Lip synching

[StarMasayume]

I've been making amvs for one to two years now, and so far about 4 out of 6 had lip synching, the two current projects I'm working on have lip synching, and many of the future projects I have in mind will as well. I've gotten fairly decent ratings for it (gradually rising from 8.42 to9.08) though I would really like to improve it still. I've been through the guide for it and have gained a lot of experience.

I've found lip synching to be a big challenge but I always love the feeling after its been done right. It amazes me how sometimes the lip synching falls into place with hardly any editing at all while others takes painstaking hours and I'm still not satisfied.

I have trouble sometimes making it look natural. I'll go through parts frame by frame and it seems to go with the words when I drag through it slowly, but then when I export it and watch it that same lip synching might come across as looking awkward. I've been trying to mouth the words with it to to try and help get a feel for it but sometimes it still looks just a bit rushed or off somehow.

Well, so this is my lip synching-pains... being good but night quite satisfied yet. Has anyone else have any more specific things they keep in mind while lip-synching or tips in general? The things I've tried have all helped me, but there are always those parts that are a pain and I can't figure out why... Maybe some clips are just destined to be a lip-synchers nitemare. ^_^

-star

[Scintilla]

After "NERV Evening News...", I told myself that I'd always keep my mouths in the same position for at least two frames before moving in any future lip synching endeavours, because I got quite a few comments saying that the lip synch job on that one looked too flappy.

But you can probably get away with one-frame-only mouth positions if you're editing at 23.976 (or 24) fps and/or if you're synching to a fast song.

Hope this helps.

[AquaSky]

Ditto on what Scintilla said about the two-frame rule. It really does help things look more natural. Other than that, the only real trick to it is to utilize the waveform. I've found it to be a much more reliable way to sync than by simply 'playing by ear', so to speak. Of course, even with that method there are bound to be pitfalls; a spike in the waveform was due to some non-speech noise, there's too much ambient noise to differentiate the syllables, or the sync just plain looks off when you export it. The latter happens to me with every lip-sync project - I just try to pinpoint what syllable is out-of-sync and correct it. So there's always a bit of trial and error involved.

[badmartialarts]

I usually look at my own mouth in a mirror saying the same words the same way. It's a much better guide to when to have the mouth fully open, half open, and closed (as those are usually the only positions you have in anime).

[StarMasayume]

Yeah... the song I'm currently working on has too much else going on to go by the wavelength so I'm kind of forced to play it by ear. I'll have to try that 2-frame rule though. That includes the little inbetween frames for the mouths opening and closing?

[genestarwind21122]

I've been making amvs for one to two years now, and so far about 4 out of 6 had lip synching, the two current projects I'm working on have lip synching, and many of the future projects I have in mind will as well. I've gotten fairly decent ratings for it (gradually rising from 8.42 to9.08) though I would really like to improve it still. I've been through the guide for it and have gained a lot of experience.

I've found lip synching to be a big challenge but I always love the feeling after its been done right. It amazes me how sometimes the lip synching falls into place with hardly any editing at all while others takes painstaking hours and I'm still not satisfied.

I have trouble sometimes making it look natural. I'll go through parts frame by frame and it seems to go with the words when I drag through it slowly, but then when I export it and watch it that same lip synching might come across as looking awkward. I've been trying to mouth the words with it to to try and help get a feel for it but sometimes it still looks just a bit rushed or off somehow.

Well, so this is my lip synching-pains... being good but night quite satisfied yet. Has anyone else have any more specific things they keep in mind while lip-synching or tips in general? The things I've tried have all helped me, but there are always those parts that are a pain and I can't figure out why... Maybe some clips are just destined to be a lip-synchers nitemare. ^_^

-star

"It amazes me how sometimes the lip synching falls into place with hardly any editing at all while others takes painstaking hours and I'm still not satisfied. "

Keep in mind I haven't seen any of your videos and I'll check them out.

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.

Keep in mind I haven't seen any of your videos and I'll check them out. Lipsyncing done properly will take time but it is worth it. Well I hope I have been of some help.

If you have any other question feel free to ask us here.

Gene Starwind 21122

[genestarwind21122]

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.

Gene Starwind 21122

And also an all the way open shot. That makes 5.

I kinda rushed while I was typing.

[Scintilla]

Yup, it holds for in-between shots (that was the whole reason I told myself to do it that way, was that the in-between shots were going too fast, making the mouth "move" too fast).

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.

[Scintilla]

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.

Gene Starwind 21122

And also an all the way open shot. That makes 5.

The problem is that, most of the time, the animators only provide us with three different mouth positions for any given talking scene. They're cheap like that.

Mind you, I said "most of the time". If you're lucky enough to find that a scene you want *does* have more positions than that, then by all means use them.

[genestarwind21122]

That's true. That's why you can go closed, half, full, half, closed. If necessary to lipsync. For example " Can You..." From the line Can you feel the love tonight would be starting out closed before the word, half then to full, then to half for the word "Can", then back to full for "You", then back to half before the word Feel.