Open Maya and set new project. Click:

File--Project--New. This step is for bettermanagement of your files in project. Inthe NAME window write your project name. In LOCATION window write your project destination directory.After that click USE DEFAULTS and Maya will set the rest for you.

Before we do sumthin' I'll show ya some UI settings for PaintFX. First chang your view to 4 panes, just click spacebar button and Maya change the view to 4 panes view.Move the mouse over FRONT PANE and click 8 on your keyboard. This change the view to PaintFX window like on pic below.

So this is a PaintFX window. This window is

useful for testing brushes and for prewiev

your brushes in perspective scene. Click

right mouse button on PaintFX window and

select PAINT--PAINT_SCENE. Now you can

paint in 3D view. This ain't real 3D perspective

view but this is for prewiev your brushes.

So you can paint in this pane and see rendered

stroke of your brush. Try it, select any brush and

paint it. If ya wanna see rendered brush open

HotBox over PaintFx pane and

click: STROKE_REFRESH--RENDERED.

If refresh rate is very, very slow you can change

resolution of your PaintFX pane. Open HotBox and

click: RESOLUTION, and choose resolution you want.
The standard: alt + mouse button work like in

PERSPECTIVE_VIEW but if ya wanna select any

object or stroke you should click and hold Ctrl button.

Ok. So now we are ready to develope fire. Open

VISOR, you find it

in: WINDOW--GENERAL_EDITORS--VISOR

or just click icon in PaintFX pane like in pic below.

Select black default paint brush.

You can paint direct in your pane or using

sum geometry to paint on it. I suggest here

to create nurbs plane to better get better

view of your brush. So create nurbs

plane - nurbs coz PaintFX works only on

nurbs geometry. Click: CREATE--NURBS

_PRIMITIVES--PLANE. Click 6 on your

keyboard to go in SHADED mode and

scale a little bit your plane.

Sumthin' like on pic:

And before you do sumthin' check the HISTORY

on. This is very helpfull to edit and get full control

on your creation process. The history icon is here:

Select nurbs plane and open HotBox, than

click: PAINT_EFFECTS--MAKE_PAINTABLE.

With default black brush selected paint one

simple stroke on nurbs plane. If your pointer

didn't change for PaintFX pointer just click "Y"

on your keyboard. And remember that you can

interactively change the size of your brush

using "B" key with left mouse button. There is

also another way to paint on geometry and I

prefer this way coz it give ya more control and

not so many CV on curve. So first make surface

live. Select nurbs plane and click bid red

magnet on status line:

Click: CREATE--CV_CURVE_TOOL and open

option box near it. Reset settings and close it.

Like on pic below:

Draw about 5 CV's on plane then clik ENTER.

Click once again MAKE_SURFACE_LIVE button.

Select default black brush from VISOR. Now

select curve on surface open HotBox and click:

PAINT_EFFECT--CURVE_UTILITIES--ATTACH

_BRUSH_TO_CURVES. Now you added brush

to curve. Remember that if ya got problem with

selecting there are sumthin' like selection masks.

So just click correct mask:

To see better what's goin' on open HYPER_GRAPH.

WINDOW--HYPERGRAPH. You can also make a

hoKey for that. I just click alt+G to open it. You'll find

it in: WINDOW--SETTINGS/PREFERENCES--HOTKEYS.

In Hypergraph you'll see sumthin' like on pic below.

Go to PaintFX pane. If ya not in 3D view then

right click on it and choose:

PAINT--PAINT_SCENE. Open HotBox and

choose:RESOLUTION--50 , OBJECT_SHADING--SHADED

, STROKE_REFRESH--RENDERED.

Now you should sumthin' like this:

Select your brush and open AttributeEditor. To

select brush open Hypergraph. You'll find

AttributeEditor in: WINDOW--ATTRIBUTE_EDITOR

or you can make hotkey for this I got this one

under: alt+a. Just play a little bit with Hotkeys:

WINDOW--SETTINGS/PRERFERENCES--HOTKEYS.

Set values for attributes like here below and

remember to change view to PaintFX

PaintScene with STROKE_REFRESH--RENDERED

selected.

Next set values like here:

And like here:

And like here:

And like here:

Did I mention one pic is more worth

than thousand words:

Next set values like here:

Set values like here:

And next set like here:

Change to PERSPECTIVE_VIEW, open

TIME_SLIDER and RANGE_SLIDER.

Set the END_TIME to sumthin' like on pic.

You can now play animation to see how fire

behaves. If animation ain't smooth you

should change STROKE_DISPLAY_QUALITY.

To do this select your stroke and click:
DISPLAY--STROKE_DISPLAY_QUALITY--CUSTOM

and move the slider from right to left, then play

animation again and find the best display

setting to get smooth animation.

Next important thing is Looping animation.

Play animation and you can note that between

endTime and startTime there is seam or break,

no matter how I name it but more important is

remove this artifact. This is very simple. Just

select stroke and click: 
PAINT_EFFECTS--BRUSH_ANIMATION

--LOOP_BRUSH_ANIMATION and click

option box near it. Set the values like here:

Now you can render fire to see how it looks.

So open the render globals and set values

like on the pic below. Remember that Render

Globals are in here:

WINDOW--RENDERING_EDITORS--RENDER_GLOBALS

or just click an icon on Status_Line.

Render scene. Should get sumthin

' like here below:

If ya dont'l like how this fire looks then

just play a little bit with attributes values

to achive satisfactory effect.

Next we'll save our Fire to use it in the

future. Click: PAINT_EFFECTS--SAVE_BRUSH

_PRESETS.Next write label for your fire brush,

select directory for it. Then click the GRAB_ICON

and drag selection window over your fire

(in PaintEffects scene window).

Click SAVE_BRUSH_PRESETS.

That's all here. If ya wanna see saved

fire just open up VISOR.

Now we create nurbs curve.

Click: CREATE--CV_CURVE_TOOL and

click the option box. Reset tool and close it.

Create any name using Cv_Curve_Tool.

I made Evermotion but ya also can write

sumthin' like Marian Brzeczyszczykiewicz,

doesn't matter.

I assume that ya know what cv curve tool

is and know how use this stuff. If not... well

there is sumthin' like Maya docs :>
If ya need more control you can add more

CVs. Just right click on your curve and choose:

CURVE_POINT, next click places on curve

when ya need add CVs using Shift. After that

click: EDIT_CURVES--INSERT_KNOT and

click option box. Reset tool, Insert CVs and

CloseTool.

Ok. So we got nice lookin' curve. Now we should

attach our Fire to this curve. Open VISOR and find

saved Fire. I called my Fire: MomoFire in fire directory.

Like here:

Select curve and click:

PAINT_EFFECTS--CURVE_UTILITIES

--ATTACH_BRUSH_TO_CURVES.

Ok. Now I wanna animate stroke to see

animation. Ya know, created CV curve is

just path for your brush. So animating

stroke we get result sumthin' like burnin'

name. Select stroke using, in example,

Hypergraph and open AttributeEditor:

We'll animate: MaxClip attribute.

Change the value of MaxClip attribute

to: 0. Go to start of playback range.

Right click on: MaxClip attribute and

select: Set_Key. Next go to end of

playback range, change MaxClip to 1

and again right click on MaxClip and

select: Set_Key. Rewind and play

animation.
Next we need to add sum EnvironmentFog.

Go to RenderGlobals node, MayaSoftware

tab and go to Render_Options. Like on pic:

First click on box near EnvironmentFog

next click black arrow. Set values for

attributes like here:

First click on box near EnvironmentFog

next click black arrow. Set values for

attributes like here:

Few usefull tips. Select any object on

scene and open Attribute Editor next

look at pic below to understand

what's goin' on:

Render scene to see how fire looks.

I get sumthin' like here:

One note here below:

You can also animate the camera

moving. First choose camera ya

wanna to animate. Or using default

PerspectiveCamera click

VIEW--SELECT_CAMERA. You need

only 3 or 4 keys to animate it. We

won't use here any motion paths or

stuff like that. Just set camera in best

place to view fire and moving through

Timeline set keys for it. Look below to

understand it better:

Remember that after ya set keys for

camera don't move it. Better create

new camera to see what's goin' on

in your scene. To create new camera

just click: CREATE--CAMERAS-CAMERA.

Then click: PANELS--PERSPECTIVE

and choose created camera.
Now it's time to do Batch_Render.

Set stuff like on pic below:

Click: RENDER--BATCH_RENDER

and option box. Set like this:

To see rendering process

open ScriptEditor.

One note after rendering. I noticed

that EnvironmentFog only disturbs.

So I break the connection and I

made final rendering without it.

I also find that the fire animation

doesn't look proper and fire need

sumthin' like glow. So go to fire

stroke, open Attribute_Editor and

change the Shader_Glow attribute

value to sumthin' about: 0.014.

You should try yourself play with attribute's

values to see what will happen. What will

happen if I do this or that. Ok it's time to

composite all rendered stuff in Shake. 
Open Shake. Click: FILE_IN to load all

rendered frames. Then find directory

where frames are.

Next load frames.

I found that very nice is writing description directly on pic so:

Do like here:

Next Shake will open SaveImage or

Sequence window. Enter there

name for your final animation

with extension and click ok.

Choose file format and correct

codec. Like here:

Do like here below: