Landscapes & Worlds · Beginner · 15 min
Sculpt Terrain from Scratch with the Landscape Tools
Start from a flat plane and shape real hills, valleys and cliffs by hand with the Sculpt, Smooth, Flatten and Erosion brushes — and learn the three dials (size, strength, falloff) that control all of them.
Before this: Navigate the UE5 Viewport Like You've Done It for Years, Import Your First Landscape from a Heightmap
- Create a new, flat Landscape with 'Create New'
- Raise and lower terrain with the Sculpt brush
- Use Smooth, Flatten and Erosion to refine a shape
- Control any brush with size, strength and falloff
Shaping land with your own hands
In the last lesson you imported a ready-shaped heightmap — fast, and great when you already have a terrain. This time we do the opposite: we start from a completely flat plane and push, pull and smooth it into hills, valleys and cliffs by hand. This is called sculpting, and it's how you make a piece of land that is exactly yours.
Sculpting feels intimidating at first because the brushes seem to do random things. They don't. Every brush obeys the same three dials — how big it is (size), how hard it pushes (strength), and how soft its edge is (falloff). Learn those three and every brush suddenly makes sense. We'll create a flat landscape, then play with Sculpt, Smooth, Flatten and Erosion until shaping terrain feels natural.
Before you start
Tick these so the sculpting goes smoothly:
- An open level — a Basic level, or the Third Person template from earlier lessons, both work fine
- Comfort flying the viewport camera (right-mouse + WASD, and F to frame) — you'll move around the terrain constantly
- A three-button mouse — sculpting with a trackpad is painful and you'll fight the camera the whole time
- Ten quiet minutes — sculpting rewards slow, light passes far more than one heavy stroke
Four brushes to know by name
Tap a card to flip it
Create a flat landscape and sculpt it
Work top to bottom. Each row stays ticked even if you close the page and come back, so you never lose your place.
- 1Switch to Landscape mode
At the top-left of the level editor there's a mode dropdown (it says 'Selection' by default). Open it and choose 'Landscape'. The left-hand panel changes into the Landscape tool with its own tabs.
TipIf you can't see the mode dropdown, it's the toolbar button on the far left of the viewport, just under the main menu.
- 2Create a new flat landscape
On the 'Manage' tab, make sure 'New Landscape' is set to 'Create New' (not 'Import from File'). This builds a flat, paintable plane instead of reading a heightmap.
Leave the section and component numbers at their defaults for your first try, then click 'Create' at the bottom of the panel. A flat green-grey plane appears in the level — that's your blank canvas.
TipThe default size is plenty to learn on. You don't need a giant landscape to practise sculpting — a smaller one is faster to move around.
- 3Open the Sculpt tab and pick the Sculpt brush
Click the 'Sculpt' tab in the Landscape panel. The Sculpt tool is selected by default — you'll see a list of tools (Sculpt, Smooth, Flatten, Erosion and more) you can switch between.
Move your mouse over the flat plane and you'll see a circle — that's your brush. Anything inside the circle is what you're about to affect.
- 4Raise your first hill
With the Sculpt tool active, left-click and drag on the plane. The ground rises under the brush — congratulations, that's a hill. Build it up with a few gentle passes rather than one long hold.
Now hold Shift and left-drag over the same area: the terrain lowers instead. Shift flips Sculpt from 'raise' to 'lower', so the one brush both pushes up and digs down.
TipLight, repeated strokes give you far more control than one heavy press. If a bump shoots up too tall, just Ctrl+Z to undo and try a gentler pass.
- 5Set brush size, strength and falloff
In the Sculpt panel (or the 'Brush Settings' section) find Brush Size, Tool Strength and Brush Falloff. Brush Size is how wide the circle is; Strength is how hard each stroke pushes; Falloff is how soft the edge is — high falloff blends smoothly, low falloff makes a crisp edge.
Try a big, soft brush (large size, high falloff, low-ish strength) for rolling hills, then a small, hard brush (small size, low falloff, higher strength) to add a sharp ridge on top. Same brush, totally different results — that's the power of the three dials.
TipYou can resize the brush quickly with the [ and ] keys instead of dragging the Brush Size slider every time; adjust Tool Strength directly with its slider.
- 6Refine with Smooth, Flatten and Erosion
Switch to the Smooth tool and drag over any jagged or lumpy bits — it averages the heights and blends them, like sanding. Then try Flatten: it levels everything you paint toward one height, ideal for carving a flat ledge or a building pad into a slope.
Finally try Erosion. Drag it across your hills and it wears the peaks down and settles the valleys, instantly making hand-sculpted terrain look weathered and natural instead of bumpy.
TipA reliable recipe: rough the shape in with Sculpt, then do one light Smooth pass, then one light Erosion pass. That sequence turns 'blobby' into 'believable'.
- 7Look at it from the ground
Switch the mode dropdown back to 'Selection' and press 'Play' to drop in at player height and walk your terrain. Hills you sculpted from above always read completely differently at eye level.
Hop out of Play, jump back into Landscape mode, and tweak. Sculpting is a loop: shape, look from the ground, adjust, repeat.
Sculpting shortcuts worth memorising
- LMB drag Sculpt: raise the terrain under the brush
- Shift LMB drag Sculpt: lower the terrain instead of raising it
- [ ] Shrink ( [ ) or grow ( ] ) the brush size
- Tool Strength slider Drag the Tool Strength slider in Brush Settings to change how hard each stroke pushes
- Ctrl Z Undo the last stroke — your best friend while learning
Your hills come out lumpy and unnatural, like piles of dough. What's the fix — without starting over?
Do a light pass with the Smooth tool first to blend the worst of the lumps, then a light pass with the Erosion tool. Smooth averages neighbouring heights so jagged spikes settle down; Erosion then simulates weathering, wearing peaks and filling hollows the way water and wind would.
Also raise your brush falloff. A high falloff gives a soft, feathered edge that reads as a natural slope, whereas a low falloff leaves hard rims that look man-made. Lumpy terrain is usually low-falloff Sculpt strokes that were never smoothed.
On a fresh flat landscape, sculpt one rolling hill and one valley beside it. Then carve a flat, level pad into the side of the hill — somewhere you could imagine placing a house. Finish by making the whole thing look weathered, not lumpy.
Hint 1
Hill: a large, high-falloff Sculpt brush, a few gentle left-drag passes. Valley: same brush, hold Shift to dig down.
Hint 2
Flat pad: switch to the Flatten tool and paint a small area on the hillside — it levels toward one height.
Hint 3
Weathering: one light Smooth pass over the lumps, then one light Erosion pass over the peaks.
Create New → flat landscape. With the Sculpt tool, a big soft brush, raise a hill in a few light strokes; right beside it hold Shift and drag to scoop out a valley. Switch to Flatten and paint a small patch on the hill's flank to cut a level pad. Then Smooth once over any jagged edges, and run Erosion lightly across the peaks.
Drop into Play to walk it. If the pad isn't flat enough, a couple more Flatten passes will square it off — and remember Ctrl+Z undoes anything you don't like.
Sculpt from flat vs import a heightmap
You start with 'Create New' and shape every hill by hand. Total creative control, and the only way to make terrain that is exactly what you pictured.
Best for small, bespoke areas, gameplay spaces you need to fit a level around, and for genuinely learning how terrain works.
You choose 'Import from File' and Unreal builds the terrain from a grayscale image you made elsewhere or got in a pack. Instant, believable shapes with no brushwork.
Best for large regions and set-pieces. In practice most people import a base, then sculpt small tweaks on top — the two workflows are partners, not rivals.
QuizCheck yourself
1You're using the Sculpt brush, which raises terrain. How do you make it lower terrain instead?
Holding Shift flips the Sculpt brush from raise to lower, so one tool both pushes terrain up and digs it down.
2Which brush is the right choice for carving a flat, level pad into the side of a hill?
Flatten levels everything you paint toward a single height — exactly what you want for a building pad or a level path.
3Your hills look lumpy and artificial. Which combination most reliably fixes that?
Smooth blends the lumps, Erosion weathers the peaks, and higher falloff softens the brush edge — together they turn 'blobby' into 'believable'.
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Questions beginners ask
What's the difference between Sculpt and Erosion?
Sculpt is the manual brush you control directly — drag to raise, Shift-drag to lower. Erosion is a simulation: it doesn't move terrain where you point so much as wear it down the way weather would, eating into peaks and settling valleys. Use Sculpt to make the shape, then Erosion to make that shape look naturally aged.
My brush isn't doing anything — what's wrong?
Three common causes: you're not in Landscape mode (check the mode dropdown), the brush strength is set very low or to zero, or your cursor isn't actually over the landscape surface. Confirm you see the brush circle on the terrain, nudge the strength up, and make sure the Sculpt tab is the active tool.
How do I undo a sculpting mistake?
Ctrl+Z undoes the last stroke, just like anywhere else in Unreal, and you can press it repeatedly to step back through several strokes. Because undo is reliable, the best way to learn is to sculpt boldly and undo whatever you don't like.
Should I sculpt from flat or import a heightmap?
Both are valid and they pair well. Sculpting from flat gives you total control and is the best way to learn, ideal for small bespoke areas. Importing a heightmap is faster for large regions. A very common workflow is to import a base terrain and then hand-sculpt small tweaks on top of it.