Blender 2.6 2D Halo Smoke Element

This is an example of a 2D smoke element created using 4 textured halo particle systems (only a few thousand total particles) and displacement compositing. The resulting 2D element is then placed in a 3D scene as layered billboards (shadeless stationary planes with alpha transparency) and then rendered with real shadow interaction in the environment. This method seems to work in a well-planned scenario. The idea is similar to using video assets in other 3D compositing programs with shadow interaction. This also proves a quicker result and less trial and error than a legitimate smoke simulation on low processing power. This is nothing new, of course... but it is the first that I have tried it for myself.