Using interpolators, you can update the values of virtually any field of a node. This means that you can also dynamically update the surface properties (VRML appearance) of a shape, animating it's colour, transparency, or texture, for example. Thus you can animate an object fading away, an object getting hot, or the sky getting dark.

For an example, look at the water in this model of Halden Town Bridge. The water is animated by scrolling the texture.