I recommend checking out the falling tree in Amnesia. I sadly don't remember where it is in the game, but I know it does have a tree fall down in it. If you can't find it or know how to do it from there, I now recommend for you to do some scripting causing a chain of movements with time intervals of making the tree entity becoming active and then inactive.
If you have ever been to a light show, that could have, for example, a kid made out of colored lights (2d or course) and it would show him throw a ball and the lights would blink indicating where the ball is. Eventually reaching it's goal at the end of the "animation". You could also think of it as a flip book where it shows picture by picture as you flip really fast through a flip book. Like a ball bouncing down and then coming back up. If you need more help, I'll be here to help you.