title: creating deformations on a sphere surface (using python?)
body: <p>Hi :)
  i have the following python code that generates points lying on a sphere's surface</p>
  
  <pre><code>from math import sin, cos, pi
  
  toRad = pi / 180
  
  ox = 10
  oy = -10
  oz = 50
  
  radius = 10.0
  radBump = 3.0
  
  angleMin = 0
  angleMax = 360
  angleOffset = angleMin * toRad
  angleRange = (angleMax - angleMin) * toRad
  
  steps = 48
  angleStep = angleRange / steps
  latMin = 0
  latMax = 180
  latOffset = latMin * toRad
  if (latOffset &lt; 0):
      latOffset = 0;
  
  latRange = (latMax - latMin) * toRad
  if (latRange &gt; pi):
      latRange = pi - latOffset;
  
  latSteps = 48
  latAngleStep = latRange / latSteps
  
  for lat in range(0, latSteps):
      ang = lat * latAngleStep + latOffset
      z = cos(ang) * radius + oz
      radMod = sin(ang) * radius
  
      for a in range(0, steps):
          x = sin(a * angleStep + angleOffset) * radMod + ox
          y = cos(a * angleStep + angleOffset) * radMod + oy
          print "%f %f %f"%(x,y,z)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>after that i plot the points with gnuplot using splot 'datafile'</p>
  
  <p>can you give any hints on how to create deformations on that sphere?
  like "mountains" or "spikes" on it? 
  (something like the openbsd logo ;) : <a href="https://https.openbsd.org/images/tshirt-23.gif" rel="nofollow">https://https.openbsd.org/images/tshirt-23.gif</a>  )</p>
  
  <p>i know it is a trivial question :( but thanks for your time :)</p>
  
  <p>DsP</p>