Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map!

As many of you may remember, last week, I began on a project to create a large custom island. Last post, I created a huge seabed area for us to build an island on. In today's post, we will be following up, by building the island itself! Sorry that I didn't have time to do it all last week; that post was getting long.

So, to start things off, let's fire up MCEdit once more, to get to work!

Once again, if you are following along, remember to back up your map! Especially after all your work on the seabed, you may want to save that.

 To start things off, we will want to make a big, round island. We can shape it more later, but for now, we need a starting point. To make the island, we will start by using a giant, round brush. It doesn't matter if it pokes out above the water. We can trim it after. We will fly above the island, and drag it though the seabed!


 This was the result. It's okay if it goes into the water a bit. If this happens to you, just move the water out of the way.

Next is when we clip the top. I want to leave a bit of a water's edge, so I moved the selection a bit above the sea's level.


Here is the clipped island! We can finally begin to see what the final product could look like, and just how much space we have.


However, we can all agree that the island doesn't look like it belongs. That is where this system comes in:

1. Sculpt with a Fill Brush.
2. Run the Erode brush.
3. Use the Smooth filter.
4. Repeat these steps.

Or, if you want to abbreviate it,  you can refer to it as S.E.S.R., or Sculpt, Erode, Smooth, and Repeat.

1. Sculpt with a Fill Brush
 
The goal is to blend the island into the surrounding trench. To do this, fill in any obscure holes, like the one below, and build up to any sharp edges.


I found a sharp edge that needs something added on, right here.


You can just pile up some mass next to it. I will revisit this area on other steps.


2. Use the Erode Brush.

Our next step is to erode away any obvious shapes. Run your Erode brush along anywhere that is too bulky... Sorry if that isn't a good word. This step is hard to explain. Ignore any unnecessary roughness; this isn't football, after all. ;D


 Feel free to carve away at anything that bugs you. Need I say more?

3. Run the Smooth Filter

We do this step to solve our troubles with rugged terrain. Just select the whole area you have been working on, and run the filter. Hopefully it will help! Also, in case your program freezes, now is a good time to save your work.



4. Repeat 

Maybe you didn't fix everything you came to. That is where this step comes in.

In my case, the island looks good, but the top is still way too edgy. I will need to run along it with the Erosion brush, for sure.


I did my first run of erosion. The island now looks more like a Mesa formation. In reality, a Mesa is a hill with cliffs on all sides.


For a bit, I thought I could live with the way it is, but decided to run with a second round of erosion on the island. If you are doing the same, my advice would be to erode any ledges like this to be level with the terrain around the island.


Our next step is to do some terrain forming at the top. You go ahead and do your thing, but my island won't be too hilly, so I decided to pile up a bunch of fairly flat brush strokes. Of course, it's not quite that simple. Below is my result. It might look a bit goofy, but I will smooth it out as I go in-game, perhaps, and yes, I plan on using it for another project.

Next, we need to run Topsoil and Setbiome. I've selected both the entirety of the stone I added, and the area around the island. I'm going to run both filters, with Setbiome set to Beach. Afterward, I will shrink the box, and set the rest of the island as Plains.



Now, this is when I want to do whatever carving I want to. This island will be called Crescent Island, named for a Crescent Moon shape. So, I will need to give it that characteristic. I will simply use the usual process...

Shape...


Erode...


Finally, Smooth. I also ran along the bay's bed with a topsoil brush.


This has been a long project. Our final step is to plant some flowers and such! There is a filter suited for this, known as Forester. You can use it to plant trees for you, but there is another well-known way to use it.

Right here, you can see the default settings. This is great for generating trees, if that's what you want to do. But, let me reveal my plan. I want to build an island city on this island, or at least a modern port town. So, making wild trees isn't entirely helpful.


Instead, I'll use it to randomly plant flowers and tall grass. Just copy the settings I used in the screenshot below. For good coverage of plants, you may desire to run it multiple times.


At long last, the island is done! Here is how it looks in-game!


Oh, gosh! I've created a virus! What have you done, MCEdit?!


'Scientific' research shows that this is a new kind of glitch grass, not yet known to Minecraft-kind. Maybe one day we will understand it... But, for now, let's smash our problems.


Well, that's it for today! As always, your feedback is very much appreciated; if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. But for now, thanks for stopping by! I'll see you all next post. Until then!