Beyond the lesson

In this lesson, you learned that ocean effects are different from the dynamic and non-dynamic volume fluid effects. An ocean effect is created with a plane and shader rather than a container and fluid properties. With ocean effects you learned how to:

Create an ocean plane and shader.
Create a preview plane to see the displacement of the shader without rendering.
Modify ocean shader attributes to customize the look of the ocean.
Make geometry bob and move in the ocean.

To learn more about ocean shader attributes, look at the ocean shader examples that are included with Maya (in the Fluid Effects menu). Some of these examples use a 3D non-dynamic volume fluid to create the atmosphere above the ocean.

Motor Boats

You can create a game-style boat simulation using the Fluid Effects > Ocean > Make Motor Boats command. Once you set up hotkeys for the rudder and throttle of the boat, you can “drive” the boat in the ocean. The boat will roll, pitch, and jump over waves appropriately.

Boat Wakes

You can create boat wakes using the Fluid Effects > Ocean > Create Wake command. Wake fluids do not use the Navier Stokes solver like regular fluids, but use the Spring Mesh Solver. A fluid emitter is used to drive the motion of the fluid.

Ponds

If a smaller body of water is what you had in mind, you can create a pond using Fluid Effects > Pond > Create Pond. Ponds are 2D fluids that use a spring mesh solver and a height field. You can generate bubbles, ripples, and waves using the Create Wake options for the pond.

For details on these topics and others, see Fluid Effects in the Maya Help.