Maelstrom is a 2D fluid simulation plugin for Adobe After Effects. It runs a real fluid solver (FLIP, short for Fluid Implicit Particle) on the CPU, producing thousands of particles that collide, flow, and respond to forces in a physically convincing way. Use it for water, lava, foam, magic effects, particle crowds, or any effect where you need real fluid behaviour rather than scripted motion.
Four-step setup
- Apply the effect to any layer (usually a Solid). The layer becomes your fluid's "canvas"; its size defines the simulation area.
- Set Gravity and Gravity Direction to taste. Default is downward Earth gravity.
- Press spacebar to preview. The first pass bakes cache; after it's green you can scrub freely.
- Tweak Grid Resolution (30 to 200) and Particle Distance (100 to 500%) for the detail-vs-performance balance.
That's the whole basic loop. Everything else is fine-tuning, organised by parameter group on the Documentation index.