[VadeRetro]

Ever notice on this kind of shot how the water droplets betray the size scale? Water droplets the size of a man's head or larger don't work. The surface tension force rises only with the square of the radius, but the disruptive forces mostly rise with the cube of the radius. There is thus a size limit to stability.

A similar thing often happens in shots with flames and/or smoke billows. Individual little candle-flame spikes shouldn't be too big, nor should smoothly curved smoke wisps.

The worst mistake is neglecting to slow the film down when shooting miniatures. If the water flies too fast or the smoke billows too fast, size scale recognition happens at once.

[Long Cut]

Yep, the effects wizards in Japan have often said that water, fire, and smoke are the things that give them the most headaches, because they always betray size.

The size effect in water is mitigated by using a small amount of soap in it. It seems to cut down on the effect.

They also use some CGI to help, at least in the 2000's. Due to budgeting constraints, they have been unable to use it as freely as American producers.

Hey, if you find something that makes water look "smaller" if added, sell it to the Japanese!