smush "melts" a polyhedron into the ground plane over a specified number of frames, spreading out as it continues.  Randomness can be added, making a bubbling effect, for example.  Of course, once the melting effect is generated, the animation can be reversed, the object turned on its side as if hitting a wall, etc.

smush is supported under trueSpace 3.1 and later

sphear me

hoser