Facial Motion and Controls - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 162

NOTE
Everything in this chapter can also be applied to situations other than facial expressions. Any
detailed and exact mesh deformation can be handled with the tools presented here. For example,
picture an alien character whose ribs become signifi cantly more and less prominent as it
breathes. Blending between the exactly modeled shapes of a smooth torso and a torso with
ribs protruding is a perfect job for this technique.
Figure 10.1 A number of the Beast's facial expressions created with Shape Keys
Figure 10.1 shows several of the Beast's expressions, each of which was created from the basic Beast mesh.
Shape keys are technically simple to create:
● Enable Shape Keys for your mesh by clicking the Add Shape Key button on the Shapes panel of the
Edit buttons. The fi rst time it is pressed, this button creates a saved shape called “Basis,” which is simply