Animating with Blender

Different Ways to Construct Expressions

There are two different approaches to creating shape keys for expressions. The first, creating individual movements or “expression fragments” (raised left eyebrow, raised right eyebrow, wrinkled nose, etc.), is easier to do but will produce less predictable, and therefore probably less realistic, overall expressions. The second method—creating a full expression (angry face, happy face) and breaking it up into component movements—is more work but gives you significantly better control over the final result. The following instructions apply to the faces of human characters, but you can easily adapt the methodology to whatever type of character you are using.