4th Quarter Comeback

Travis Nguyen
Dec 11, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Hello, and welcome to the climactic finale of this project. In this blog, I will talk about my process for creating this video, what cuts I had to make, and what I would do differently.

The Seasons

The first thing I did was set up the environment for each season. This was my node tree setup.

I showed the rendered stills I had in my last blog, but you will see them again in the video later in this blog. I utilized the switch node to switch between environments on certain frames. For the winter scene specifically, I had to add the snow on top of the lantern myself. Following this video by Nine Between, I managed to simulate snow falling on top of it. Here is my node tree setup for that.

Sake

Next was setting up the particle simulation for the sake. It took a lot of trial and error, moving the curve and adjusting the parameters of the pop curve node to make it move how I wanted it to. I even tried to create a custom pop curve node, but I gave up on the idea because it was too much for me to learn and develop in the short amount of time I had left. In the end, I just tinkered with the simulation until it looked about right. Here is my node setup for that.

Thanks to my previous tests, I was able to set up the particles and collisions way faster than the first go around. I even used a funnel to help guide the particles into the sake bottle.

After the main simulation was created, I copied and pasted it to create a smaller simulation. This time, instead of ending in the sake bottle, it ended in the little sake set to the side of it. After that, I meshed it and then brought it into Solaris to add materials and render everything.

Didn't Make The Cut

In the end, I didn't have enough time to create the seasonal object that the fluid could follow. Because the main focus of the project was on the fluid, I put most of my time into simulating that and making sure that it looked good above everything else. I think it loses a bit of the story, but thanks to the changing environment, I don't think too much was lost.

Hindsight

This next section will be more of a personal review and a look back on my progress this semester. If this section doesn't particularly interest you, then feel free to skip until you see the video! This semester has been absolutely crazy in terms of workload and overall demand, and I think every class took a hit because I was dragging myself a bit too thin. That being said, there are quite a few things I would do differently if I had the chance.

First, I would spend a lot more time in the planning phase to really nail down the idea of what I wanted the final piece to look like. Sure, test renders are good, but I eventually had to get out of the "testing phase" and move on to the actual project to troubleshoot issues that will show up there.

Second, I would need to organize my time better. Obviously, this isn't the only project I will have to deal with over the semester, and I will have to navigate around all of these assignments in order of priority. Not setting aside time to figure out that priority list has definitely hurt me this semester, and something that I definitely need to change. This semester was also the first time I have encountered failure to this degree, so coming to terms with the fact that I tried pushing myself a little too far in the context of workload is something that I need to adjust to.

And lastly, I need to communicate a lot more. Besides the bi-weekly review sessions, I didn't really communicate my progress or what was causing my lack of progress. If any problems did arise, I tended to hunker down for a few hours to troubleshoot and keep it to myself. Or if it was other class work, I would just push this project to the side without saying anything. I think not having the guidance on how to navigate these issues was definitely detrimental in the long run. This is definitely something I am trying to fix, and setting aside my ego to open up and talk about issues that are slowing down my progress would be beneficial.