Basic Morphing

In order to get to know this technique, we will create a face and animate the mouth so that it seems to be smiling. It is very simple:

1. Select the Oval tool in the tool palette, draw a large circle, then two smaller ones inside it to obtain a basic face outline with two eyes.
   
   
2. Draw a line under the eyes with the Line tool to create the mouth.
   
   
3. Right-click on frame 10 in the timeline and select Insert Keyframe.
   
   
4. Modify this new keyframe by placing the Arrow cursor under the mouth till you obtain an arc under your cursor. Click and distort the mouth in an arc.
   
   


Figure 1: Distort the mouth to make it smile


5. Select all the frames 1 to 10 in the timeline.
   
   
6. Select Window > Panels > Frame, and from the Tweening drop-down menu of the Frame panel, choose the Shape option.
   
   


Figure 2: Shape tweening

Now test the animation by playing with your cursor in the timeline. The mouth will be animated as in a cartoon.