WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:02.739 --> 00:00:08.250 Lip sync (making the mouth shapes match speech) is one of those skills where the more you 00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:10.440 do it, the easier it gets. It becomes instinct. 00:00:10.440 --> 00:00:14.379 To get started, there are three levels of lip sync you can aim for. I gave them all 00:00:14.379 --> 00:00:18.090 dumb names. 00:00:18.090 --> 00:00:22.390 Starting at the bottom is The Cheap Anime, a style of lip syncing that doesn’t match 00:00:22.390 --> 00:00:27.429 the sound the character is making. All the mouth does is open and close. It is the fastest 00:00:27.429 --> 00:00:32.040 and easiest style to do, and because it’s so minimal and imprecise you can actually 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:37.120 animate the mouths before adding in the voice acting lines. I don’t recommend you do that, 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:38.580 but you could if you wanted to. 00:00:38.580 --> 00:00:44.269 Here is how you animate Cheap Anime mouths. Listen to the voice actor’s line, draw an 00:00:44.269 --> 00:00:51.390 open mouth shape that fits the tone of their speech. A big wide mouth if they are loud, 00:00:51.390 --> 00:00:56.780 a small mouth if they’re quiet, an exaggerated or unique mouth if the acting for the line 00:00:56.780 --> 00:00:58.409 stands out. 00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:04.110 Now make two or three other mouth shapes related to the one you just did. A closed one and 00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:08.659 one in between the open mouth and closed mouth, for example. I’m going to make one more 00:01:08.659 --> 00:01:13.020 shape. Great. Now, as the character talks, you can either let the mouth run on a basic 00:01:13.020 --> 00:01:18.570 open/closed pattern, or you can individually add in whichever shape makes sense. 00:01:18.570 --> 00:01:23.780 Make sure you are letting each shape show for more than one frame. This is truly the 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:29.020 secret to good lip syncing: don’t change the mouth every frame. I usually change shape 00:01:29.020 --> 00:01:33.590 every two frames. If I do every frame, the mouth doesn’t look very lifelike because 00:01:33.590 --> 00:01:37.409 it’s too smooth, or it moves too fast and you can’t read the lips, so to speak. 00:01:37.409 --> 00:01:42.200 There are some exceptions to the rule at Typical Cartoon level lip sync, but it takes practice 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:46.380 before you start to get the feel for when you can put mouth shapes on every frame, like 00:01:46.380 --> 00:01:50.569 at the end of the sentence moving the mouth to a resting position, or for drawn out words 00:01:50.569 --> 00:01:52.689 like Oooooh and Aaaaaaaah. 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:57.869 Let’s do Typical Cartoon lip sync now. This is what you see in most contemporary cartoons 00:01:57.869 --> 00:02:02.539 on the TV or on the internet. Most of these are puppet mouths, so they are a complete 00:02:02.539 --> 00:02:07.770 set of mouth shapes that you can reuse on the character. Most of the time multiple characters 00:02:07.770 --> 00:02:12.030 use the same mouth. It makes lip sync much more efficient. 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:16.110 This chart shows the standard mouth shapes I make for talking characters. You can get 00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:21.440 away with less than this. Here, I’ll dim out the bonus shapes. Talking with just these 00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:25.750 shapes will look okay, but somewhat stiff. That’s why I have a set of mouths that is 00:02:25.750 --> 00:02:30.670 not as wide as the default. Some words I use the thin mouths for and some I use the wide 00:02:30.670 --> 00:02:34.470 mouths. The variety keeps the lip sync from looking like Cheap Anime. 00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:40.410 You can always make more shapes with these puppet mouths, like shapes that help you transition 00:02:40.410 --> 00:02:42.110 from a little O to a big wide A. 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:54.900 I put my mouth set into a symbol and use an extension that I installed into Adobe Animate 00:02:54.900 --> 00:03:06.840 to pick out mouth shapes as I listen to the dialogue. Keyframe Caddy is the extension 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:16.340 most people use. Before I found out about extensions, I used to keep all of the mouth 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:20.950 shapes at the tail end of the animation and copy paste the correct one as I went along, 00:03:20.950 --> 00:03:22.310 so you can do it that way too. 00:03:22.310 --> 00:03:24.360 If the character’s head moves, reposition the mouth. You’ll need to design a new set 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:29.630 of mouths for the front versus side view, but other than that you can fudge anything 00:03:29.630 --> 00:03:36.190 in between (like ⅞ or ¾) with front or side views. Pretty simple. 00:03:36.190 --> 00:03:41.910 Again, figuring out what shape to use takes practice. If you are new to lip syncing, I 00:03:41.910 --> 00:03:50.960 suggest listening for defining sounds like O, TH, V, B, W, L, and making sure those have 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:55.420 the right shape. Pretty much anything else you can use a regular open or closed mouth 00:03:55.420 --> 00:04:00.840 for. Another tip is to say the phrase yourself and pay attention to how your mouth moves. 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:07.270 I usually say words to myself in slow motion and exaggerate the shape of my mouth so I 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:09.350 know how it should look. 00:04:09.350 --> 00:04:14.600 Some people do choose to do Typical Cartoon lip sync but redraw the mouth each time. Sometimes 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:20.039 you redraw everything because your program doesn’t let you make puppet pieces. Other 00:04:20.039 --> 00:04:25.650 than that excuse, hand animating Typical Cartoon lip sync is a lot of work and not really worth 00:04:25.650 --> 00:04:30.490 it in my opinion. For an average quality animation you’re better off saving time and money 00:04:30.490 --> 00:04:35.030 by making puppet mouths. 00:04:35.030 --> 00:04:43.759 Mouth Master lip sync involves more than just the mouth. First, you need to redraw the mouth 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:49.479 every time. Each mouth shape is unique and reflects your voice actor’s acting. Second, 00:04:49.479 --> 00:04:54.689 your mouth is rarely going to be the only thing moving. For human mouths, the chin will 00:04:54.689 --> 00:04:59.419 be affected by how far the mouth is open, and for certain types of acting like the actor 00:04:59.419 --> 00:05:04.650 is disgusted, cheeks and this area around the nose will be affected. You should also 00:05:04.650 --> 00:05:13.659 be drawing your eyebrows and lids to emphasize the mood. The whole face needs to convey attitude. 00:05:13.659 --> 00:05:20.039 You can’t really have a perfectly animated mouth but the rest of the character stay still. 00:05:20.039 --> 00:05:23.080 This is how weird that would look. 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:28.129 Mouth Master lip sync is for people who are animating everything by hand and putting acting 00:05:28.129 --> 00:05:37.729 into their work. It’s not just talking at this point. It’s about the delivery. 00:05:37.729 --> 00:05:44.319 For more tutorials, look for yellow episodes of Scribble Kibble on the YouTube playlist, 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:49.050 or on the official website, or on Vessel. Yes. This show is pretty much everywhere.