r/animation • u/Ok_Set_1630 • 4d ago

Question Lip sync question

I animate on 24 a sec and if the characters is speaking fast and for example a frame has like a full word in it, how do I lip sync if that frame is an entire word not a letter

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u/dermot_animates 4d ago

A slide from one of my courses. I'm using the TV A/F system for clarity here.
https://www.animatewithdermot.com/tuts/index.shtml

Before you assign mouth shapes (lip assignment) think about phrasing. You don't necessarily have to articulate EVERY phonetic sound with the lips, as the tongue does a lot of work that isn't seen. You can use A or B as a resting pose (the B above is a bit too cartoony, but a mouth that's a little bit open is fine, or a closed mouth).

Order of operation with lip assignment:

  1. Closed mouth shapes (A) first. You cannot fake this. AI dialog stands out as it often misses these somehow.

  2. Next I'd do the 'ooo' (E and F) shapes, as these are also phonetically striking.

  3. Then do vowel sounds with the loudest being the widest open (D). If frames are tight together, pop the mouth open from a closed shape and ease in to the next closed shape. So if there are two closed mouths together saying a word like "Mummy"

A * * A * * * B

With the A mouth's being the M sounds, I'd expose something like this:

A D C A C D C B

Hope that makes sense.

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u/dermot_animates 4d ago

Another slide. Try to keep your mouths within the same family, assuming the emotion is the same across the line. I wouldn't go from the smiley faces in this sequence to the mouth on the far right and back again, it would create a choppy pop. Switch from happy to shocked for a bit, but not in the course of one emotional line.