animator - here is a simple .max with (from left to right in the scene). Drag the time slider back and forward to see them change from question mark to a line.
www.majestic12.modnmod.com/crew101/MiNT/Q.max
1. A simple line, created with create->shape->line, and i clicked 5 times.
2. The same line. I went into vertex subobject mode, selected all the vertices, right clicked, and clicked 'Bezier' (its in the top left of the quad menu that comes up when you right click in the viewport). Now that they're bezier curves, you can rotate and scale them. When you rotate, the green handles come up showing the direction that the line goes through them - the tangent. You can use the manipulator just as you normally would to change the direction. Also, you can scale the point, which lessens the degree of the curve.
3. The reference question mark
4. The bezier question mark, with 'renderable' checked, 4 sides, adaptive interpolation.
5. Just a copy of (2)...
6. A segmented box with a pathdeform modifier, using (5). The box will 'morph' around whatever path it is using, in this case, the animated spline. I also animated the y scale so the line matched up.
To animate the splines, easily, just turn on AUTO KEY (next to the key button on the bottom). I started out by keying frame 0, which is the question form. Then I went to 100, and made all the points straight, and rotated their tangents vertical. After, I went to the intermediate points (frames 50 and 75 int his case) and just rotated/moved points around until the transition was decently smooth. Whenever you change something with auto key on, a keyframe is added automatically at whatever frame you are at.