Speaking of the lip sync, I usually treat it differently than body animation. Keeping curves clean is not the main concern, instead going straight ahead and making it look right is the way to go.
I start with the jaw up/down and the corners in/out. After I get the overall timing of the lip sync right, I dive into the details and polish. There are a few things on my check list:
1. Anticipation for the dialogue.
2. 2 frames of closed mouth pose on "M", "B", "P" and whenever it is needed.
3. The arcs on the corner.
4. Ease in/out for the dead straight curves in graphic editor.
5. Mouth up/down.
6. Interaction with cheeks.
7. Favoring pose on jaw.
8. Cheek puff, lips interaction...etc.
As an example, I took an audio file from Google Translate for the word: "Popcorn". I chose this word because there are quick mouth open/close poses on "POP". It is a great example of how to apply those principles and make the snappiness work. Here is the video:
The clip on the left is rough blocking. It has accurate timing, but some mouth shapes need more work to read more clearly. On the "POP", as I mentioned before, the mouth open/close is too fast to read. Plus, there are no arcs on the corners, and the overall mouth doesn't look fresh.
I put the polished version side by side with the blocking so you can see the difference better.
First thing I check for is if the anticipation is working. This is extremely important for lip syncs. We "see" the mouth shapes first, and then "hear" the audio later. The mouth shapes are anticipating the audio. In order for the audience to register the dialogue, the mouth shapes need to be a few frames ahead of the audio. Generally speaking, in Maya, I start with by setting a key at least 2 frames before the waveform (in the timeline) starts, and add more frames when needed.
Next, I go frame by frame for the 2 frames of the mouth closed poses. The lips are not just closed on both frames, but on one lower than the other, so the mouth feels more fleshy when the lower lip pushes the upper lip up. Then when the mouth opens, I make it pop open in one frame. I give another frame to favor and settle. Same thing applies to the second mouth closed poses. So even though the mouth moves a lot in a very short amount of time, we can still read it clearly and kill the evil popping monster.
Then, I add some favor poses on the jaw, refine the arcs on the corners, cheek puffs on "P", up/down on the mouth. I finish off with some tiny polish when lips are touching each other to get the fleshy feeling and avoid penetration.
Even though I usually do the lipsyncs straight ahead, I still use of the graph editor for help. Making the animation looks right first, and come back to clean curves up later when I have time. The trick to make lip sync animation better? Keeping your check list in mind, and most importantly, practice, practice and practice.
Have fun! :)
Article created by Erik Lee, refined by Eric Digilov.
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