Different ways of lip syncing

[mystd]

I'm trying to find a good way to lip sync. I don't like the switch layer method it looks kinda cheap. Greenlaw wrote that he uses switch layers and then modifies them manually, I like that much better. But if possible I'd like to not do too much manually, so I thought about using smart bones. But I'm not really sure how to do this. Has
anyone exp with this?

I could use one smart bone: O could be 25° A could be 180° and the others inbetween. I don't mean adding switch layer to the bones I'd be manually transform the points. I want the mouth to move. I don't want it to just pop into another position. Another idea is to use several smart bones to deform the mouth: One for opening and closing, another for width and maybe another to deform the lips or toung. I'm not sure if that would work though.

Before I invest time in experimenting what is the best approach if I want it to look realistic?

[Greenlaw]

For lipsync, I just use the 'Ctrl + Alt + Right Click directly over the mouth' method. If you've named the mouthshape layers clearly (phoenemes and/or expressions), this is probably the fastest way to add lipsync because it lets you select non-linearly from a list next to the character's head. I can usually zip through a pretty good first pass in a few minutes this way. Then it's a matter of going back to refine the transitional shapes and add other animations to enhance it (facial, etc.,).

Short of using Moho's auto lip-sync feature, I don't think you can get faster than than but quality will suffer.

There is also the new Switch Selection panel. This is a separate moveable window that contains all the drawings from the Switch Layer, and you can simply scrub to the drawing you want. It's a good idea and I would use it myself except I don't like the way the panel displays deformed and transformed versions of the drawings instead of the original switch layer drawings. It would be better if it was more like the Drawing Substitution panel in Harmony and simply showed the artwork as drawn.

You might also consider tying the Switch Layer to a Smart Bone Dial, setting Interpolation Mode to Copy Previous Key and setting the first keyframe (0) to Step. This makes it easy to dial the shape you want very quickly. It's a linear control but with the Copy and Step settings, it will switch drawings non-linearly.

I mainly use this method to quickly switch between hand poses, and one big advantage is that all your keyframes are in the Bone layer along with all the other character keyframes, and not separately nested deep in the hierarchy with the Switch Layer. The downside is that when you want to add drawings to the Switch Layer, you also need to update your SBD Action. I don't prefer this method for animating lip sync but you might give it a try.

Bonus Tip: I usually set this SBD to spin 360 degrees. This gives you a wide range to dial through many shapes in your Switch Layer. Be sure to give each shape plenty of degrees in the Action, otherwise it may be difficult to land on the exact shape you want.

[mystd]

Awesome thank you! The tutorials never showed the interpolation mode so I was under the imperssion the switch-layers would just pop up. But when I searched: "anime studio Interpolation Mode" I found one that showed it. That means I can just use switch layers and moho automatically does the inbetweens. I'll be using the bone dial with switchlayers so I can add in detail manually without having to redo it every time.

[Greenlaw]

Yes, it's possible to 'morph' between mouth shapes using Switch Layers. To do this, just open the switch layer's settings and enable Interpolate Sub-Layers under the Switch tab.

It can be tricky to setup though and you'll have to plan carefully for it. Basically, all the layers need to share the same 'base' drawing from which to create all your mouth shapes. Then, when you switch between drawings, it should smoothly morph between the shapes.

This approach sounds good in theory but personally, I find it can potentially limit what you can do with your character.

For one thing, every mouth shape absolutely must use the same base drawing, so you need to be sure that base is capable of being modified into any mouth shape you will ever want. If you add a shape that can't be created from the base drawing (usually an extreme,) it will not morph. This usually isn't a big problem if the transition is done quickly and you insert a frame or two of Switch Layer transforms between the two shapes, but it's something to be aware of.

Also, you can't use Groups as mouth shapes. I rely a lot on masking for mouth shapes so this pretty much kills the approach for me (most of the time.)

Another thing is that you can't tie this to a Smart Bone Dial. With Step it will just step the shapes as if Interpolate is disabled, and with Smooth or Linear it will just move through the shapes list linearly.

But you can use other methods for directly selecting the shapes for morphing (i.e, the previously mentioned Ctrl + Alt + Right Click, or Alt + C or D to cycle. If you use the latter, remember that Shift + Alt + Right Click will select the Switch Layer the mouth belongs to so you can immediately start cycling.)

The final reason I don't like using this method is purely aesthetic--to me, it tends to look very 'morphy' and digital. That's not necessarily a bad thing if it's the look you're going for. If the look bothers you, you can probably avoid the 'morphiness' of the technique by creating additional mouth shapes to make the transitions look more natural, but now you're talking about keyframing a lot more shapes so this is not necessarily streamlining the lipsync process.

Personally, I think a well choreographed set of still images can look more like it's 'hand animated'. It can even look surprisingly smooth when combined with basic transforms applied to the Mouth Switch Layer. And with a little practice, you should be able to knock decent looking lipsync animation very quickly this way. The only thing that will probably look better is to draw it all with FBF, but that's a ton more work of course.

None of this is meant to discourage you from experimenting with different techniques--just letting you know in advance where some of the pitfalls are with this one. There are many ways to create lip-sync animations in Moho and no one technique is the best for every situation or style of animation. With some characters, I find that a combination of techniques may work best, and sometimes a different technique for different head poses. Don't be afraid to try out several methods and see what works best for your character and project.

Oh, and don't forget to share your work! You might discover a new technique or trick nobody here has thought of yet.

[mystd]

Thanks for all the info, the morphy look is good for now. I'll have to see what suits me best after experimenting.

Uhh I'm far away from finding new techniques, I still have to learn the software. I also don't have much to show right now I'm still in the learning phase. When I find something useful and produce something good that isn't cheap testing stuff I'll share it of course.

The idea I had using multiple bones could be something though.