snake scales displacment/bump map
 

Hi
I need to make a snake with scales like fish scales
overlapping on top each other along the body.
I did some tests painting the map in photoshop
but can't achive the effect of the scales overlapping
on top of each other, it looked like they cut each
other rether then layered on top.
I know there is a plugin for lightwave and 3dsmax that does fish scales,does anyone have an idea of how to do it in maya?
thanks

just an idea
 

sorry for the sloppy example but i hope i get my point across.(its like 5 mins of work) but anyway, i don't know if you tried this before when you created the bump map in photoshop, but.... did you paint different shades of grey for different row of scales (circled areas 1 & 3)? because if you dont, you'll pobably get scales that seem to "cut into each other" due to the fact that all the scales are recognized as being the same height (rem: in real life, scales are not flat) and the only thing that varies are the dark lines that represent the areas between the scales (area 2). of course you'll end up with scales that look like they "cut each other"
hope i helped :)