Hmm, I guess my mind's eye film was more entertaining than reality. You are probably right about the noise. At this point, I most likely won't put in any animation, but to be clear, I wanted to flash the collision bars (any bar in the default colour of red).
That would definitely be distracting if the player just wanted to see non-collision or mass resurrection bars clearly. So toss the flash animation idea into the bin.
*edit* I like your idea of animating in and out via height, but that's something else I know nothing about. When I get to working bars without that feature, I'll revisit the topic. Basics first.