You could try using the procedural fire shader that comes with CS [see image]. It seems to animate well no matter how long your animation is (go to the first frame in the time line, and set the completion parameter to 0%, skip to the end and set it to 100%). Using ctrl+drag-drop, you can copy the fire shader from one channel to another really easily. You can then put it on a plane, or use the billboard primitive if you have Anything Grows. You'll want to remember to set highlight to 0, and turn on "no light interactions when fully transparent".

I find that the particle systems are good for doing the sparkers, but i've never really had any luck with the volumetric fire.

Alternatively-- though I've never used it-- ZMorphics [ http://www.zmorphics.com/ ] sells PPEx, which has a plugin for particle sprites, allowing you to use the billboard technique on individual particles.

EMC