The Moon.

So here's one of those thought experiments that looks more complex than it is: Can I make the moon based on NASA imagery data? A ZBrush sphere comes with a UV map like a Miller Cylindrical projection. To that add a topographical greyscale map of the moon, apply polypaint from texture, then mask by intensity. Now you have the surface very masked for low points, not so much for high. Inflate that, and badabing! Instant craters. This one's had that pushed way more than it is in reality otherwise you really wouldn't see the difference. To make it pop a little more I added a truecolour map of the Moon over the top of the inflated sphere, also from NASA, which pleasingly shared the same co-ordinate space:

Nice huh? Yeah it's precisely what displacement maps are for but this was a nice ZBrush-y way to approach it. Here's the video too but Vimeo has rather softened the image with its compression. Also as ZBrush spins the objects in the scene rather than the camera, the lights stay put while the moon moves. Slightly unusual for Earth based viewers of this blog!

Moon from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.