1. In Imageready, not in Photoshop. Otherwise animation will be discarded.
2. Animation? Using opacity values. In Imageready "tween" between two frames.
For the second, what exactly by fade? Like the way the guy in my sig fades, or a different way of fading? The way I do it will darken the picture when it fades though, and isn't useful for objects with color. My guy was a separate picture on a white background. Because its black and white, it wasn't easy to take the white background off without removing parts of the person as well. So I used the multiply blending option which took away the white background, but left the person intact, but darker and faded. Though that was the way I wanted it anyway.
The easiest way to fade something is to insert the object you want faded onto a new blank layer. Not a white layer, but a layer with no background at all. Insert the object and right click the layer and go to blending properties. Lower the opacity to the point you want it. You may also want to change it from normal to overlay, screen, or linear dodge.
EDIT: Well Tree beat me to this.. My version is if your using photoshop to fade the things. I don't use Imageready often.
Yeah, for that kind of fading, just fiddle with the opacity and maybe also use linear dodge. Make sure its on the layer just above the background though. That way the other objects (like the CCC logo and liner for example) appear above it.