None that I know of, its not to hard all you do is make a sphere live then paint CV curve on it following your reference (dont try and do in one go) then when you have the pattern sorted out use a nurb circle to extrude along the curves (I then convert to polys after I have it all sorted out). this took me about 10 min to sort out...............dave
Edit:sorry did not read the end of your post,why a occlusion map two reason for me 1 it will show up in photoshop were the raised pattern will be on the sphere and also you can use it as a dirt map
I wasn't quite sure what you meant, but I found this tutorial and think it will work great. Although I was hoping to keep the poly/(nurbs unit) too a minimum and this actually creates more geometry.
I suppose I will try both methods and compare results.
Turns out I'm going to need a lot more practice, experience, and reference to get this model done. I'll post back with progress, hopefully soon.
Thanks again for all of the help.
Last edited by alienscience; 20-12-2012 at 07:41 PM.