Show in Contents

Add to Favorites

Home: Autodesk Maya Online Help

 

Creating a 3D fluid container

Lesson 2: Creating a non-dynamic 3D fluid effect

Defining shader attributes for a fluid

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Fluid Effects > Lesson 2: Creating a non-dynamic 3D fluid effect > 

Adding fluid to a container

To make this a non-dynamic fluid, you add fluid property values to the container that will stay constant over time. There are two ways to do this: add these values to a static grid, or select a set of values from a list of predefined gradients that come with Maya. For this lesson, you’ll use the latter method.

For a cloud bank, Density is the only property you need to define—the other properties are typically used in dynamic solving.

To add fluid to the container

1. Dolly the scene view to see the entire container.
2. With the fluid container selected, show the Attribute Editor in the right panel of Maya, and click on the fluidShape1 tab.
3. In the Contents Method section of the Attribute Editor, set:
   • Density: Gradient
   • Density Gradient: Constant

   Set Velocity, Temperature, and Fuel properties to Off. (They’re not used in this effect.)

   

   By setting the Density Gradient to Constant, you made all the Density values in the container the same—a value of 1. You can scale these values, but otherwise, they cannot change.