Hi Cath, (Mec4D) I did try that and from the top that does look really good. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I learned that viewing from different camera angles will affect the realism of the effect, which is why I was looking for other ways to approach this. I think displacement maps are somewhat limited, although I hadn't thought of blurring the image, that would probably solve the hard edges. What started out as simply playing is becoming a bit of an obession LOL. I'll keep playing with it and see what comes of it. Thanks for your responses.