You can change the size of fluid containers by:
- Changing container dimensions – This method changes the size of the voxels and proportionally changes the contents of the voxels. See Changing container dimensions.
- Scaling containers – This method changes the size of the voxels, but does not change the contents of the voxels. See Scaling containers.
- Extending container boundaries – With this method, you add voxels to the boundaries of the container, maintaining the size and contents of each voxel. See Extending container boundaries.
- Dynamically resize the fluid container – Using Auto Resize, you can set the boundaries of the fluid container to dynamically change as fluid density increases or decreases near the boundaries of the container. This method changes the number of voxels, but the contents of the voxels at a particular location in the container stay the same. See Dynamically resize a fluid container.
Changing container dimensions
The dimensions (physical size) of the fluid container are defined in the working units set for Maya. Increasing or decreasing the dimensions of a container while keeping the resolution unchanged increases or decreases the voxel size, respectively.
For example, if you increase the size of a container with Density, the total amount of fluid that appears increases proportionally and the fluid appears thicker than the original.
Related topics
Scaling containers
Scaling fluid containers using the Scale transform increases the size of the container without scaling the properties inside the container.
For example, if you increase the scale of a container with Density, the density appears thinner because the amount of density in each voxel is redistributed to fill the larger voxel size.
To optimize render times either turn on Keep Voxels Square or scale the container proportionally along X, Y, and Z axis. To size a container non-proportionally, use the Size attribute.
Related topics
Extending container boundaries
You can extend the boundaries of an existing fluid container by adding voxels to any of the sides of the container. This increases the resolution of the fluid (the number of voxels defining the fluid) without affecting the size or the contents of the voxels. (Voxel size is determined by the fluid container size and the initial resolution of the fluid container. To maintain the voxel size while extending the fluid container, Maya scales the fluid container.)
The contents of the voxels remain intact. For properties defined as Gradient, the gradient values are applied to the entire container.
