Anima

Here’s a super cool script James found:
http://lesterbanks.com/2012/04/use-polygon-extrude-along-curve-in-maya-while-adding-animatable-subcurve-attributes
it lets you extrude polygon faces along a curve (much like the NURBs extrusion experiments we gave up on in the past, because they had open ends. Except this script lets you dynamically control the number of Divisions, and gives you a “taper curve” slider to keep the end closed as it grows).

To Set it up:
Get the code linked from that blog and put it on your shelf as a shortcut.

I make shortcuts by opening Window > General editors> Script Editor, then pasting code into MEL tab. Then select all that code and middle dragging it out onto the shelf. Then right click the shelf icon, choose Edit Pop Up, and click the Shelves tab. Now you can change the icon and label text.

 To use it:
1- select a polygon face, then shift-select a curve, then click your newly made shelf shortcut.

2-It defaults to 1 Division, so an ugly block cuts from start to finish, so you’ll want to drag this number up – or type in some large number (I lean towards 200)

3- The Extra Attributes accordion is where the good stuff hides. Key the “Sub Curve Extr Max” over time, to make your extrusion appear to grow.

And you can select faces along this extrusion, to grow off onto another curves! SO COOL. Just be sure to wait to start keying these sub-curves until the main extrusion has settled the position of the face that will connect with the new curve.

warren notes: i’ll come back and post a video here eventually, if time permits, demonstrating.