Creative Corner

hey there fellas! so i've been an artist ever since i was a wee little goblin, but i started dabbling in animation around 2014, and have been animating off and on in my free time since then (although i am primarily just an artist, animation is a daunting task.......) Anyways, recently i decided to finally tackle my first big project-- a measly 18-ish seconds of animation, but still the most i have ever done, and this time to be done with full-color, backgrounds, and even two voice actors and a short outro theme i commissioned. The rough animation is done, the audio is all set up, backgrounds are being made, but the last task remains before i can begin the clean animation: [b]the lipsync[/b] In all my years of off-and-on animating, lipsync has been and forever will be my enemy. i usually manage to avoid it, but this time there is no getting around it. i just struggle with animating those golly-darn mouth movements every time. i've looked at countless guides with all the vowel shape, video tutorials, asked other animators for tips, but nothing. i am still having a rough time. it is probably a mix of the first character too, who has a weird side-mouth i have never animated before. the rough animation itself is pretty smooth and i am happy with it for the most part, the lipsync just makes me feel yucky, and seems too distracting and different compared to the animation of the characters. it's really discouraging me, as i want to get this project done and actually accomplish something for once in my life, but this is really holding me back. if there's any animators out there who could help me some how, or even someone who uses toon boom studio who could perhaps collab with me with a copy of the animation and do the rough lipsync in exchange for either art, money or whatever, just pleeease let me know. i'm desperate. also-- i use a software that was discontinued several years ago so that's lovely [emoji=guardian deadpan size=1] below is an example from one of the scenes where i attempted lipsync, but am just absolutely dying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sogh3I8BY0k any help at all is appreciated, soo soo much

Heyah fellow animator ouo// Whew, hopefully this helps since I mainly worked with 3D animation rather than 2D nowadays; I am getting rusty there. I will start by breaking down the the video example. The subtle follow through and eye movement and design works well together, though just on a side note it feels as if it can be pushed further. Take a look at Richard William's example for a bit on how to push the movements further: [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/90/33/2e903397ef2635a7d6a0a2e42dfc89f5.gif[/img] If you have time, do make sure to check out his videos from time to time aye. He is like the modern to-follow instruction for any schooling or indie animator for the basics. From what I feel, a good lipsync is, on top of being able to do the simple breakdowns, is the usage of tongue to tell from the vowels (since it is probably why we get so annoyed from videos don't get synced properly with their sound). You might want to try: 1. Breaking down the key parts: - You. Hav. EnT. No. Ticed. Sal. Man. - Take note of the teeth after getting the mouth movement right, then get the tongue gesture correct. - Not too sure about the exact dialogue, since I picked up what I could hear ^^;// - Recording yourself doing the dialogue as reference to observe can be a way you can try venturing into as well :) 2. Avoid too many in betweens. - Having too many frames in an animation prevents a certain notion of your brain perceiving the slow-ins and slow-outs of an animation, thus making them feel more static than normal. 3. If you are 3/4 ways done, and you figured you kept editing and could not locate the problem, don't shy away from restarting. - If there is something I have picked up from my profs in school, it is the need to learn to love redoing many attempts to relearn. - Since due to the way in how digital art is being created, I guess one an be easily discouraged from art sometimes when one would compare their art with another beginner than started way later but improved x1000 faster. Yet, I feel that people might have missed out on the number of attempts and drafts they have done probably just to get the posture or depth of field right. So no worries there, take it easy and go at your pace :) Lastly aye, I have been using a new animating program called Krita. Its free and I feel that it is quite a nice one worth trying out despite it being on somewhat of a BETA mode now. They do updates to their programs every now and then, and they do listen to the areas in which their users hope for them to work on aye. It is not a program solely limited to animation; it is illustration friendly as well! Feel free to check it out aye, that's all from me. Hope that helped aye :)

Thank you-- will keep that in mind!