ASICS Platinum was about making the shiny parts really shiny — an "in your face" gradient for three shoes (the GEL-KAYANO, men's and women's, plus the NIMBUS). I built fully procedural crystals in Houdini and set them side by side with the shoes to catch the light — simmed low-res, then swapped to high-res once the motion was locked. Then a shoe stomps an invisible floor and the ground ripples — absorption you can actually see — plus some sand exploration and a pillow-squishiness R&D tangent, because three sims weren't enough. My side: asset prep, texturing, every material, then animation, lighting, camera, a Redshift render and an After Effects comp — one pair of hands, an unnecessary number of sims.