Trying to understand what animation I can export exactly from maya and max to Unity

First just wanted to say that I did read the documentation on what is literally exported but its still confusing me a bit. Does there have to either be bones or just simple rotations and translations only?

I tried animating a long rectangular plane in max using modifiers but none of those import into Unity. I was creating a ripple effect that moves across the surface constantly.

How do I do these sorts of animations (warps, bends twists etc)?

Is there a way to export animated vertices?

Any clarification on my first point would be appreciated as well. Cheers.