The most basic method of creating facial animation is to define and keyframe a set of custom expressions.

Keyframing facial animation workflow

To create facial animation:

1. Load a head model that has shapes or cluster shapes.
2. Add a Character Face to the scene. See Adding a Character Face.
3. In the Character Face Definition pane of the Character Face settings, add and define custom expressions. See Defining a custom expression.
   Note

   The custom expressions you define in the Character Face Definition pane are listed as Custom Properties in the Character Face Animation pane.

4. Switch to the Character Face Animation pane, select your custom expressions, change their values, and set keyframes to animate the face model. See Setting keyframes.
   Note

   It is a good idea to set keyframes on a separate layer using the Animation Layer editor, if you are using keyframes to modify animation. Using multiple layers lets you avoid overwriting the original animation.