Animating cartoon black flame

Hi.

I have a little problem i was hoping someone could help me with. Basically i want a floating skull encased in a slow black flame. I’ve drawn a little picture to show what i mean.


The way i was going to do this was model the skull. Make a plane with a black flame animation behind the skull and have it parented to the skull and set to always face the camera.

Does that sound the best way to go about this?

The two problems im faced with is how to make it very cartoon looking in animation. And how to make the embers float up slowly and disappear. Its not actually supposed to be a flame but more of a ‘decay aura’

Any help?

Cheers

Actually another idea…

What if i duplicated the skull, expanded it, set material to black and cull it?

Then i have to animate it somehow…noise mod or something? Then theres still the embers…