How to disintegrate/shatter an animated character?

[SiriusTexra]

Need a bit more context...is this disintegration happening in extreme closeup? Medium-long? In the distance?

There are many different ways to approach something like this, really depends on the requirements of the shot.

It's happening on pretty dense character meshes, not super close up, more mid shot. I figure there's probably something I'm missing but can't seem to work this out. I either get cloth on an animated mesh, or a shatter on a static frame of my mesh