Blending Basic shapes

To make a start to understanding how blend shapes work, I have made some basic shapes which i will then  blend, in order to be able to animate between them. I found a basic tutorial to teach me the tools needed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dS0dcULRBA

I was thinking about mouth movements, so decided  to make shapes that could represent what i'd like to do with a mouth on a proper head model.

I started by naming each one so that when it comes to blending between i know which control will do what.

Here i have: open, wide, high, and slanted.

After selecting the three on the right I then finally       selected the Open shape, in order to have that as my base model.

Using the animation tab i was able to go to create Blend Shape.

Using the Blend Shape editor I am able to use the sliders to change the shape of my base model.

Here i have moved all of the sliders at the same time to create a completely new shape.



Through this editor i am also able to key the movements, and therefore create animation of the model changing shape.

Already I can see how this will be of great use when it comes to rigging a face in order to create facial expressions. However creating expressions that look natural or right for the film could be difficult.