This lesson introduced you to some basic concepts of dynamic fluids. You learned how to:

• Create an empty fluid container.
• Emit fluid properties into the container to create a dynamic fluid effect.
• Modify forces acting on the fluid container to change the behavior of the contents of the container (Gravity and Turbulence).
• Add color to a fluid by emitting color into the container.
• Make a fluid collide with an object.

The hardware render of the simulation provided you with a fast, realistic representation of the fluid. The final step would be to do a mental ray render.

Although we looked at a 2D fluid, the same concepts apply to 3D fluids. In the lessons that follow, you’ll work with 3D fluids and explore methods other than fluid emitters for adding contents to a fluid container. You’ll look at the texturing capabilities that are part of the built-in shader. You’ll also learn about the Temperature and Fuel fluid properties and how you can use them in your effects.

Beyond this, you can also:

• Emit fluid from the surface of an object.
• Give the fluid a hard surface (surface render) for a globby or lava-like effect, rather than the soft, cloud-like surface you saw in this lesson.
• Cache the fluid simulation for faster playback.
• Deform an object with the force of a fluid.

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