The late Andy Witkin's classic SIGGRAPH paper on reaction diffusion textures: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aw/pdf/texture.pdf http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aw/pdf/texture.p

The late Andy Witkin's classic SIGGRAPH paper on reaction diffusion textures: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aw/pdf/texture.pdf http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aw/pdf/texture.pdf We present a method for texture synthesis based on the simulation of a process of local nonlinear interaction, called reaction-diffusion, which has been proposed as a model of biological pattern formation. We extend traditional reaction-diffusion systems by allowing anisotropic and spatially non-uniform diffusion, as well as multiple competing directions of diffusion. We adapt reaction-diffusion systems to the needs of computer graphics by presenting a method to synthesize patterns which compensate for the effects of non-uniform surface parameterization. Finally, we develop efficient algorithms for simulating reactiondiffusion systems and display a collection of resulting textures using standard texture- and displacement-mapping techniques.