Terraining Help

Look, I've searched around for this, but I'll I've gotten was little tidbits of information and screenshots. Is there any full-blown advanced terraining tutorial to make my terrain look, nice? Right now it's not looking so hot, so can someone please post a link? I've searched on google AND on these forums... I can't seem to find one.

All help is appreciated,
Eriond

It's pretty hard to say a good way to terrian, just use your tools, doodads, use more than one tileset, use your raise and lower, all those keys. Observe it, make it better.:////

I know, that's what everyone says.... but is there like a tutorial on this? Anywhere? At all?

I'm pretty new at terraining, but so far I've learned a few things:

Don't show the edge of the level - seeing the sky where you ought to see ground is BAD.

Make your own doodads. The scaling on most doodads - and units, for that matter - is bizarre. If you walk Arthas up next to the door to a City Building, you'll see that the door is only big enough for about half an Arthas. Many doodads can't be rotated except to orthogonals (examples are the City Buildings again, and Fences, Flower Boxes...). Get rid of their pathing textures and set "fixed rotation" to -1.00: you can then freely rotate the doodad. You can also overlap them to create your own new props. (Be sure to fix the pathing with pathing blockers.)

Use THIS ADD-ON. It makes a big difference. (Thanks Draco!)

Elevators are KEY. Don't like the ugly blue base at the bottom of the Statue (Shieldless)? Sink that baby into the ground. Want a doodad that's only the funky rotating part of the Arcane Sanctuary? Again - sink it into the ground. Placing Obelisks or Columns inside the edges of walls in tilesets like Dalaran or Dungeon can spice up an otherwise unbroken surface. Just place 'em, then - you guessed it - sink 'em into the ground.

Use tiles that are similar colors, but different shades (light/dark values) next to each other to acheive a mottled, light-filtering-through-clouds effect. A great demonstration of this technique is the Kobolds' cave in The Founding of Durotar.

Use your imagination! Not every little piece of your map has to be unique, but it's the little things that can make a big difference. Maybe one house is inhabited by a little old lady who likes flowers, while another is owned by a slumlord who doesn't take very good care of his property. It's ideas like this that become guiding principles for how something should look.

Homogeneity does not exist. If you make a map that is a perfectly even mix of tiles, with doodads evenly spread across it, and bodies of water carefully spaced so the map is the same amount of water on one half as it is on the other, it will look DULL. Things don't work that way in Nature. People tend to clump together. Trees tend to clump together. Undergrowth tends to grow... under other things. If you catch yourself "spreading" something around, ask yourself why, and whether it might be better to "clump" them in one place.

And finally: it takes TIME. Don't be in a hurry to get the map cranked out, or it will look like it was rushed. Take your time and make it look the way you want it to look. Keep play-testing it and readjusting until it looks great and plays great - to you. If it's the way you want it, really, who could ask for anything more?