You`ll never get it done in mudbox - its a model only program

I think real flow is what you are going to need if you only have maya 2008.

Its not that hard to learn as I did a water logo filling up slowly then falling apart after a few seconds and it took me about 3 days to figure out and 2 days of rendering. Follow my link to my mytoon site to see it. Also check out digital tutors has a interation with maya training kit which has a man falling to sand, but I think it can be changed to liquid.