Thanks, Blazej, that's a clever workaround.  Turns out that will work fine for the single "river of fire" I'm trying to create, but I'm curious if that could be done if I wanted to show a fire river that had several branches.  Probably would get a bit challenging, especially if it looked like the Mississippi delta.  I guess something like Particular would be necessary for that.

Again, thanks!  I really hate popping for more software when I don't have a lot of use for it.  Do other AE users think Trapcode Particular is really worth it?  Is it that much more versatile than AE 

particles.

Pete

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just create straight path of fire using particle playground, precomp, and distort with puppet tool?

2013/10/28 Peter Matulavich <matulavich@ameritech.net>

Anyone know if there is a way to have particles follow a path in After Effects WITHOUT using a plug in like Particular?

I want to create a river of fire that spreads along a specific path.  The fire part is easy enough in AE but now want it to go exactly where I need it go.

Pete