Study Task 2 - Talk This Way

In class we were given a list of sound clips to choose from and then using the mouth templates, in After Effects, we were expected to animate a convincing lip sync using the remapping techniques we were taught.

I started by listening to the clip over and over again, and frame by frame, I filled out a dope sheet to help aid me when choosing what shape the mouth would be for each sound. This wasn't the end of the task however, as we then needed to make our own lip sync using our own designs.

In order to get a better understanding of what each word would look like, I decided to try and complete this exercise in class as while it isn't mandatory, I thought this would help me when it came to animating my own. Below is the result.



Link to First Attempt

I had to give up nearing the end as After Effects started to glitch when I tried to change the timing of certain key frames. While I had no issues using the same technique for the first half of the clip, for some reason if I changed the image, the software wouldn't listen. I even closed down and restarted the software to see if that would help, and asked my lecturer for assistance however they explained this was a glitch that they had also encountered and there was no way of fixing it.

Using this test as a starting point, I went on to animate my own lips. I also referred back to my dope sheet of the vocal breakdown so that if I needed to, I could add extra mouth shapes to make the movements seem more natural.

I am not happy with my first outcome as the lips have no real weight or bearing, because they are just floating in the blank space. I decided to develop this further however, as the group project started production at this point, I couldn't focus on it until later.

Then over the Christmas break, in my spare time, I tried to experiment using different software. I decided to add the lips to a face to provide context and make it more interesting.

I rotoscoped a video I recorded of myself over-acting to the sound clip to try and make it more animated. I am worried however that the animation looks too stiff as while I was exaggerated when recording myself, I feel I lost that in the animation. I was also worried it was too difficult to complete in the time I had so I decided to just focus on the face. To add a bit of movement, I changed the shape and positioning of the eyes and nose.



Link to Final Lip Sync