Work-in-progress of a fluid simulation in Maya 2013 to create waves crashing into the shore.

 

Fluid emission is done in a 2D container and driven by nParticles converted to a poly mesh to create the wave-like motion. The particles are contained by a slightly rotated flat box where they rest on one end. A spherical volume axis field traverses the length of the particles' resting position to push them up the box and then gravity and drag control their fall back to their resting position. The particles are then converted to a mesh to make a smoother shape to drive fluid density emission. The fluidShape has liquid simulation enabled to create more water-like movement. The fluidEmitter has both emission turbulence and directional speed to push the density around in a more water-like way.