How to do mesh editing for IPO animation

I am currently working on a project and I’m stuck. I need to edit a mesh by using the IPO curves for an animation. I inserted key frames and all that stuff. It just won’t work. Any suggestions?

Edit:
I forgot to mention that I did it in the vertex IPO window and that I don’t know the difference between relative and absolute keys.

Do a search for tutorials on ‘relative vertex keys’.

I think I found this to be helpful…
http://membres.lycos.fr/bobois/Tuts/VertexKeys/absolute_keys_en.html

Thanks