LIP SYNC & MOUTH CHART

Lip-sync – 1

In full animation, it isimportant for a character to mime. When he is speaking, therefore his miming

 must be rarely synchronized to the soundtrack.Dialogue is invariably recorded before production and the timing of it is passedto the animator as a phonetic breakdown. It is also important that the animator

 should have a copy of the track on tape, so that he can listen to it repeatedlyuntil the pattern of emphasis, the rise and all of the voice, etc, is clear inhis mind.  It is sometimes useful to indicate this alongside the phoneticbreakdown by means of a line which moves left and right as the voice falls andrises and becomes thicker and thinner according to the degree of emphasis.Usually the voice rises on important syllables or words and falls on less important ones.

Lip-sync – 2

The first step is to make thecharacter’s actions fit his words. If he is aggressive he will tend to thrust himself forward and reinforce certain points with gestures. If he is shy he mayshrink away and speak apologetically and if he is crafty he may pretend tosmile, whilst giving quick glances to see the reaction to his words and so on.The second step consists ofmoving the character’s lips and perhaps the lower part of the face, to fit theframe by frame phonetic breakdown of the speech on the exposure chart. Here it is important to listen repeatedly to the way the dialogue is spoken. There is aboard tendency for the mouth and lower jaw, to open on a vowel sound and closeon a consonant. In a normally spoken sentence there are usually a fewaccentuated vowel sounds and the rest of the words are of lesser importance.Play the soundtrack over and over again until the pattern of emphasis, the riseand fall of the voice etc, is clear. Then plan the lip sync to conform to thispattern in visual terms.As already mentioned,mass-produced TV series the dialogue carries the central interest of the filmand there is practically no animation apart from the mouth. This is no acceptable in other types of production and it is therefore important to ensurefirst of ll that the mouth, eyes and other features of the face should expressthe meaning of the dialogue. The hands should also be used for emphasis.Thirdly, the body itself should be used to underline the content. The threeelements have of course to be closely coordinated.

Lip-sync – 3

Once the basic timing of themouth movement is worked out, the next stage is to consider how the facialexpression, head movement and body gestures can underline and add to the meaningand interest of the dialogue.

In the first speech of OldMajor in Animal Farm, it was especially important to convey the message of thischaracter to the audience, since the whole film was motivated by it. The facialexpression had to express not only the figure’s sincere concern but as an ailingcharacter, physical pain as well. The entire body of the pig was animated whil it’s face, eyes, mouth, snout and the facial creases conveyed the emotions ofthe character.It is not essential to animateall vowels and consonants in terms of single frames. Especially in T entertainment series, where speed of production is essential about eight positions of mouth and tongue are adequate.

Lip sync is the most importantconcept in character animation, since the total animation is based on animatingdialogues. Unlike live action, dialogue cannot be recorded post-production. Inanimation a dialogue must be recorded first and animated. That means, animatorswill have to plan the action and acing of the character according to thedialogues. Using software like Magpie, a dialogue can be split into frames so atrack reader can get the length of the dialogue. Same dialogues will be writte on the exposure sheet along with the frames. This means the dialogue can bemeasured with the frames.

Once the length of the dialogu becomes evident, specific mouths will be added for each and every frame. Everyword from the dialogue will be split into the matching mouth shapes. A mouthchart, of mouth shapes for every character will be prepared in thepre-production stage itself. There are 11 basic mouth shape used in animation.In pre-production stage, theStory Board artist will plan the acting part according to the dialogue and scenemodulation. Director or key animator animating that particular scene will planpositioning the essential key drawings on to the exposure sheet with keypositions mentioned with reference to frames and sound. Now action is set on theexposure sheet. Then an animator plays the role of generating all drawingsrequired to fill the whole exposure sheet. On the keys he will mention whichmouth should appear on what drawing. The assistant animator will follow the sam instruction and generate the mouth shapes for in-betweens.Synchronizing animation to

 speech:

Unlike live action films, wherethe dialogue is simultaneously recorded with the action, in animation it must berecorded beforehand so that the movement can be fitted to it precisely. It is anessential preproduction operation that cannot be left until after the completionof animation.Once the soundtrack isavailable either on tape or optical films, the type and character of the voicecan be analyzed through the use a of synchronizer (16mm or 35mm) and frame byframe timing guide for the animation can be made. This can be done either on the

 exposure chart, where there is a special column for it, or on a separate chart.

 In either case, it must be done in terms of frame analysis. No two-dialogue

 performances are the same. Even single words like ‘you’, ‘yes’,’ its’; ’had’ can

 vary substantially when analyzed in terms of separate frames. Such information

 is the basis of fitting animation to sound.

Firstly, listen carefully to

 the soundtrack and in particular to the feeling behind the way in which the

 words are spoken. Then listen to the phrasing and rhythm of the speech and find

 the positions of the main emphases and key words. Then plan the movements of the

 character’s body, head, arms etc, to fit the words and the way in which they are

 being said, to reinforce the dramatic effect. Try to emphasize the main points

 of the speech with the whole body, if time and budget permit it. In animation,

 the meaning of dialogue should be somewhat overemphasized, especially in an

 entertainment film.