velarde,

I think that you are on the right track, here are some suggestions. When you really look at corn, the kernels don't push out very far and it's very thin lines between the kernels. Here is a quick rendition using Shader Ops to stretch out the Cellular function. A painted texture would probably be better, because you could make it patterned like corn and thin out the lines even more, but this was quick. The Grooves settings were samples 256x256, Quad Split = Smart Sampling, Smooth Angle = 60, and High = 0.05in.

Good luck,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Freeware and commercial 3D extensions
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara and LightWave plug-ins