Lip synching

[downwithpants]

only half of lip synching is in the lips. speech production uses muscles from the upper chest, throat, and face. for example, you generally drop your shoulders slightly when you speak. also, make sure facial expression, body gestures, and body posture are appropriate. finally, never have a single lip synching scene (one shot of the speaker, without significant change in the scenery) go on for more than 5 seconds. any like any video effect, make sure you know when to use lip synching and when not -- don't place it in the video randomly.

[StarMasayume]

I'm sorry I know that feeling where you drop in a clip and it seems to good to be true, but it is. I tried lipsyncing in my earlier videos and it really wasn't that great. The people watching it get the feeling that you were trying to lipsync but doesn't seem like Sierra Lorna, or doki doki style type of lipsync where it flows smoothly and the mouths hit the syllabels of the words. Opens up wide when the word is at its max, and smaller as the word slowly fades out. Eventhough it looks good it really can be improved. I've become more aware of this as I have edited in my newest amv which willn't be released until after AUSA at least that's what I'm thinking right now. Anyway, lipsyncing shouldn't just work out. In order to get a good lip sync to work and look natural. It really should be done on a frame by frame basis. Not saying literally frame by frame but by natural movements. One mouth open up 1/4 of the way, 1/2 way, 3/4 of the way and closed if possible. Try to find those four scenes if you want to do a still lipsync. To do a lipsync with movement I recommend leaving in the original scene and then going into Photoshop to cut out the lips. Then use the motion to adjust them so they overlay on top of the previous image.

Gene - I suppose I should clarify that. I've never dropped a clip in there for lip synching without editing it SOMEHOW. But some just seem to take more than ten minutes before it looks right while others have just been an endless nitemare for me. I do think I need to take into consideration more about when the mouth opens wider or longer -within- the word for different pitches. It's harder though to get such detail when the clip you're lip synching with doesn't give enough mouth positions for the part. I think I have a hard time judging what positions to use sometimes. I also think that two second frame rule might help me as well.

Thanks for your response and really, I would appreciate it so much if after you look at one of my amvs you could let me know what you think I could improve on doing for my lip synching. Either of my last two you should be able to judge well enough. I can't quite figure out why Luffy's Arabian Night lip synch rating is higher than Miyazawa in Love as I feel they were about the same.

Also, scrubbing through slowly enough that you can hear the individual "frames" of audio (for lack of a better term) can be quite useful in many cases.

Yeah, that's what I mean that I usually do. It's what I was referring to when I said when I play through it slowly it seems fine but when I export it and watch it it might seem off.

only half of lip synching is in the lips. speech production uses muscles from the upper chest, throat, and face. for example, you generally drop your shoulders slightly when you speak. also, make sure facial expression, body gestures, and body posture are appropriate. finally, never have a single lip synching scene (one shot of the speaker, without significant change in the scenery) go on for more than 5 seconds. any like any video effect, make sure you know when to use lip synching and when not -- don't place it in the video randomly.

I think it'd be a bit hard to get the other little gestures right for lip synching an anime character. They don't give you that. Besides... it's a pain enough to work with just the mouth sometimes. ^_^ I agree that you shouldn't keep on one lip synch for long without some kind of scene change and also the importance of where to place them.

Thanks for the response so far to all of you!