One of the most fundamental parts of any great animated story-telling piece, whether that is a film, tv-show, or short, is the voices of the characters and their animation. See how our voice actors for our project Curtis Curly-Tail looks against its animation!
In the video, you can see our voice actors for Curtis and Zou reading out the script for this scene, and the animation of that scene playing next to them!
What is Lip Syncing in Animation?
In simple terms, it is the process of matching a character’s mouth movements with audio, usually being dialogue between characters! Lip syncing is what makes the character on screen look like they are actually talking! Accurately matching the animation to the recorded audio is important to the realism and believability of the animation! There are many different ways to go about lip syncing, from matching reference footage, to using phoneme charts (a visual chart of sound), and they can be found in 2D, 3D, and multi-media formats!
Insight From Ashley
Technique aside, lip syncing is a very time consuming process, from listening or watching audio footage of the dialogue recorded, to preparing files, and begin the up-hill challenge that is lip syncing animation! While working on our newest episode of Curtis Curly-Tail, I spend hours animating each character’s mouth movements to the episode’s dialogue, matching mouth shapes to the sentences. It’s also crucial that each character has its own personality and uniqueness to the way they talk and exaggerate certain words or vowels! The way a character enunciates certain words, sounds, or reacts such as smiling, frowning, blinking, raising and lowering brows, or squinting are all ways that I use to make the character feel alive! I cannot wait to share more about this process down the line, so keep an eye out for that!
Ready For More?
So are we! But animation takes time, and we want to make sure this episode looks amazing for all of you! While you wait, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, or on YouTube for more updates, and to get notified when Episode 3 is released! Thank you to everyone following along, and all of our Curtis Curly-Tail fans!
Want to watch the newest episode of Curtis Curly-Tail? Check it out now on Youtube!
