Displacement Mapping with Blender By Anthony C. D'Agostino

Other Examples

The initiated reader will soon realize that these scripts really don't need an image in order to be useful.  If you run them on a flat mesh, you will just end up with a smooth sphere, cylinder, or torus.  This is a rather boring result.  However, it proves an important point: if you create your own special mesh, like the one shown at the top left corner, some interesting objects can be created.

Note that the mesh shown is just a very small single "tile" and that you must make several copies along the x and y axes.  A quick and easy way to do this is to parent this single tile to a subdivided plane, then simply press the 'Dupliverts' button to instantly make the copies.  Now select your subdivided plane and press s|c|a to convert the virtual copies into real objects.  Select all of the tiles and join (c|j) them together.

An important step that I often overlook is to make sure that the center of the mesh is located at the origin.  This can be done by pressing s|c and then 'Centre Cursor.'  Also make sure you press c|a to apply the size and rotation of this object to the individual vertices.  This will allow the newly created mesh to satisfy the requirements in Step 3 and must be done prior to running the scripts.