Combine shape key and armature animation in Blender for use in Unity - tutorial

Please note: this tutorial uses Blender 2.7. I'm afraid I can't update it for newer versions as I haven't used Blender in a while and am very out of practice. I hope this tutorial at least gives you some pointers as to what to look for in newer versions, which should be broadly similar.

Sometimes armature (bones) animation is not sufficient to achieve complex movements. In this tutorial video I show one technique for adding shape key animation to armature animation in Blender, so that the resulting animation clips can be used in the Unity game engine.

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A few things I forgot to mention:

1) Apply all mirror modifiers before creating shape keys. Sometimes Unity can be a bit funny about shape keys if you have a mirror modifier present.

2) The same goes for subsurface modifiers. Apply any subsurface modifiers before creating your shape keys. Unity won't see the shape key animations if you have subsurface modifiers present and you can't apply the modifier after you've added shape keys.

3) However, do leave the armature modifer alone, and do not apply it to the mesh. Applying the armature modifier will prevent the animations from being able to change the mesh.

4) To edit shape keys that need a symmetry about the X-axis you can select the X Mirror option when in edit mode by going to the Options tab in the tools panel on the left (open and close with the T key)