This couldn't be easier. Start with a blank frame in Photoshop, or some other image program that supports Photoshop plug-ins. Paint the background grey, and play around with simple geometric patterns as seen in the file, "New Ship Skin." For the best effect, make the sides the same so that the finished image can be tiled.
Next, run it through the Emboss filter. The results are visible in "New Ship Skin Embossed."
The "Sample Rendering" file was rendered in Infini-D (but this will work in any other 3D program that supports bump-mapping) with the embossed version as both the surface map and the bump map, thus providing both the look and texture. The entire process from start to finish took about twenty minutes.
As you can see, some really nifty-looking surface textures are possible with this very simple approach. You could turn this into a starship hull, a circuit board, or any number of geometric patterns.
Enjoy--and make sure you upload anything you make with this concept!
