Make an object into a fluid

Question

i am trying to make a fluid simulation of a metallic text melting to the floor and doing...you know, do what fluids do. My issue is that if i make the text a fluid and bake it, the shape gets completely messed up (doesn't matter how high or low the simulation quality and mesh quality are) and is barely readable as you can see here:

Now, is there a way to make the fluid look exactly like the original mesh until the simulation starts? My goal is to make the G you see on the right stay the way it is in the screenshots until i hit play and then let the physiscs take over. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Use the keyframes in the animation to have the fluid properties apply only from say, frame 2. That way, on Frame 1, your G is the normal mesh and it turns into a fluid and do what fluid does only from frame 2.

Answer 2

This appears to be purely due to the simulation Resolution - with the resolution being too low to pick out the detail of the simulated mesh volume.

With later Blender versions the fluid simulation is quite different (it now used Mantaflow) but with the version you appear to be using there were two Resolution settings - Final and Preview. You must set Final to be the overall resolution of the simulation (this is what the simulation is calculated at) - larger values will break the Domain into smaller cells that will better fit your mesh, but at the expense of significantly higher simulation time (so it will take much longer to run the calculations).

The 'Preview' resoltion setting allows you to 'downscale' the resolution of the sim - to give you a lower-detailed mesh to simplify your scene when viewing/editing prior to your final render. To see your simulation at full detail you should set it the same as the 'Final' setting - otherwise you will only see a low detail version of your simulation.

In summary, simply increase your Final Resolution and Preview Resolution to increase the detail.