Making it Sync.

Adam Sale

Compilation Paper

Early Disney animators marked an "X" on the dopesheet where the accents were, and then animated the expression, but something was wrong. The expression never seemed to come off right. They thought to advance the action ahead by a frame, but that still didn't do the trick. It wasn't until the action was exposed three frames ahead that the character appeared to be moving on the same beat as the dialogue. For a jump, a landing, a hit or a take, 3 frames nearly always gave a better illusion of the sync, but in many cases it still wasn't enough. The hard line is that there is no fast rule for sync. If it works, use it. As an animator, you need to be alert to the possibility of shifting any action against the soundtrack.

The following general rules on sync were refined from Disney Animator Ham Luske's principles.

1) Anticipate dialogue with head and body gestures, three to four frames ahead of a heavy intonation. The mouth sync should be right on the modulation. If it is a closed mouth, it will be on the consonant, and if possible, remain closed for two frames in order to be seen.

2) Your character needs to have interesting mouth shapes to reflect the personality of its voice. A character may have a drawl, or be expressing an emotion, or shouting a piece of dialogue. The mouth shape needs to accentuate these personality differences.

3) Try to show enough time on the important shapes in the mouth so that the viewer is aware that he has seen a picture of the word.

4) On holds at the end of a phrase or line of dialogue, you should retain a mouth shape that reflects the character of the last word spoken. Don't change these shapes because you're done with the word or phrase, rather you should settle slightly out of the pase by softening it gradually to achieve the realism of the flesh of that character.

5) There aren't too many straight in-betweens in dialogue. You may wish to retain one mouth a little longer and then move quickly into another. You should favour one extreme over the other in terms of timing and shape. Variety is the spice of life

6) If a word is stretched out for a farily long time, you should treat it as a moving hold. Go beyond the key and then settle slowly back into it. If the sound diminishes, soften the shape. Either way, it is your job to keep the feeling of flesh and life.

7) When using the eyes for sync in an extreme closeup, start them into the move at least three frames ahead of the accent. If the spoken line is a soft, mushy line, then the action does not need to exceed the line by more than a frame or two. If the dialogue is strong, then it may be wise to lead the action with the eyes by three or four frames.

8) When using a blink to sync, the eyes should close ahead of the accent by three or four frames.

9) If you are starting the dialogue on a drifitng or slow move without an antic, you should start the move at least three to eight frames ahead of an action.

10) There are times when the dialogue is all shot on ones. This is especially true for a lot of fast talking characters. In cases such as this it is sometimes not possible to hit all of the phonemes. Instead, you should attempt to hit the most prominent phonemes.

See the phoneme and expressions chart for constructing your mouth and face shapes.