You may want to try suing primitive toruses or cylindars and create a cyclone shape out of many of them (layer them in a stack from small to large) and then apply a cloud material to all of them. You may have to stretch the the cloud material along the laterial axis to give it a swirling effect.............at least this is where I would begin. I remember seeing a tutorial for something like this about 2 years ago for Bryce. I think the same principles would apply for VUE also. I would check the Bryce tutorials here or over at 3dcommune. Hope this helps. G&C