Phrasing and Lip-syncing

T-EXC-005-002

With Harmony, you can automatically generate a lip chart based on the phonemes in a character's dialogue track. Phonemes are the units of sound in a language that distinguish one word from another. However, there is more to animating dialogue than just drawing the right mouth positions. The mouth chart is an important and useful reference, but it does not dictate absolutely how you will animate dialogue.

• People do not enunciate every syllable. They "smudge" phrases.
• It is not necessary to animate every single letter. It is more important to look at the entire word and consider how it is emphasized in the dialogue. Try to feel the word.
• Design interesting mouth shapes that reflect the qualities of your character.
• Teeth: Either the top or bottom teeth are usually visible. Since they are solid, they should not change as the character speaks; there is no squash and stretch on teeth. Well, unless that is what you want; they are, after all, cartoons!
• Every person has a unique way of talking. What is the nature of your character's speech? For example, does your character show its top teeth, bottom teeth, or both when talking? Do the lips curl?
• More on acting: What is the mood of the character or the scene, and how does this influence the dialogue?

One of the most useful tools of the animator when animating dialogue is the mouth chart. This breaks down the mouth movements to at least eight different mouths. But you can do even more if you feel you will need a wider range of references for your project.