We will create a quick coffee (or tea) cup steam object with a lathed shape and a stenciled texture.
The lathed object here is of interest, because we will use the sweep parameter, that enables us to move the profile as we lathe, and the scale parameters that enables us to change the scale of the profile as we lathe.
The profile is very simple.
Notice the horizontal and vertical scale and the vertical sweep
The lathed object
This steam object, of course, should go on top of a cup.
The steam texture is a simple map in Photoshop, created in the following way:
Monochromatic noise on an 800×200 image
Transform a narrow rectangular selection, widening it until it spans the whole width of the image.
Apply the Liquify filter to create turbulence
Paint all the edges black
Now create a texture with the map we just created as its stencil map. Add a 10% or 20% Glow if needed.
Apply the texture to the steam lathe object we just created, making sure it has UV and not cylindrical mapping.
That’s it. Now render.
Making the steam object rotate on its y-axis slowly over time will give a decent animation of moving steam.
