Creating a wave-like animation with plane/ image I have an [image as] plane which is composed of a series of strips that I am trying to animate into a wave-like/ ripple format i.e. one segment gets larger and travel along to the right whilst previous segments shrink back to their original shape. Any ideas on how to achieve this and is it necessary to divide the segments in order to potentially make this work? I have attached a visual as my description is not the best;
Using a Lattice you can control the deformation.

Create a lattice with a few subdivisions, In Edit mode select the middle points of the lattice and scale them on the Y axis, then bring those segments up on the Z axis.



On your plane object add a Lattice Modifier and select the deformed lattice to control it.