I was wondering if there is a way to make animated lightning bolts ect.
not really
probably the best you can do is an animated texture
or several
Fire up CinePaint and draw them in by hand.
Check Caronte’s site at:
http://www.nicodigital.com/menu_en.swf
Look in the 3D Gallery under Electric Efx
It is the best modelling of electrical arcing that I’ve seen. Send him an email. When he first posted it, I emailed and he was very helpful. I’ve got the .blend file somewhere, but I think you should get it from the source.