sounds logic to me,
but out of my rudimentary understanding for maya -
I try to work with it since two weeks now -
I´d say it was only a matter of incorrect UVmapping.
otherwise I probably couldn´t fix it..
next thing is creating the smoke, I have no idea what to begin with.
didn´t find any good beginners tutorial anywhere in the net.
so I guess I´ll start with the maya helpfiles.

i post U a pic what I´ve done so far.