@7over6
Please, use the modifier.
In more words, the displace function in the texture dialog gives far less control over the geometry and makes it very difficult to manipulate the generated meshes. But feel free to explore, if you find some advantages of not using the modifiers, let us know.
First Of all I have say that you guys have made some pretty awesome stuff also i am new to de site and to this thread
Here is my attempt at the UV sculpting I used the EXR displacement 32 bit map privided by @michalis
Rendered in cycles, did a bit of compositing, the background image is from cgtextures.
Comments and Critiques are apreciated.
@7over6: You can also add multiple displace modifiers to a single object and link each one to a unique vertex group. This allows multiple displace strengths on the same object which can be useful for tapering geometry.
Oh that’s great and simply clicking the apply button makes the displacement permanent in the mesh, that’s great and with vertex groups too!
Loops on loops on loops, insets etc. Do loops! The more the better.
With a small amount of the new cycles SSS shader.
I mean a small scale and 1.3, 1, 0.6, diffuse/glossy 80%, SSS 20% mixed.
SSS shader is controlled by AO map (AO, Displ maps baked in cycles)
This emulates a bevel like smoother, almost eliminates termination issues.
An interesting shader for hard surf modeling, reminds me some zbrush shaders actually. LOL
Good job, as always, Michalis 
i’m rendering an AO map right now to test your thing 
but i do not understand, how you can put a small SSS scale, and in the same time control it via the AO map? could you please show/explain the detail of the node setup? (the sss part, as it’s new)
@ michalis cool, i already thought to test the new sss shader, trough this technics, but you’re quicker ^^ it looks so realistic more than like a 3D print, very impressive indeed.
@ imgo2013 woaw pretty cool, i like your result !
@ingo2013 and michalis, damn both look really nice.
Michalis did you do those loops similiar to your post #437 tutorial?
Anyway, i updated my “hand” render. Still working on it, might even submit it to blenderguru contest as suggested.
Here’s my contribution and use of this awesome method. I like others have learned so much from this thread and method about UV scuplting.
I did have a question though: since the displacement maps I made in gimp were all square/block oriented is there anyway I could load the map in the UV editor of Blender then have my sphere subdivided so that the square polygons would line up perfectly with the size and shape of my jpg map texture? This way not only would the displaced shapes be sharp and perfect but the total number of polygons needed would be MUCH less.
Nice, impressive new posts!
about loops:
select two faces, rotate edge (alternatively, f for n-gon and use knife), smooth vertex, you have a loop now. Use I (inset for extrudes, and more extrudes etc)
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another quick test, displace+ao and some comp;cycles 50 samples.
BaRe your on to something great! But you need to add a subdivide surface modifier before the displacement modifier on simple mode so you’re sphere has more polygons to work with and your displacement will be much sharper. How did you do the smoke?
Got a faster computer so this process is less sluggish.
Extra greebles on the top:
Started the model & displaced it the usual way, converted to mesh, selected crevice verts on top, subdivided them, made them a vertex group, unwrapped just them - follow active quads, applied a displace modifier to just that vertex group.
It’s a super easy way to add greebles to just a small part of a model.
Also, it’s almost to the point where a person can start a model with no pencil sketch. Just move the displace map around on a simple box model and see what pops up. I purposefully scaled the uv map of the starting model to just a small part of the displacement image so as to produce a pronounced effect on the shape of the whole model, not the small details.
Very good, Kaerhon. Not much displacement indeed but it’s OK, just add AO map.
In a matter of fact, don’t even displace. You can have the low poly version. Keep in mind that, using bumps (and AO) only, you can use less geometrical patterns too.
You can control the amount of displ via weightpainting, so it’s ok now in some areas but you can displace a lot on the chest for instance.
i did weightpaint, but i don’t know why it is so flat. whatever. redidit!
i did another render without sss (to much time consuming, too much unpredictable for a non-sss-user like me), with the texture without coordinate, gives strange lines, but finally stylish stuff! (wonders born out of mistakes, you know), guess i’m gonna use it some other times.
@ 7over6 corrected version here, for the clouds i simply used an image in comp.
