Looking For Opinions Regarding Lip Synch Portion

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:46 am

Progress is...well slow, but it is coming along. Anywho, I've decided to try a new method of lip synching that uses multiple mouths instead of just the 'ol closed, halfway open, wide open and wanted to get some people's opinions on it (perferably from people who can critically examine it):
http://www.backwater-productions.net/_video/new.avi

The problem I have is that I've been working on it for so long I don't think I can really properly discern the quality(of the lip synching, not the video, some portions of that are still crap quality). This video is important to me because I plan to submit it to Sakuracon next year and maybe hopefully win in some category, so the harsher the critique the better.

For nostalgia (for those that care and/or remember), here's the original premise clip of this video I made (circa 2002):
http://www.backwater-productions.net/_video/old.avi

I think the new version so far is a VAST improvement.

Illia Sadri · Post by **Illia Sadri** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 1:56 pm

Well the technical portion of the lip synch is pretty decent..... I would almost think though that using too many mouths is a tad distracting. In the one line you have in there its not overdone as you only had a few but I can see it going overkill further into the song. I think while its a good idea to not overuse it and change it for more emphasized sylables or where the mouth should be rounded etc.

Also my personal opinion of any lip synch video.... make it something besides JUST lip synch. Have it play into your theme in some way. Don't be afraid to have normal scenes even when the lyrics are playing (just make sure you remove any mouth flaps in them) because even real music videos rarely have the band singing the ENTIRE time.

Otherwise though, its difficult to determine where your video is going as its essencially the introduction. Its best to toss out a beta of a video after about approximately a minute is done simply because that is the point where you can get a feel for the theme of the video, get a feel for the technical editing and by that point you should have an idea of what is happening.

Wheee_It's_Me! · Post by **Wheee_It's_Me!** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 7:47 am

Illia Sadri wrote:Well the technical portion of the lip synch is pretty decent..... I would almost think though that using too many mouths is a tad distracting. In the one line you have in there its not overdone as you only had a few but I can see it going overkill further into the song. I think while its a good idea to not overuse it and change it for more emphasized sylables or where the mouth should be rounded etc.

I think you're right. I've been trying to find a good blend of technically correct while still looking as natural as possible. I think Kevin Caldwell's "Believe" does a really good job of reaching that perfect combination in it's lip synched portions.

Also my personal opinion of any lip synch video.... make it something besides JUST lip synch. Have it play into your theme in some way. Don't be afraid to have normal scenes even when the lyrics are playing (just make sure you remove any mouth flaps in them) because even real music videos rarely have the band singing the ENTIRE time.

Originally I was going to do the whole song lip synched, but I've since decided against it. At this point only a few key parts will be lip synched. Mostly because I'm trying to go more for feeling than just technical merit, which I think you can't really do very well if the whole thing is lip sycned, cause then you can't do a lot of other stuff.

Otherwise though, its difficult to determine where your video is going as its essencially the introduction. Its best to toss out a beta of a video after about approximately a minute is done simply because that is the point where you can get a feel for the theme of the video, get a feel for the technical editing and by that point you should have an idea of what is happening.

Well I didn't want to give too much of it away. ^_^

...in fact I've probably given too much away already with that kissing segment I posted a week or so back. The video is gonna be a lot of fun when it's finished, lots of drama and so forth. The first segment, the one I just posted focuses mainly on Sakura and Lee meeting for the first time, kind of a "love at first sight", but then it kinda goes into how Sakura doesn't seem to want to get very serious, so then Lee starts being more friendly to another girl (I'm gonna use Meilin for that) and then Sakura gets upset over it and then it goes into the whole 'are we lovers or friends' bit.

The hardest part of this video is creating all the scenes that never happened, which include altering Sakura's eye color from green to blue (which I'm partly doing at a way of branding my footage). So essentially almost the entire AMV has to be constructed frame by frame. I'm also working on a lot of complex editing techniques, like in the clip I just posted, at the very last portion where it does that zoom out from her face and then zooms back in to her chest.

I also want to try and do some stuff with frame movement like in Aluminum Studios AMV "Silence", I especially liked the part in that video where the camera pans around the 2D frame elements of the characters and the background, that was a really neat effect.