I was not sure to start this crazy project-detail - but I could not sleep until I tried...
Here you see my Desert with the Viper, the old truck, the small town, the R2D2
AND:
125 animated clouds
each one is "triggered" when the viper flies over it and just increses and downsizes the density. Additionally all of them use 4D Noise (but only one density fractal).
[attach=1]
[attach=2]
[attach=3]
And the result looks quite ok though I want to move the "Trigger point" app. 5 frames later and reduce the maximum density of the clouds a bit. Very easy principle but hard work!
This is just a short Fraps-capture of a XN-View dia-show (with 20ms frame delay)
The real animation starts after some seconds -- hope you can see it
[attach=4]
The basic idea i had when I was watching some movies. If something moves over dusty ground it just whirles up the dust but no dust is really following the vehicle. So: no moving clouds...
Theoretically I could refine that strategy by adding more instances of clouds and let them just minimally follow the Viper after being "triggered" but I think thhe look should be good enough... remember - at first I didn't want any dust