Thanks for the reply, BabyDuck!

I cant move the CVs around, as they need to be where they're concentrated now, so as to animate the mouth properly.

Can you give me a quick step-by-step re: spherical projection?

I'm transitioning from Houdini after 4 years, so I know a thing or two about 3D, but just finding my feet with Maya, so apologies for asking what is a basic question!

and What do you mean by '...animate the texture as well...?

Dan