wispy, ink type particles

[jsunandmax]

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. 

I'd like to get my particles to 'clump' or 'bunch up' into thick strands, sort of like ink underwater. 

http://es.123rf.com/photo_8829033_tinta-azul-bajo-el-agua.html 

i was starting to get some DECENT shapes with the older POPNET curlnoise, but it doesn't seem to be available with the new POPNET? 

I'm grouping the particles into 4 groups with different drag values and that helps some, but i'm not getting that nice wispy coalescing i'm looking for. 

I tried interact particles thinking i could get them to move towards eachother if they were close enough, but couldn't get that to work.... 

Also, i'd rather not use vortex filaments since i'm generating their overall paths procedurally... 

thanks in advance! 

-jason

[mightcouldb1]

Why dont you use advect by volumes?  Doesn't have to be simulated, you can build the volumes in sops if you like.

[jsunandmax]

I was trying to stay away from volumes just because of cost/compute time.  I could swear i saw a tutorial somewhere (but forgot to bookmark) that had particles forming nice tendril & wisp type shapes instead of just spreading out all over the place.

 

Related question:   what are common methods for rendering particles?  Besides using them to drive volume sims and besides converting them to metaballs....i'd like to get some nice renders of 'just particles' but for some reason just fiddling with the 'disk size' and the 'blur amount' (in the render SOP) and throwing a constant (or even clay) shader on there doesn't really yield great results.   I'm sure some DOF would help, but my particles just dont look as great as something like this amazing work:

 

 

Any help with the render side of pure particles greatly appreciated also...

 

ps. Since posting, i'm looking at the POPS Advection by Volumes but I'm having trouble knowing where to hook it up to my pyro sim.....anyone have screenshot or suggestion on this?.