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
02. Access the Attributes of the 3D Container. Set the ‘Contents Method’ attributes to the following values:
Density: Off (zero)
Velocity: Off (zero)
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
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
05. Set the ‘Shading Quality’ to “3.00”.
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
Finished with the clouds!
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
04. Set the ‘Contents Method’ attributes to the following values:
Density: Off (zero)
Velocity: Off (zero)
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.
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”.
09. Access the ‘Opacity’ Subsection and set the value of both points to “0.85”.
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.
That’s it for creating a realistic sky with clouds!