If you're anything like me, you'll have a favourite developer, and mine just happens to be Valve. For those of you who don’t know Valve, it's an entertainment software and technology company that has been around since 1996. Since its beginning, it has produced an overwhelming amount of award winning games, with the most recent including Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Portal 1 & 2, Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. It is also the developer of leading-edge technologies including game engine Source, and premier online gaming platform Steam.

In short, Valve are incredibly progressive in their use of technology, art and design. When having a scroll through the Valve website I came across this slide presentation that I want you all to see. It shows, in a step by step format, the techniques that Valve used to create the different water effects in their award winning Portal games, with software animation tool Houdini. And if you're anything like me, I'm sure you'll appreciate this as much as I do!