Blender : Modelling with cross sections
By Olivier Saraja

S  t  e  p    1 :
Height Map

First of all, we will use The GIMP software in order to generate a Height Map for our landscape. This tutorial assumes that you are already familiar with The GIMP and Blender.

Upon starting of The GIMP, we'll get the following window :

Click on the Xtns menu title, select Script-Fu, then Patterns and Flatland, which is the special effect we are looking for.
VYou obtain the hereafter dialog box. For your first try, use the following parameters : Image Width : 512, Image Height : 512, Detail Level : 10. Feel free to try other values as needed. Pay a special attention to the values of Random Seed and Detail Level.

You should obtain a color Height Map like the one below. To have Blender working with it without trouble, you should also transform it in grayscale, and then flatten it.
 
 








And here is a full Height Map, ready for use, obtained with a few clicks only with The GIMP ! You just have to save it with the name and in the directory of your choice.