Smooth Lips

I previously posted on my keyframing process while lip syncing and a little on how it evolved. I would now like to explain this in more detail. First I will describe the controls for the character that I am currently animating, and then I will describe the process.

I use sliders that are set-driven keyed to blendshapes and joint movements. Here are the ones I use for lip syncing:

• mouth open/close - left/right
• lips sealed
• smile types 1,2,3 and pout
• eee, oh, ooo, bpm, fv
• tongue controls
  

Step 1: Mark the "r" and "w" sounds

Here I'll go through and and place a keyframe at every point that these sounds show up. On these frames I will key the sliders for "lips sealed", "ooo," "mouth open/close," and "smile." Next I will go through the animation and keyframe the beginning and ends of these sounds. At these points I will only key the "lips sealed" and "ooo" sliders, leaving "mouth open/close" and "smile" open for the different shapes that will come before or after.

Step 2: Mark the "eee" sounds

This step is similar to the step above but I am only using the slider for "eee." Since I am only using one slider it is easier to create all of the keys in one pass instead of going through and doing the "on's" first and the "off's" second.

Step 3: "bpm"

Same as 1, keying "bpm," "mouth open/close," and "smile" on the first pass, and keying the beginning and end frames of the sounds on a second pass using only the "bpm" slider. It is important that the "lips sealed" slider be keyed to zero at every point the "bpm" is on.

Step 4: "fv"

Just like 3.

Step 5: "Mouth Open/Close"

At this point there will be a lot of keys for this slider in place already. Most of the keys to place now are opening the mouth for vowel sounds and closing it for most of the remaining consonants. I will place these keys going straight through from the beginning to the end of the clip.

Step 6: Tongue movement

Besides cleanup and tweaking the last thing to do is create the tongue movements. Here I will animate the tongue to move down and in the correct shape whenever the mouth is open and to create "l," "th," and other sounds.