Add Fluid Effects

The Glowing Trail 

First, we will add a glowing trail where the laser has cut the plate
This is done with a 2D FluidTexture. 
Let's create one.

• Go to Fluid Effects>Create 2D Container with Emitter
• Rename fluid1 to TrailFluid, and fluidEmitter1 to TrailEmitter
• Set the Base Resolution to 400.
• In the Attribute Editor, set the Size to: 24.5, 14.5, 0.25
• Now, let's make the Fluid emitter follow the laser beam.
• Snap-move the emitter (TrailEmitter) to the MotionPathLocator and parent it to the same.

If you press Play now, you will see fluid being emitted and flowing upwards in the container.
Let's change some settings in the 2D container (this is where most of the fluid look and behaviour is defined)

• Select TrailFluid
• In Contents Method, set Density to Static Grid, Temperature to Dynamic Grid. The others should be Off.
• In Dynamic Simulation, set Gravity to 0
• In Content Details, set Density to 5
• In Shading, set Glow Intensity to 0.04
• In the same section, under Color, set the Color to Black. This will be the color of the trail once it has cooled off.
• In the same section, under Incandescence, set the following colors and positions: 
• White (V: 2), Position 0.86 
  H: 39, S: 1, V:1,5, Position 0.71 
  H: 13, S: 1, V:0,9, Position 0.57 
  Black, Position 0.44
• Set Incandescence Input to TemperatureSet Input Bias to 0.440. Adjusting this value will change the time length of the glowing effect.
• In the same section, under Opacity, set the following values and positions (This will make the trail remain visible): V: 1, Position 1 V: 0.74, Position 0.043 V: 0, Position 0
• Set Opacity Input to Density
• Set Input Bias to 0.244

Now, switch to the TrailEmitter tab.

• In Basic Emitter Attributes, set the following keyframes for Rate: 10 frames before the TrailEmitter starts to move, value 0. 
• At frame where TrailEmitter starts moving, value 300. 
• Repeat reversed for the end.
• Set Max Distance to 0.26
• In Fluid Attributes, set Density/Voxel/Sec to 3 and Heat/Voxel/Sec to 50
• In the same section, set Fluid Dropoff to 5 and enable Motion Streak

With that done, you can make a test render and see your trail in action.
Feel free to adjust the Fluid Effects settings as you desire.


The Sparks

Let's make a particle emitter, which will give us some sparks.

• Under nParticles, choose Create nParticles>Points
• Under the same menu, choose Create Emitter> Options
• Set the name to SparksEmitter
• In Basic Emitter Attributes, Set Rate to 100
• In Basic Emission Speed Attributes, set Speed to 0.4 and Speed Random to 35
• Click CreateRename the resulting Particle1 node to SparksParticles
• Snap-move SparksEmitter to the MotionPathLocator and parent it to the same.

Time to set some attributes to make the sparks look good. These settings are partly taken from Duncan's Slag Foundry tutorial.

• In SparksEmitter's attributes, key the Rate in the same way we've done with other Rate attributes, with the values 0 and 100, respectively.
• In SparksParticlesShape, under Lifespan, set Lifespan Mode to Random Range and Lifespan to 0.4 and Lifespan Random to 5
• Continue to Dynamic Properties, and set Drag to 0.020 (this will make the sparks fall in an arched path) and Mass to 0.2.
• Continue to Shading, and set Particle Render Type to Tube (s/w), Radius 0 and Radius 1 to 0.120, Tail Size to 1.350, and Opacity to 0.270. In Opacity Scale, set the following values and positions:

V: 1, Position 0.1 
V: 0.44, Position 0.2
V: 0.14, Position 0.47
V: 0.8, Position 0.75
V: 0.1, Position 1

• Set Opacity Scale Input to Speed, and Input Max to 30.
• In Color, set to solid Black.
• In Incandescence, set the following colors and positions:

R: 0,147 G: 0 B: 0, Position 0
R: 2,250 G: 0,053 B: 0,053, Position 0.057
R: 78,440 G: 14,250 B: 1,412, Position 0.147
R: 0,552 G: 0,079 B: 0,026, Position 0.400
R: 0,128 G: 0 B: 0, Position 1

• Set Incadescence Input to Age, Input Max to 1 and Incadescence Randomize to 0.280

With all that done, why not render out a few frames to see how the sparks are turning out?