Is it possible to make a child of a parent object follow the parent translation at a different speed?

So if there are 10 child objects to a parent and the parent does a translate(0, 0, 10) all the children will translate but at different intervals? So object 1 will go after 4ms.. Object 2 after 20ms etc..

Hello all!

Just a quick intro as I'm new here:

I'm a software developer (.NET and other languages - 7 years experience) and I've been playing around with Android for about a year, and recently got into 3D-game development with JPCT-AE. I've messed around with the Hello World app and read the wiki.

I understand the basic theory of game development (I know what a mesh, vertices and game loop are for example).

I'm here to just hopefully get pointed in the right direction on some things as I like to learn whilst doing rather than reading.

My first question - I want to create an animated, colourful cloud in JPCT-AE that moves around the screen - this cloud is more of a character than a cloud in the sky. i.e. a colourful bit of smoke that whizzes around the screen. No face or  specific shape required though.

Could someone point me in the right direction to create this? Should I create a 3DS model of this or are there some particle classes I should look into?

Really just an overview is all I need, but any code samples appreciated.