OK, in the preview, I do see what you mean...as I move the ball through space the pattern is changing, so unless the ball/rock occupies the same exact space, it will have a different pattern, thus shape.

Makes sense...but it still rounds out the ball.  Wonder if thats a bug.

EDIT: X-posted...reading yours now...

Yep, thanks that worked, changed the Cloud Node scale down to like 0.1 and got small version of same.