I don't have the ability or patience for animating, but can't you animate textures over time? wouldn't you be able to fade in or out by keyframing the transparency of an object from 100 to 0, 0 to 100?

This is not my "second childhood". I'm not finished with the first one yet.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

"I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather....not screaming in terror like the passengers on his bus." - Jack Handy