Fairly fresh topic so here’s the answer in terms of best practice for 2024/25
Morph targets. And iphone to record them for free via live link face.
Setting up the morph targets in blender is done by creating 52 keframes and styling each keyframe with the appropriate mesh deformation that works for your actor.
The closer the expressions match your actor, the better/more natural the end result will seem. (For an inanimate object you don’t need to match anyone that closely probably).
Let me see if i find a good ol blender tutorial on this …
This is still relevant but outdated. Relevant for non iphone userers.
This is the other one, which should still work even if the script will likely need tweaking
Assuming you are now familiar with the concept.
This is where you get your 52 poses from:
You have an actor make faces at the camera for a while following the instructions of each shape.
Model each face shape to match.
And you end up with a near perfect (recoding can always be faulty) final rendering.