Well, I had promised a while ago I would eventually do this. So here it is.

I am not quite sure it is a full bodied tutorial in itself, but I tried to annotate it so that people could follow the thought process.

This video is about making a heightmap, manually. I named it "Becoming a Human Wilbur".

To make this sort of map, you need to have a file with many layers, as you will see. Each layer corresponds to a certain maximum height. You start by roughing in some shapes... then you start "carving" them. The more detail you add the more natural it will look and the video is about "CREATING DETAIL".

I bet I didn't quite explain myself in parts of the video and I suppose some folks will want to know more. Just throw your questions away and either me or someone else, more knowledgeable or more available, will probably respond...

Enough intro, the video is at... http://youtu.be/w1sf4TwfeOA