Group Symmetry Creation Mode

Create a variety of futuristic weapon FX

You know that part in a movie where some guy gets sliced up with a sword and you can see a big cut across his ninja shirt?... Well usually they do some fancy editing where he has a robe without a slash and then it cuts to a close up where the shirt now has a big rip... This actually works really well, especially with a nice sound effect. But I wanted to do the slicing all in one continuous take using computer technology! How would you do it?