Connect a texture as a displacement map

For more information about displacement, see Displacement maps.

Note

Avoid using Environment textures for displacement mapping. The basic characteristics of environment mapping preclude accurate calculations when used for displacement mapping.
During bump or displacement mapping, if an image file contains a mask channel, the mask channel is used for displacement and bump mapping. If the mask channel is absent, the luminance of the RGB is used to displace and, or bump map.

If you prefer to use the luminance information as the alpha, turn on the Alpha Is Luminance attribute (in the Color Balance section of the file texture’s Attribute Editor).

To create a displacement map

In the Hypershade window, create the desired material, for example, a Blinn, and middle-drag the material swatch onto the object in the scene view.
In the Hypershade, click on the Shading Groups tab.
Double-click the shading group swatch to open the Attribute Editor.
In the shading group Attribute Editor, click the map button beside the Displacement mat attribute and select the desired texture.
Click the Render the current frame button to see the render results.
TipDisplacement mapped texture results do not display in hardware texturing mode (the view) unless temporarily mapped to a material’s channel.
You can also use Modify > Convert > Displacement to Polygons.

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License