Quick clouds in Autodesk Maya

In this tutorial i will show you how to create quickly nice clouds using fluids. The tutorial is divided in two sections. Firstly we do have to make clouds only and in second part we will add the sky.

PART I – CLOUDS

01. Create a 3D Fluid Container: “Fluid Effects” -> “Create 3D Container”  -> “options” and set its properties:
Resolution: x=75, y=10, z=75
Size: x=25, y=05, z=25

.
step_1 kopie

02. Access the Attributes of the 3D Container. Set the ‘Contents Method’ attributes to the following values:
Density: Off (zero)
Velocity: Off (zero)
step_2 kopie

03. Still in attribute editor click “Shading” label and set up these values:

Transparency (R, G, B): 0.090
Edge Dropoff: 0.50

In ‘Color’ set the gradient from white to gray:
point 1 — position: 0.00 / color: white
point 2 — position: 0.75 / color: gray
point 3 — position: 1.00 / color: black
Color Input: Y Gradient
step_3 kopie

04. Now set up the Opacity to the following values:

point 1 — position: 1.00 / set value: 0.95
point  2 — position: 0.80 / set value: 0.80
point  3 — position: 0.60 / set value: 0.60
point 4 — position: 0.50 / set value: 0.35
point 5 — position: 0.45 / set value: 0.00
Opacity Input: “Constant”, Input Bias: 0.03
step_4 kopie

05. Set the ‘Shading Quality’ to “3.00”.
step_5 kopie

06. Set the ‘Textures’ attributes to the following values:
Texture Color: On
Texture Opacity: On

Amplitude: 0.95
Ratio: 0.40
Frequency Ratio: 2.75
Depth Max: 4
Inflection: On
Frequency: 1.95
step_6 kopie

Finished with the clouds!

Image converted using ifftoany

Now let’s make the sky…

PART II – SKY

01. Create another 3d Fluid Container.
02. Access the Container’s attributes.
03. Set the ‘Container Properties’ to the following values:

Resolution: x=25, y=05, z=25

Set the Size of this container so that it’s large enough to encompass your clouds.
Size: x=100, y=100, z=100

step_7 kopie

04. Set the ‘Contents Method’ attributes to the following values:

Density: Off (zero)
Velocity: Off (zero)

step_8 kopie

05. Set the ‘Shading’ attributes to the following values:

Transparency (R, G, B): 0.85
Edge Dropoff: 0.35

06. Access the ‘Color’ Subsection and set the ‘Selected Color’ to Black.
step_9 kopie

07. Set the ‘Incandescence’ attributes to the following values:

Point 1 — Position: 0.000 / Selected Color: R 0.50, G 0.75, B 3.000
Point 2 — Position: 1.000 / Selected Color: R 0.85, G 0.90, B 1.000

08. Set the ‘Incandescent Input’ to “Y Gradient,” and the ‘Input Bias’ to “-0.25”.
step_10 kopie

09. Access the ‘Opacity’ Subsection and set the value of both points to “0.85”.
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10. To emphasize the shading of the clouds, access the ‘Lighting’ Subsection and set the ‘Self Shadow’ on. Adjust the Opacity level to your desire.
step_12 kopie

That’s it for creating a realistic sky with clouds!

Image converted using ifftoany