Facial Animation & Lipsync

Besides the tips that I gave you in class...

(in short: keep it simple, no need to animate every letter and sound - test out the audio while talking with your hand under your chin to see where the extremes are, avoid the skeleton jaw claciticlac look- don't forget arcs in the corner of the mouth - don't pop your lips within one frame (for example on a "B" sound), make it read, don't make it real - play around with lip squishiness, so when you open your jaw, the clips stay closed for a few frames and then open, same thing when closing the mouth - add asymmetrical shapes, a smile doesn't have to look the same on both sides of your face - don't be afraid to animate the mouth and face outside of the dialogue, a pause in the audio doesn't mean that the face goes dead - when you're done, slip the dialogue 1 frame early as a test, it's sometimes a lot better - etc.)

... I started to look for tutorials and tips online and as always, there's a lot of good stuff out there.

First, Keith Lango's "Principles for Lipsync Animation".

Then there's a post on Spline Doctors - "Subtlety in the Face"

You also have Shawn Kelly's "21 Principles of Lipsync Animation".

From Shawn as well you get the post: Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks: The Face

Continuing with the face you got tips about eyebrows in Carlos Baena's resource section.

Another Spline Doctor post about "Eyes in Animation"

Leif's deconstruction of a blink.

If you know of other tips and tutorials, add them in the comments section.