Morpher

Birds beak:

We’re going to rig the character by using the Morpher modifier for the facial animation. The Morpher modifier is used for facial animation to deform the object by defining target objects.

To create the morph targets for my character, copy the subject ( Press and hold SHIFT in keyboard and move the subject ). I remove Turbosmooth and both Unwrap UVW modifiers from the copy, the Editable Poly or Edit Poly modifier ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) below the Symmetry modifier and activate the vertex sub-object level.

Create facial expression like by moving vertices, activate the polygon sub-object level and hiding part of the model to make it easier to select vertices around other parts, Give appropriate name for your morph target.

I selected the original subject model and try the Morpher modifier by apply the Morpher modifier ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Morpher ) and move it just below the Turbosmooth modifier, the ‘Channel List’ rollout and right-click on the first ‘- empty -’ slot, click on ‘Pick from Scene’ and then on the morph targets and activate them, use the spinner to morph between the original model and the morph targets.

I created more copies from the original bird and created different expressions, to have maximum control over the expressions. By using Morpher modifier I combined the expressions of several different morph targets.