[Video Tutorial] Lip-Sync and Facial Animation

[uiron]

i usually don't like animating up/down and wide/narrow separately. my first step (you call that foundation) is putting up/down/wide/narrow in a single pass on every accented sound (a, o, u, ee, m, p and such) - in osipa's style, that's moving one control anyway.

when i'm happy with the sync, i clean up/down and wide/narrow curves so there's no artifacts in sync control movement.

often it's also good to animate lip up/down controls simultaneously. "P", "F", "M" are all strong accents and there's no way you can get a basic blockingg of, let's say, "mamma mia" with just up/down/wide/narrow.

[DJ-Nicke]

That's exactly what I do too Uiron, but to explain it I find its nice to break it into two steps.

I'm also careful to put an open on every accented sound. That's why the "chin-fist" technique works so well! You really feel when your jaw opens of moves at all.

By the way, that's the Structure of my facial technique. The Foundation is knowing the soundtrack and the character.

This really is a time-tested method. I have produced as much as 43 seconds of lip-sync in one day using this technique! And this was for Walt Disney Animation, so it wasn't exactly "low quality" animation.

I've posted some nice example video's now too, detailing all the steps. And by they way, it took me a total of 36 minutes to finish the piece of dialogue using this technique!

http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips/

As for getting a basic blocking of "mamma mia" from this method; imagine you are seeing your character from a 3/4 perspective behind them? All you would see is there jaw moving and, yes, this would be all you needed for your lip-sync.

[cristis]

Actually,when I animate lips I use your technique.But I do it in my way.:P
No elbows on the table just put my hand under jaw to feel how the syllables is pronounce.And after that I animate putting up/down/wide/narrow in a single pass as uiron says.
Overall I think your technique it's quite good.

[Megalodon]

Thank you VERY MUCH for this tutorial. We'll be getting into LipSyncing relatively soon and this info will be very helpful. Can't wait to put it into action!

Thanks Again!

[iliketrees]

I thought this was a great vid tut! loved it!

Really made me think about how we speak and how much is actually involved, I too will be starting to learn lip-sych anim for the first time and this will be very helpful, plus your enthusiasm is infectious! keep up the great work!

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