Every once in a while I try to learn one of Maya's very powerfull features. This time that has been xGen. this tool lets you generate instances depending on maps, equations, etc. I used it to generate a landscape based on a grayscale picture. As always, I polished things up with some nice materials and proper lighting. Rendered with Arnold.
Unit:
Count:
40.000
Location:
random
Height:
$a=map('${DESC}/paintmaps/length');
$a=$a*40;
20-$a