I would like to create a Photino Bird from the Xeelee Sequence. I know it's never gotten an official illustration, but in my view, it would be made out of a mist-like substance in constant flux, moving around and shifting. It would almost look like the Nightmares from Rise of the Guardians only made out of fog, not sand.

If I'm being too vague, please tell me. This is my first post here, after all.

having never seen either of these I"m not sure of exactly how they look but can picture in my mind what they could possibly be. And all I can think of of is to use smoke and try to manipulate it to the shapes you need may be quite difficult as the restraints have to be pretty exact and even more so if you wish to animate it. There are some pretty good tutorials on UTube on its use. Incantrix

I can sort of imagine what you are describing but how to achieve it not sure how to approach it I agree with incantrix about trying to use smoke and manipulate it into a shape and sure there has to be something like this that someone has done some sort of tutorial on and Youtube would be the place to search

Good luck and keep us apprised on what you find or do sure this will be of interest to many

Smoke will probably not work for you in the context of a character. Perhaps volumetric lighting could help.

blender can do smoke ........but not (at the mo ) multi coloured or constrained to a shape maybe other programs that can ( how deep is your wallet lol )

maybe with animated texture maps ~ transparency maps ...... you can do it ......depends