Have you considered these options:
1) Morphing vine that’s grouped with the camera. As both advance, the vine morphs. The ending could just have the vine extend farther than the camera. EvilInnocence has some inexepensive vines & tentacles. He also has a Poser plug-in that creates bones complete with an assortment of built-in morphs.
2) A really long vine that has a transparancy shader. As the camera advances, adjust the transparancy. Shaders have an option for the x,y, & z axis. There’s also a shader plug-in called Proximity, but it hasn’t been updated for Carrara 8 yet. Digital Carvers Guild might have something similar. The Proximity changes a shader according to it’s location to an object or coordinate within the work space.
3) The spline object works as well. Possibly more efficient when used with option 1.