  We take advantage of the HMI/SDO instrument to study the naked emergence of
active regions from the first imprints of the magnetic field on the solar
surface. To this end, we followed the first 24 hours in the life of two rather
isolated ARs that appeared on the surface when they were about to cross the
central meridian. We analyze the correlations between Doppler velocities and
the orientation of the vector magnetic field finding, consistently, that the
horizontal fields connecting the main polarities are dragged to the surface by
relatively-strong upflows and are associated to elongated granulation that is,
on average, brighter than its surroundings. The main magnetic footpoints, on
the other hand, are dominated by vertical fields and downflowing plasma. The
appearance of moving dipolar features, MDFs, (of opposite polarity to that of
the AR) in between the main footpoints, is a rather common occurrence once the
AR reaches a certain size. The buoyancy of the fields is insufficient to lift
up the magnetic arcade as a whole. Instead, weighted by the plasma that it
carries, the field is pinned down to the photosphere at several places in
between the main footpoints, giving life to the MDFs and enabling channels of
downflowing plasma. MDF poles tend to drift towards each other, merge and
disappear. This is likely to be the signature of a reconnection process in the
dipped field lines, which relieves some of the weight allowing the magnetic
arcade to finally rise beyond the detection layer of the HMI spectral line.
