Here's a classic article that blurs the lines between image processing and automata. Very sad that it seems offline today.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160325174539/http://freespace....

Thanks for this. I have been playing with CAs recently[1], and doing a lot of GIF rendering based on the Game of Life rules. This water rendering algorithm seems like a great next step for me to experiment with.

[1] https://twitter.com/tweetgameoflife