The greatest challenge of this is that it involves moving the individual polygons, edges, or vertex points. This task can be quite difficult if topology of the face is hi-res. That would require moving many more points than is convenient, and I could easily create a mess.
For that reason, I kept the resolution of all models very low from the beginning. Most 3d modeling software have a solution by which you can merely smooth a surface in order to add resolution, and make it neater. In fact, most software have a solution to hit a button to merely give the model a smooth view. I took advantage of such tools throughout this project, and it was most helpful during the facial setup process.
Back to weight morphing, then. This entails copying the face of the character for as many different weight targets that I want. I got a book a long time ago called Animating Facial Features and Expressions. There is an appendix in that book that merely lists and shows a ton of facial morph targets. I knew that I wasn't going to use any dialogue in the film, so I just stuck with the facial expressions. It seems to me that the most focused areas for facial animation are the eyelids, the eye brows, and the mouth. The mouth is certainly the most complicated, since the eyes and the brows are typically only require me to lift or lower the faces.
However, the mouth has very complicated geometry. Not only must I lower or raise faces, but I must also compress certain areas, like a kiss, for example. Further complicating this is the fact that there is the inside of the mouth to consider.
This whole process required a bit of patience. There were a couple of times that I had to redo the process because of later errors. But by the third time, it was easy since I knew what to do.
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