Lip Sync Practice: Sonic Characters

[BlackScarz]

I've started work on a Sonic animated project and I'm currently working on a few test animations. One of which happens to be lip syncing. It's not only practice to see how some of the characters will look speaking but also a chance to play around with body language as well.

So far I used Bunnie (from Sonic SatAM and the current Archie's Sonic Comics) with Rouge's voice (from the 90's X-Men cartoon). I'm currently looking for more original voices to use for other characters.

I've attached a small gif from the animation itself. You check out the full flash here in storage.

I'm planning to animate Sally and Fiona Fox next when I get the chance. I'm currently waiting for a VA for Sally to send me the recordings of some of the character's lines. I'm really hoping that all goes well there.

Since I'm not exactly a pro animator (in fact, it's still very new to me. I've only started taking animation more seriously last year), I'm very curious to know what everyone thinks of the short vid.

[kkots]

The animation is not very smooth in some places.

[BlackScarz]

At 12/14/13 02:16 PM, kkots wrote: The animation is not very smooth in some places.

Can you name a few places in particular?

[kkots]

At 12/14/13 03:03 PM, BlackScarz wrote:

At 12/14/13 02:16 PM, kkots wrote: The animation is not very smooth in some places.

Can you name a few places in particular?

I knew you wouldn't be satisfied with just one abstract sentence. Should do a full overview right away next time.

Let's call the character with cybernetic arm Y. Because I'm a programmer, and this is not an essay anyway.

In the GIF that you attached to the first post, the hair of Y is wiggling despite that Y's head is not moving fast or suddenly enough in order for that to happen. In the same GIF the movement of the Y's left ear is abrupt and ragged, and the right ear unbelievably blends with the head at the moment when the head is facing directly to the camera.

In the second shot Y's left shoulder (cybernetic) is unexpectedly moving a very large distance upwards, in comparison to the other shoulder.
X's back has some weird line appearing and disappearing on it.
X's eyebrow is not moving smoothly enough.
X's back's contour on the right of the screen is not moving smoothly.

In the third shot, if the viewer locks his eyes on Y's knees, it's noticeable that they're not moving smoothly. Same with feet.
When Y turns around, feet are not staying in the same place and go below the bottom of the screen at some moment.
Y's right hand is shaking at insane speed when Y is sitting down.
When Y leans to Y's left, Y's right hand jumps up one frame and goes down on the next frame, producing a ragged motion.
Y's head angles when talking, and it does so at a large angle and at the duration of one frame.

Things that I didn't notice being bad are not mentioned here.

Disclaimer: I am not an animator, and not an artist. Please, disregard everything that I say. This post is spam.

[BlackScarz]

Ah! I guessed about some of these. Thanks on you're input! They're quite helpful and shows I have much to improve on.

[bluebolt]

Yeah, Y's right shoulder also kinda goes over her jaw, which is humanly impossible. Also, being a single frame makes it even more unexpected and odd. :u Personally I like the bounciness of the hair even if it wasn't a fast motion, though.

[Celshaded]

Number 3 is the best one.

On number 1, the timing on the part when she says "...SMIRK.." is slightly off.

I don't know if you did these in the order that you numbered them, but if you did then it seems like you're getting the hang of timing. The only other thing I would suggest is to add more mouth shapes on the words with the harder sounds, like when she says 'smirk' in the first one or eff she does when she says '...face!"

You can sort of get away with flapping similar mouth shapes most of the time until the v.a. adds one of those hard accents a particular word.

Surprisingly good for somebody just starting out though.

[Celshaded]

I also forgot to mention, usually when you are lip syncing in the timeline in flash, it's a good rule of thumb to bump all your mouth animation 1 frame from where you are working on it, because usually we make the mouth shapes just before the sound comes out, not simultaneously, if that even makes any sense.

[BlackScarz]

At 12/17/13 05:46 AM, Celshaded wrote: Number 3 is the best one.

On number 1, the timing on the part when she says "...SMIRK.." is slightly off.

I don't know if you did these in the order that you numbered them, but if you did then it seems like you're getting the hang of timing. The only other thing I would suggest is to add more mouth shapes on the words with the harder sounds, like when she says 'smirk' in the first one or eff she does when she says '...face!"

You can sort of get away with flapping similar mouth shapes most of the time until the v.a. adds one of those hard accents a particular word.

Surprisingly good for somebody just starting out though.

Yes, I animated these in order. Nice to know that I'm getting the hang of things. I'll definitely try to play around more with the mouth shapes when characters emphasize on certain words.

At 12/17/13 05:51 AM, Celshaded wrote: I also forgot to mention, usually when you are lip syncing in the timeline in flash, it's a good rule of thumb to bump all your mouth animation 1 frame from where you are working on it, because usually we make the mouth shapes just before the sound comes out, not simultaneously, if that even makes any sense.

I think I understand and that's something I'm going to try next.

[kkots]

At 12/17/13 03:05 PM, BlackScarz wrote: I think I understand and that's something I'm going to try next.

Might as well fix the old animation. It's just "remove 1 frame" somewhere at the start of the mouth's layer's animation. All frames on the layer will get switched backwards by 1.

Or do you mean you're going to make something new and try that thing there? Might as well continue it here! Let this be your personal animation thread! Having a personal thread is a habit common in Art thread.

[BlackScarz]

At 12/18/13 05:38 AM, kkots wrote:

At 12/17/13 03:05 PM, BlackScarz wrote: I think I understand and that's something I'm going to try next.

Might as well fix the old animation. It's just "remove 1 frame" somewhere at the start of the mouth's layer's animation. All frames on the layer will get switched backwards by 1.

Or do you mean you're going to make something new and try that thing there? Might as well continue it here! Let this be your personal animation thread! Having a personal thread is a habit common in Art thread.

That's not a bad idea to turn this into my personal animation thread. I will also change the first animation by removing one frame before I start a new one. I'm away from my home at the moment so I'll be able to "tweak" the animation when I return home in a few days.