How to approach a steam vent with Phoenix?

[Ripper Owens]

Let's say I want to animate a burst of smoke coming from a horizontal pipe with a bit of force behind it. So I imagine it being a 'stream' of smoke that after a distance 'opens up' and rises (after the burst has stopped).
What would be the best way to approach this? A particle burst as source, with a force space warp?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Ivaylo Katev]

the particles are an option, you can animate the discharge to achieve the condensation effect (the steam is not visible immediately after the release). use the temperature for the opacity channel, that will allow to control the disappearing with the cooling parameter. for better performance use uniform conservation option.
another possibility is a small source with very high discharge value, for the rendering i would recommend to modulate the opacity with distance texture, to achieve the effect of condensation.
in both the cases you need (ta high value for the SPF upper limit, because the steam speed is relatively high.

[Ripper Owens]

Thanks, this is some great info to get me started!