An experiment with deriving relief maps from 3d objects. I put a gradient map on an object in the luminance channel of its texture ( in this case a cool skull I found online). Making the closest part of the gradient white and the farthest part black ( actually I only put the gradient halfway through the skull). I used a black texture underneath it to keep things clean.

I then rendered it out from the front with no perspective distortion. The resultant map I applied to a standard parametric plane and then used SPD . The height setting I set at exactly half of the z scale of the skull itself. The skull I found online and was a freebie.

The 3.8mb archive attached has two scenes in it. One called ReliefGen.c4d and one called Relief.c4d. The ReliefGen.c4d scene is the base file with the skull and the gradients applied to it. the Relief image has the scene with the texture applied to an object. The texture derived from the first scene is in the tex folder of the Relief.c4d scene.