Youtube also have some great vids of the shaping process. I would go and ask a shaper nicely (esp if u have brought boards off him before) if you could watch.
If you read swaylocks or surfermag's design forum you'll see it seems to be pretty hard to shape a dog (no pun intended). There are some boards out there that you'd reckon would suck that people are frothing over. E.g. read the surfermag thread on Tomo's MPH boards. You wouldn't reckon it'd work as a HPSB, yet everyone swears it does. Same bloke's riding a wakeboard shape in waves, like 4'-something, reckons it works, there's a youtube of him on it:
Another thing Legion. Thomo's dad is a shaper and mad inventor. Have you seen that dude getting barreled on the surf mat? That's his dad.
Point is Thomo rips and he has also been shaping for a long time. His boards are experimental but based upon other stuff he has been riding for quite a while. His fishes are pretty good also.
I'm not implying he's a dog shaper - in fact, the opposite based on reviews and his vids. I'd love to try some of his shapes. But based on conventional wisdom they're hardly normal.
My point is don't worry about not knowing anything. Sure, have a read about some reasonable rockers and rail profiles and outlines, but sometimes it's OK to just grab out some paper and sketch up your ideas, grab a chunk of foam and start shaping. EPS is cheap. Throw it out if you don't like it.