Using the Houdini particle system, [Timothy Tompkins] did the grass streaming from the Sprite as she flies through the forest. He also did the butterflies that randomly flit alongside her, as well as the red poppies that pepper the screen. [Michael Takayama] animated the gorgeous bursts of tree blossoms, the sadly sashaying ashes, and the shimmering sunlight in the final scene (that was later discarded).

I was asked to try out a special tree-growing Houdini module. The tree-growing algorithm lets you set variables for branching and trunk length and direction. I remember walking out of the building and looking at the trees as if I had never seen them before. I needed to see how they grew and the space they occupied.
It's a different kind of life fretting about how to stream grass from out of the Sprite's arms than working out an algorithm for translating C++ and implementing it.