Create non-dynamic fluid effects

In non-dynamic fluid effects the fluid property values are predefined within Maya and stay constant over time, which means they don’t have to be recalculated. You create the appearance of the fluid by texturing a special fluid shader that is built-in to the fluid. This shader is built into the fluid for better performance. If you want the fluid effect to have motion, you can animate (keyframe) the texture attributes. Because Maya doesn’t solve the fluid dynamics equations, rendering this type of fluid is much quicker than rendering a dynamic fluid.

Clouds, fog, space, and other more abstract effects are good candidates for non-dynamic effects.

For an example of a basic non-dynamic fluid effect, see Fluid Effects Lesson Two in Getting Started with Maya. You can also load the examples in the Fluid Examples folder in the Content Browser - see Import Fluid examples.

To create a non-dynamic fluid effect

1. Create a fluid container.

   See Fluid containers.

2. Add Density values to the container that cannot change over time. Do one of the following:
   • Add them as a predefined gradient of values.

   See Add properties as predefined gradients.

   • Add them to a Static Grid.

   See Add properties to grids.

3. Add color to the container using the built-in fluid shader.

   See Color fluids using shading color.

4. Texture the contents of the fluid using the built-in fluid texturing capabilities.

   See Texturing fluids.

5. To create motion, keyframe the Texture Time attribute in the Textures section of the fluidShape Attribute Editor.

   For information on keyframing attributes, see Keys.