How to make a tornado

[skywalker113]

I want to make a tornado. I know that you can make a wind path in a shape of a tornado but it seems like to much work. Does anyone know of a simpler way?

[joelaff]

I made one using a few cones that I deformed with displacements (world coordinates fractal). Then I rotated these cones at different speeds. I applied HVs to these cones. Looked killer (for a national ad a few years back). You can deform the cones with bones to to get the curves shape. So much easier to control than a particle solution. I did augment this with particles as well.

[skywalker113]

I saw a tutorial a long time ago that made a tornado just using a particle emitter. I cant find it anymore though.

[probiner]

ftp://ftp.newtek.com/products/LightWave/Trial/Videos/Animation_Path.mov

[SplineGod]

Tornados generally dont look very fuzzy or cloudy except near the bottom from debris and dirt and near the top where it meets the clouds.
Generally you can do the funnel using geometry and some animate procedurals and the debris cloud using HVs.

[MooseDog]

http://www.spinquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25031

in the first post, look for the tornado tutorial series :D