Another experiment I wanted to try. You can use a series of images to animate a texture on a model. I thought I'd try using one in the Transparency Node to make it disappear and re-appear. (Note: I've not worked towards getting rid of the cube's shadow, so don't bother mentioning it. That's not what "the test" is about.)

Like the "lightening test" I animated the transition in Flash and exported the frames as a series of jpgs. Then I applied some filters (Ocean Ripple, Glass) to the images in Photoshop in a automated batch. (If I had Affter Effects I would probably have better results.)

There isn't anything special to mention about the model or set. I just used the same scene as the Lightening test. The Texture is just mapped to the Transparency Node with "Use Image Sequence" checked. Viola.