I decided to go ahead and try some LipSync. Much harder than I thought. :yes:
Just incase you want to see the bones in action, SLOW motion: http://dominomf.com/smcfiles/kngcalvn_Untitled.avi
Enjoy 
Downloading now.
Lipsync / animation should be a snap compared to modelling and rigging
Just kidding 
Mike
*EDIT
The sync looks good to me, albeit the voice track was spoken so quickly it was a bit hard to tell.
Now get his eyes, eyelids, head and the rest of his body moving
Mike
Great first attempt! Did you make a shape key for each phenome? Actually, you mentioned bonesâŚsorryâŚa pose for each? I would be very interested to see the .blend, since I a side thing I am investigating is re-use across meshes. Thanks.
high speaking rate complicates lipsync. in coaching some people on camera, i have to continually tell them to slow down. Slow down your speaking rate by about 2x. If you just said that to me that fast, i wouldnt understand it. in fact, i listened to it 3 times, and still dont quite understand what you are saying. THEN stretch out the lipsync, and then look at it in slo mo and you will be able to fine tune. Also, note that the lips have to move a frame or so earlier to form the air and make the sound, before we hear it.
No idea what he said, it sounded kinda like âaich dee a cavita, kaypee cluoâ. So I really canât tell if the lipsync is good or not, XP
OH, well then we have to get the âlil purpl martian dude witout da kool shades andat broken armiturâ to comment. sorry. i thought it was Kingâs English.
whoa thats nice. i made a beaver lipsinc very easily with bones, but i donât think the technique i used would be good on a human.
oh by the way, i think it says âwhat are you talking about, canât you see iâm cool?â
yeah, make him say a little slower. otherwise, nice work. did you use shapekeys?
What are you guys talkin about? Canât you see heâs cool??!!
Hmmm, Calvin. Itâs your first and you used bones so itâs not that bad. I have no idea how hard it is to lip-sync with bones (though Iâve long-suspected it isnât easy at all) so I canât give any advice there. However, the method should be of no consequence, only the end result matters and there are a few issuesâŚ
He starts with his mouth open then it is closed just one or two frames later although heâs only going to say âwhatâ, which isnât a closed-lip shape so the lips move to that shape next. Start with a relaxed mouth, partially open and move straight to the first viseme from there. The current moves are distracting.
The next âmajorâ problem is that his lips donât visibly close on the âBâ in âaboutâ so it looks like he says âer-outâ. The closed lip shapes are quite important visual cues so you might need to hold them an extra frame or two to let them register. To do this, you can hit the viseme early and leave a little late, sacrificing a bit of vowel sound if need be.
The tongue needs to do its thing on âTalkinâ, âabouTâ, âcanâTâ and âSeeâ in particular.
His mouth also moves quite slowly despite some words being spoken quite fast. Iâd say this âslowâ effect is caused by the lips drifting from viseme to viseme. There need to be some held poses. The holds might only be a few frames, but they make a difference. I think the character doing the audio would have fast, jerky lip movements.
If you look at the Rocky thread in focused critiques, youâll see comments about head and eye movements that apply here too. This is almost more important than the lip-sync.
On a âminorâ note, I find the T-Pose distracting for lip-sync tests. If you arenât ready to animate the arms, just drop them into a more comfortable position for now.
AndyD: Hey thanks for the comments, Iâll be sure to tweak it once I get home. It was not hard as in âhard to make the shapesâ it was more of a timing. Just had to get the mouth to open and close at the right time. Will work on it.
noidtluom: I used bones for the mouth/eyebrows, but shapekeys for the face (Actually the shapekeys were too driven by bones.)
RogerWickes: Iâll post the blend when get home. (maybe Iâll tweak it first based on AndyDâs suggestions) :yes:
BlackBoe: Yeah, sorry⌠that was a bit too fast.
Mike_S: thanks.
Roger,
Not this particular animation, but Calvin has posted the AJ rig, if you didnât know, link to it and other rigs is in my Best of Blender thread (in my sig).
Mike
Here you go roger: http://dominomf.com/smcfiles/kngcalvn_140.blend
Little update: http://dominomf.com/smcfiles/kngcalvn_Untitled2.mov
MUCH better. Add some head movements and facial expressions and youâll be there. For these movements and expressions, sit there and act it out yourself, in time with the audio. Even imitate the voice and BE the character. Lots of people use a mirror but I tend to just close my eyes and picture the expressions Iâm making in my head. (Edit: as BlackBoe suggests below, a video cam of some sort can also be a big help too. Just donât try to catch EVERY nuance - just the important stuff.)
Work through one or two elements at a time ⌠head - eyebrows - cheeks - eyes and so on. My approach is similar to what Lisae suggested in the Rocky thread - start big with general movements and maybe some basic mouth movement (open/close) then work your way down to the details. Then I go back and tweak the head movements then tweak the details and this keeps going until Iâm happy or I give up
Ohhh⌠Heh, cool. Probably better than Iâd do, but Iâve never tried. Anyway, I did notice something, when he says âwhatâre you talking aboutâ his eyebrows move for no apparent reason, they go up, then they twitch and go back down again, it doesnât seem that natural. Like AndyD said, act it out in front of a mirror or picture it OR record yourself with a webcam or camcorder or some such. Also, when he says âcoolâ the head jerk forward seems to have too smooth of a transition, I think it might be because the body and head move forward are at the same time, I think the head head should probably lead in the motion a couple frames before the body.
EDIT: Anyway, getting awesome. :]