look here: Fennec's Free Cartoony Tree Pack .
Have fun making your terrain!
