notes.husk.org/likes images.

The 1997 Academy Awards are mostly remembered as the year Titanic won 11 oscars, but at a dinner ceremony separate from the telecast Ken Perlin received an Academy Technical Achievement Award for an algorithm. In 1983 Perlin began work on a pseudo-noise function with the intention of generating organic looking textures that moved away from the TRON aesthetic. Now known as Perlin Noise, the method was widely adopted by various studios and used in films ranging from the Lion King to Titanic;  Disney put it into their CAPS system - you can see it in the mists and layered atmosphere in high end animated features like The Lion King. 

Perlin’s vase and smoke images are amongst other early images found here. His award reads:

To Ken Perlin for the development of Perlin Noise, a technique used to produce natural appearing textures on computer generated surfaces for motion picture visual effects. The development of Perlin Noise has allowed computer graphics artists to better represent the complexity of natural phenomena in visual effects for the motion picture industry.