'Dune'
A five minute doodle in Photogenics (a superb paint/FX package) provided a simple grey-scale displacement map, which was applied to a rectangular plane Object. The plane was subdivided into hundreds of small triangular polygons, which allowed LightWave to 'elevate' those areas in white and 'depress' those in black. Imagine modelling and moulding a sheet of chicken wire and you've got the gist of it. The result is an undulating sheet of hills and valleys. However, if you want to learn more, you'll find a full blown Tutorial on Displacemant Mapping on the Tutorials Page.
I applied a simple red Surface colour to the sheet and added some blue-grey fog. A red light source off screen left gives the impression of sunrise. This is sunrise on Dune. Thumping good eh?
