Trouble creating desired smoke effect

Hi -- I've stepped into to thicket that's taking way too much of my time, and still have a whole animation to do! I need some smoke. This is my third day puzzling over tutorials, and still can't get... well, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is the tragic divide between what I need to create:

http://i.imgur.com/lOL61.jpg

And the carnage I've created:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8486452/smoke_abject_fail.mov

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks friend, especially for the particle illusion tip. I actually saw those VCP tutorials already, and am definitely going to use the animating a still cloud trick down the road. As far as the scene I'm working on, I just decided on brute force. I'm smushing several trails together to make an overall shape. It's sort of working, believe or not (though rendering is insane). I'll look at particle illusion though. I'll share the final unmasked animation for kicks here when it's done.

"THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA" -

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