# Your Terraforming Inspirations



## kattzy (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly to do with my island and wondering where you guys draw your inspiration from, I could really use some neat ideas
Be it real life photos, video games or even other users(twitter, tumblr, reddit, here) sharing their own teraformed islands - what has helped you figure things out?


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## Khaelis (Apr 24, 2020)

I often get a lot of inspiration from rustic villages.


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## kattzy (Apr 24, 2020)

Khaelis said:


> I often get a lot of inspiration from rustic villages.



I kind of like that style too but no idea how to implement it
Designing is so hard I almost miss not being able to change anything lol


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## Bugs (Apr 24, 2020)

I get my inspiration from the concept of biomes, like in Minecraft. I've tried to divide my island up into different sections based on biomes around the world I find it gives me a lot of interesting terraforming results! Like a canyon, a valley, forest, I'm gonna be making a jungle once I know where I wanna put it, and I've got a swamp too! 







I've had a few other ideas that I probably won't use but would be interesting like, you could make a digsite using cliffs to make a hole in the second layer


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## Lars (Apr 24, 2020)

i was planning on putting my museum on the top of my island.
and make it look like it was carved from the mountain.
with a little river in front of it.

and for my house i was thinking of putting that on an island in the middle of my map.
and surround it with water ( giving it a castle-esque feeling to it.

as for the rest of my town ( or island i should say, he he ) i don't know yet.

i just thought it would look neat.
but the person above me with the picture of the trees on tiny little islands looks fantastic too


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## birdsquad (Apr 24, 2020)

I recently started following this youtuber called Briclyn Forest. She has a bunch of livestreams and videos of her landscaping peoples towns, especially think you'll enjoy those if you like overgrown forest type islands. She also does some videos that are just tours of other peoples islands if you like different aesthetic styles than your typical forest town. 

Other than that I browse the tumblr tag for acnh and get plenty of inspiration there. But personally I always struggled with landscaping until I was able to sit down and watch someone actually do it? Idk how to explain it, but whenever I watch her landscaping vids on yt I come away with fresh motivation to make my island look amazing!


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## matchaman (Apr 24, 2020)

birdsquad said:


> I recently started following this youtuber called Briclyn Forest. She has a bunch of livestreams and videos of her landscaping peoples towns, especially think you'll enjoy those if you like overgrown forest type islands. She also does some videos that are just tours of other peoples islands if you like different aesthetic styles than your typical forest town.
> 
> Other than that I browse the tumblr tag for acnh and get plenty of inspiration there. But personally I always struggled with landscaping until I was able to sit down and watch someone actually do it? Idk how to explain it, but whenever I watch her landscaping vids on yt I come away with fresh motivation to make my island look amazing!


might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff: 



__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176


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## JKDOS (Apr 24, 2020)

I don't know. I want something simple, but haven't done anything productive in that past 2 weeks. I struggle with creativity.

I would really like a town like this guy's


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## Clock (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine are from other towns i've seen on youtube or some websites.


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## birdsquad (Apr 24, 2020)

matchaman said:


> might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176



oh yuck... i had no idea. girl bye


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## kattzy (Apr 24, 2020)

Bugs said:


> I get my inspiration from the concept of biomes, like in Minecraft. I've tried to divide my island up into different sections based on biomes around the world I find it gives me a lot of interesting terraforming results! Like a canyon, a valley, forest, I'm gonna be making a jungle once I know where I wanna put it, and I've got a swamp too!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is a FANTASTIC idea and I'd honestly love to see the progress you make on it if you're open to sharing more!



JKDOS said:


> I don't know. I want something simple, but haven't done anything productive in that past 2 weeks. I struggle with creativity.
> 
> I would really like a town like this guy's



Ooh I watch their videos as well, always looks amazing ahh
I struggle with creativity as well, here's hoping we find our creative sides lol


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## michan (Apr 24, 2020)

the amount of youtube video's i've watched for inspiration as well! I usually just watch the most popular videos when i search up 'acnh island tour'

very inspiring and I like to take a few ideas from each


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## moonolotl (Apr 24, 2020)

Honestly with the terraforming i just opened up procreate (you can honestly just use any paint app), took a screenshot of my island, traced over it then just started painting over it with random ideas! I didn't particularly draw inspiration from anywhere, i just enhanced my layout a little and added shapes until it looked interesting and until there were enough flat areas for me to work with and for me to be able to sort out what i wanted to do! It seemed to translate well to me planning where to put stuff, where atm im just winging it lol
I draw most of my decorating inspiration from reddit and twitter though


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## Bugs (Apr 24, 2020)

kattzy said:


> This is a FANTASTIC idea and I'd honestly love to see the progress you make on it if you're open to sharing more!



Thank you very much!  I'll probably make an island journal with my progress at some point so I'll let you know when I do!


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## psiJordan (Apr 24, 2020)

Bugs said:


> I get my inspiration from the concept of biomes, like in Minecraft. I've tried to divide my island up into different sections based on biomes around the world I find it gives me a lot of interesting terraforming results! Like a canyon, a valley, forest, I'm gonna be making a jungle once I know where I wanna put it, and I've got a swamp too!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow those designs look amazing!! If I ever were to restart my town, I would make a jungle-y theme and those would look great with it!


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## daisyy (Apr 24, 2020)

my town is fairy-tale themed so i draw a lot of inspiration from real life castles for the map and landscaping ideas, as well as fictional sources like disney and other animated movies.


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## dino (Apr 24, 2020)

i really like a couple on twitter:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252356661622132736

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251167216055103489

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1248878526326960128


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## kattzy (Apr 24, 2020)

dino said:


> i really like a couple on twitter:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252356661622132736
> ...



I love that wishing pond on the last one!


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## dino (Apr 24, 2020)

kattzy said:


> I love that wishing pond on the last one!



it's so pretty ! op has a knack for top down visuals i really respect.


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## Rosewater (Apr 24, 2020)

dino said:


> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1251167216055103489



I've seen a couple of people put mushroom lamps around their island and it looks so beautiful and fantasy-like!


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## ElliotAdoresYou (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm really bad at designing islands and stuff, but I'm gonna be redoing my island once I get all my dreamies since they are my main focus right now. (having to stare at pango while I terraform really isn't something I wanna do right now)  I'm gonna be referencing Jabberwock island from SDR2 in terms of locations around my island, and as for the aesthetic I was thinking a more modern city with hints of fairy elements. it's probably gonna take awhile to complete, but once Pietro and Ankha join the gang, it's go time baby


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## dino (Apr 24, 2020)

Rosewater said:


> I've seen a couple of people put mushroom lamps around their island and it looks so beautiful and fantasy-like!



same, i absoooolutely adore it !! 

i'm n. hemi and it makes me so tempted to just time travel to autumn already bfgsghdh. i just want those shrooms !


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## 0orchid (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine is pretty simple currently but I like making things heart shaped so I have a few river/ponds like that. Eventually I want my island to look a bit fairy-tale and full of nature and whimsical decorations. Also probably some things that are styled like an old village, so not quite urban but more developed. I have a long ways to go with moving buildings, terraforming, and collecting items before my island is how I want it. I really like things like this as far as design inspo:

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1253105671035187200


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## Zura (Apr 24, 2020)

Ok well, I have a retro city, a lake, a desert, and a castle/dungeon. Any of these strike your fancy?


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## Larimar (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm doing a mystery/monster/paranormal island so I have a lot of inspiration from life and fiction to pull from! :> it's just how to integrate it is difficult. So far I have a ufo crash site where the secret beach is, so it looks like it really crashed into the side of the island, as well as created a bit of a crater. I then plan on doing some large footprint shaped ponds to look a monster or something walked through. I havent figured out anything solid past that :O or maybe I'll even shift the footprint idea to make the whole island look like an impression of some sort


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## tokkio (Apr 24, 2020)

I've been watching island tours on youtube and these youtubers have great island tour content: Crossing Channel, TagBackTV, Celesica  
also from posts on the animal crossing community on reddit! sometimes they just share their towns. there are also a lot of people who share their design ideas and codes on twitter 




matchaman said:


> might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176



thanks for sharing this info! wouldn't want to support someone like her  welp gotta unsubscribe!


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## kattzy (Apr 24, 2020)

Zura said:


> Ok well, I have a retro city, a lake, a desert, and a castle/dungeon. Any of these strike your fancy?


Oooooh now this sounds interesting, care to share photos?




Larimar said:


> I'm doing a mystery/monster/paranormal island so I have a lot of inspiration from life and fiction to pull from! :> it's just how to integrate it is difficult. So far I have a ufo crash site where the secret beach is, so it looks like it really crashed into the side of the island, as well as created a bit of a crater. I then plan on doing some large footprint shaped ponds to look a monster or something walked through. I havent figured out anything solid past that :O or maybe I'll even shift the footprint idea to make the whole island look like an impression of some sort




That UFO crash site sounds AWESOME, such a unique idea


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## Zura (Apr 24, 2020)

kattzy said:


> Oooooh now this sounds interesting, care to share photos?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I shared some videos here!


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## Quicky (May 3, 2020)

Bugs said:


> I get my inspiration from the concept of biomes, like in Minecraft. I've tried to divide my island up into different sections based on biomes around the world I find it gives me a lot of interesting terraforming results! Like a canyon, a valley, forest, I'm gonna be making a jungle once I know where I wanna put it, and I've got a swamp too!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 hey! do u have a QR code for these roots? ) would be dope, ty!!


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## Bugs (May 3, 2020)

Quicky said:


> hey! do u have a QR code for these roots? ) would be dope, ty!!



Yeah I do! I made them 

If you go to my gallery, and click the spoiler called Mangrove Swamp Tree Roots you can find screenshots of the codes there 

Edit:

Oh wait you said QR codes, unfortunately I don't have any QR codes for them I'm afraid  unless there's a way of generating QR codes from New Horizons which I can't seem to find?


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## twisty (May 3, 2020)

I love watching 5 star island tours for inspiration!!! There was this amazing wild west one that I adore!


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## Carole (May 3, 2020)

OK, I just _have_ to be different, right?  LOL  Here's what I mean:

Like others here I watch youtube videos of ACNH islands every day.  They are so pretty! In fact I copied a couple of elegant terraforming ideas from them; but these copied ideas are just awful in my town, as great as they seem in the towns on youtube. I mean, the instructions were good and the results are just the same but the terraformed parts copied from videos do not fit in with the rest of my island! I guess you could say they clash with everything else. It was fun to learn how people get such grandiose terraforming projects done, but honestly I will probably try to put things back like they were before. I don't even like going to that part of my island any more.

My BEST terraforming ideas, the ones that have made ME happiest, have been the ones that just come to my mind "out of the blue", so to speak. To get these inspirations I just look at my island, wander around it, and think about what would make it better. I love terraforming when I do it this way.


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## Mary (May 3, 2020)

I actually started a Pinterest board to get inspiration for mine! I saved pics of any map ideas I liked but I also saved pics that captured the aesthetic I wanted, like mossy stone paths in real life. It took a while to come together, but I'm finally starting to like it. What helped me the most was reminding myself to like/save things based on placement rather than just on the colors/items - because I can always swap those.


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## ZekkoXCX (May 3, 2020)

matchaman said:


> might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176


aww , i really liked her videos and i wouldn't expect she would do that ://

unfollowing rn

	Post automatically merged: May 3, 2020

oh , back to topic : i usually like to watch island tours in youtube to see if there's an idea i might like , i rarely go to twitter or pinterest to search terraforming ideas


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## moon_child (May 3, 2020)

matchaman said:


> might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176





matchaman said:


> might wanna unfollow her lol...she's done and said a heap of nasty stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1252458521041330176



OMG. Lol. I actually came across her a long time ago during New Leaf era and when I learned that she sells hacked towns and charges people for landscaping, I was automatically turned off. I just don’t get why people would do that. It’s not that hard (it’s hacked) and why would you want a town made by someone else? What’s the point of playing the game then? I can’t believe people actually paid her actual money. And it’s not even cheap. So when NH came out, I thought she’d be “out of business” what with terraforming available to everyone now without hacking. Can’t believe she still found a way to charge people for something.

Anyway, I strongly recommend using the island designer app or drawing on a paper whatever your plans are for your island first so it’s more streamlined once you start terraforming. Once you’re doing it, you’ll find that you’d want some things to be done this way or that. It comes naturally once you’re doing it.


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