Render created using 3D inside Photoshop along with previous tutorial material

Hey guys, no tutorial today, but I thought you might be interested in seeing a project I slapped together.  I had an hour to kill, so I played with .... Photoshop.  Imagine that.

I was messing around with the 3D in cs5 extended and I thought to myself "this would look pretty good with a little tread plate".  So, using the technique from one of the earlier tutorials, I generated a pattern and from that, created a normal map to tuck snugly in behind the diffuse.

Just an aside, this was done 100% inside Photoshop.  No outside modeling software was used.  Maybe that will be in an upcoming tutorial?

Anyway, here's the pic, showing that there are some practical applications to all these crazy tutorials I throw up on the blog.  Enjoy.