Is there a way to set a visual effect on a model, such as smoke or the ghost transparent effect(which out tag ghost), bleeding visual(without actually bleeding), ect. To a npc/creature?

I want to make dogs that are on fire, ghost summon you can see without using ghost vision of various creatures, and a bleeding npc thats not actually bleeding. Was wondering if there was a place i can add these effects without having to build a fresh model in maya.