I'm launching a missile and need to make an animated flame emanating from it. Does anyone know how to do this and explain it to a goombah (me)?

I don't know from goombah's :-), but here goes: Create your flame object (I've used the rock generator to build complex flame shapes) then apply a good volumetric texture like Clay's Fire. During your animation, lengthen/shorten and rotate the object in each frame. It should come out like the flame is not only flickering, but pulsing, too. HTH

Cool, thanks for the info, I'll give it a try. The rock generator is an especially good idea, because my cones are too symetrical.

I used the rock generator to create a engine flame using a blue volumetric flame texture the rock was duplicated enlarged slightly and a blue glow texture was applied to it i also added a small radial light with the same blue flame texture as a gel, the main rock with the fire texture was rotated during the animation plus the texture was also rotated and sized during the animation. Hope this helps

That sounds like that process will generate a true flame. I'll give it a try. Thank you very much.