there has to be an easier way to do this?

[malikai666]

If there is not an easier way to do this some plugin company can make some money. Okay say I have the letter n (lowercase) and it is a 3d object. lets say we remove the front and back faces so we only have the sides. now I want the sides to look like they are growing from the ground but I dont want there scale to be affected so I believe morphs wont work. Now the problem is when it comes to the curve on the n if I use morphs the points dont follow the countour of the n they simply want to get to there resting point asap wich we all know is a straight line. but what if you want the texture to be like a skin and the skin would grow over the contour of the n here lies my problem, is there not a way to simply make the side surfaces grow over the curves of the n? and if so how?

[jdavidbakr]

How about making a UV map, where the polys/points on the bottom are the first points you want to appear, and the top is the last points you want to appear, and then make some sort of a black & white movie that wipes from the bottom to the top and applying that to the transparency or clip map?

[Beamtracer]

You need an animating matte, either an image sequence, a procedural or a gradient.