Lip Syncing, or This "N" is Not Like the Other.

One thing I have realized about lip syncing is that the mouth shape for one specific consonant is not the same for another. This happens when the vowel sound leading into the consonant is different. For example, if you are adding a keyframe for an "nn" sound after an "ee" the lips will still hold the "ee" shape as the teeth start to touch, where as if the "nn" follows an "oo" the lips will still hold that instead.

Originally the process I would go through would be to to keyframe the consonants of a sentence or two first and then go back to add the vowel sounds, all by reusing the same mouth shapes over and over. I have since switched to going through and keyframing the sliders of my rig that control the vowel sounds and other lip movements(bpm, fv, r, w) first, and then going back through to key the sliders for the "n,t,s,th,sh" sounds and the tongue movements. This keeps the mouth movements smooth and less jumpy while allowing me to work more quickly than going from the first to last sounds in succession.