Yep, they can be other objects or subdivided portions of other objects.
I used a plane as the simplest example, it's easy to practice with.
It's also possible to animate.
Big hat-tip to Steinie who pointed out that tread which I'm cherry-picking for the rest of this post. (and maybe more than one post) Also thanks to the original authors.
Fun with Displacement Mapping by
e-graffiti
When I first got tS 7.5 one of the new features I played with the most was the Displacement Mapping tool. While exploring this feature I had been ignoring my job, wife, kids, getting little sleep, not washing, and not eating. Ok I exaggerated a little I had been eating. My first experience with modeling using Displacement maps is from Bryce 3d. I really consider Bryce a FUN program to use because of this feature. My earliest art experiences are based on drawing and painting so I find this type of "modeling" very intuitive. Simply draw out what you want as a grayscale image, apply it as a displacement map and "voila" there is your drawing as a 3d image and you did no Point Editing!
Prior to tS 7.5 I would import complex landscapes in, but now I
can make them right in tS.
The real power of this tool is that I can apply displacement maps to ALL of my 3d modeling "base" objects. The possibilities are endless! From organic to inorganic, from recognizable objects to totally abstract.
The image below can be used as some sort of Sci-Fi electrode. It was modeled with a simple sphere and Displacement map of
concentric circles. Simply adjusting the Displacement Mapper UV Reps and the final image was created!
In the below image the ocean floor, sea shells, rocks, and plant
are all displacement mapped objects.
I have always considered tS a powerful 3d application but now I
can add FUN to the list because of the Displacement Map tools.
I love the fact that Displacement mapping in tS is not tied to just terrain type objects. Making the seedweed would be a tedious process via point editing but all I had to do here was simply adjust the grayscale image in PhotoShop and apply it. If I did not like the results tweak the grayscale again and reload the image map, no return to previously saved image!
In general to get the most out of this type of modeling you need good grayscale images. Complex grayscale image making tools will allow you to really push this technology so you may want to load up on PS plugins or use a program like Bryce to generate complex grayscales.
On thing that MadMouse reminded me to mention and that SteveBe brought to my attention in another post is that you will need to subdivide the the surface (either SDS, smooth quad divide, etc..) to get the details of the displacement map.
<
SteveBe wrote: >
For the large poly counts, you can use the (Simplify &) Normalmap tool.
I save the original displaced mesh and then run the tool with Tangent space
option checked. You can see the vertices count comparison between the
the 2 meshes in the screen cap. attached. Be warned, it can take a long time
to run on complex meshes, so you have to just let it do it's thing.
The advantage is you can create complex meshes for say a render, and
simplify a copy for real -time shared space etc.
One important point I left out is the simplified mesh is triangulated, so that is
why I said save a copy of your original displaced mesh if you want do make
changes later.
