Ss2-Lip sync lessons learnt and morph mouths

Lip sync test lessons learnt

Early editing for a lip sync test

Second part of my specialist study i am doing a lip sync piece using the characters from Street Act which originally would be doing a directors commentary on Street Act but to concentrate on the lip syncing i am going to focus on the last ten seconds in which both characters have a line each.

Thinking about sounds i will be using the best of all the voice overs that have been made offer the last couple of days, also while researching disney and how they work with dialog back in the prime of the 2d days and found they always did the characters physical performance before lip syncing which i found interesting (one cell then the other on top).

Photo above is of a test which i did on Final cut pro last week where i used a static image of the character then put the individual lip shape to symbolise the sound being played, which worked as a test and a learning curve finding that there need to be more in-betweens and hold the longer lasting letters.

Other advice also included when i asked for feedback that of putting your hand under your chin to feel when the mouth opens and closes for what letter you make, then also from a 3d animator told me to the lips should always start moving two frames before the sound comes in which had a huge improvement on the test.

Moving on to plastercine lips

Mouths

As you of noticed if you watched street act that there isn't any lip-syncing needed giving more focus on the characters physical performance, in this next snippet of animation to add to the end of street act there will be as crisp lip syncing as possible so i ditched the original mouths and gone for plastercine.

There are many reasons but main being in-betweens can be simpler to pull of using plastercine with the sculpey ones they were great for pulling off quick expression from the character and understanding the emotions quickly.

There will be less mouths but each one will be able to morph into another word and not look like too fast of a change.

expression and speech

Instant changes of expression between the above two mouths, as the disney guys worked on the performance before the speech i will map out the expression on the dope sheet also but won't be able to do them separately as its stop motion.

most morphable

The above mouth is a particular favourite which will be used and morphed into many words giving simple removal of the teeth and back of mouth if going for a closed mouth.

Ss2-Ollie and Alvin giving the audience 'Opportunity to Laugh'

Set Arrangement

Looking at many different ways of silhouetting and having the characters interior of the cinema and the stage settings, thinking about what would be more charactered with Ollie and Alvin's peronality on and off screen.

Finding that the best way of portraying the characters would be taking up more of the screen and taking a lot more attention away from the film 'street act' and more on the commentary by the two characters.

Having a cut in the middle of the script may also be added to the script where Alvin says to Ollie that he thinks Ollie's hat is too big, a close up on Ollie getting angry could be a great idea just to break it up a little bit.

Everything being considered

Brief overview of what needs to be taken into consideration set, voices, lighting, characters, cinema seats and mouths of characters doubled up to make smoother transitions while lip syncing at the last scene.

too many scripts

While creating the script there came a time where there was too much speech and came repetitive and could be changed to give time for things, the oppitunity to give time in-between gags to laugh is important to create awareness to the audience of where the gag is.


The script took a few attempts after doing an animatic realised things that need to be changed and what i could add mostly including the start a narrative intro with a small physical gag from the comedy pair

Final Script

Ss2-Street Act Extras with Ollie and Alvin-animatic

Back working on the script nearly daily improving it while looking at the animatic and getting variations of how the animation could look with the camera angles and when things come in speech/hands waving, this version is very low res because the original is 2gb because the clip of street act is 1.98gb so i need to swap it to another version.

This animatic with the final script will be passed onto Marc Silk to then get much more professional voices which suit the characters more and because its the main part of the animation the audio it needs to be done right.


Chairs and back wall will be done with silhouettes, with fabric for the curtains and the animation will be green-screened in afterwards.

Ss2- Time for some Extras

Second part of specialist study taking shape

Since the release of 'Street Act' and its success playing at the Symphony Hall, ive been working on getting another animation done before my time as a student at Birmingham City University which will mainly consist of concentrating on the verbal side of comedy yet still in keeping with Street Act.


The goal is to create a character commentary throughout street act set in the cinema which will work much like a Directors commentary that you usually find on most dvds, but be with the characters watching the film in the cinema seeing their silhouette sitting at their seats talking away.

one of the only ruff sheets which i was able to upload

The goal is to create a character commentary throughout street act set in the cinema which will work much like a Directors commentary that you usually find on most dvds, but be with the characters watching the film in the cinema seeing their silhouette sitting at their seats talking away.

Also at the end of the film the camera will cut to a front on look of the characters eating their popcorn and continue talking about the film for a few seconds. Also before i started planning this i learned new techniques with lip syncing which will come useful by talking to people from the industry only the tests won't upload to the blog.