Hi there, I have an image of an intricate curly plant and I want to make an animation so it looks like it is growing. I have attached an image of part of the plant.
There are many sections to the plant similar to this, the complete image is quite complex though based around these sorts of shapes.
I have tried making a timeline animation by gradually erasing the image frame by frame then reversing the frames but this is very time-taking and doesn’t look as organic as I would like plus there’s no easing and the shoots don’t grow as convincingly.
I have seen lovely code-generated plants here that form part of a music video:
http://www.theunseenvideo.com/Flashtests/swirls.html
The thing is these plants are generated randomly and I have a set image I need to arrive at when the animation is complete, plus I’m not totally sure how to code this.
If anyone could suggest how I would approach this that would be great, I’m a competent coder so am happy to code or draw animations, I am just looking for the fastest and best-looking solution 
Thanks for any help in advance
Schm