Manua

al Lip Sy
ynch Too
on Boom
m Tutoria
al

The autom
mated lip syn
ncing capabillities of Toon
n Boom Studiio are both u
useful and im
mpressive.
However,, no matter how
h anslates your sound files there’s alwa
well it tra ays some parrt of the lip syync
that will need
n to be ad
djusted manually. The au
utomated lip sync is simply not sophissticated enou
ugh to
capture every
e nuance
e of speech. This
T lip sync tutorial will l ay the found
dation for you
u to do mana
age
this proce
ess manually.

Underrstanding Phone
emes

me (pronouncced fo-neem
A phonem m) is a segment of sound tthat is used tto form speeech. Animatorrs
use phonemes to brea
ak apart words so that th
hey can moree easily draw each mouth
h shape. Therre are
eight basic mouth sha
apes, most producing a va
ariety of sou nds.

Strong
g Shapess for Strrong Sounds

Notice ho
ow these shapes are outlining the stro
ong sounds o
of the English
h language. M
Most words h
have
at least one
o strong so apes with certain
ound in them. We are acccustomed to sseeing speciffic mouth sha
sounds. Once
O you nail these important shapes in any given
n sentence yo
ou will find yyour lip syncin
ng
skills will become considerably stro
onger.
Lip Sy
yncing Made
M Eassy

Applying all eight lip-ssyncing posittions can see

em like a dau nting task. FFortunately animation on the
internet allows
a for som
me shortcutss. It’s not neccessary to usse all eight m
mouth position
ns. You can g
get
by with th
hese five sha
apes:

Establlish Clossed Posittions

When spe
eaking in rea
al life it is com
mmon to speak full senten
nces withoutt entirely clossing your mo
outh.
In limited
d animation this approach
h looks odd. Use
U the closeed mouth position to bettter anchor yo
our
characterr’s lip sync in reality.

Think Like Jim

m Henso
on

As your lip syncing sk

kills continue to develop you’ll
y likely no
otice several patterns em
merge. Remem
mber
how conv
vincing Kermit was while on stage durring the Mupp
pet Show? Evven though K
Kermit used an
entirely binary
b system
m (open-close
ed-open-close
ed), you had
d no issues un
nderstanding
g him. Our
approach will be to mimic that sty
yle, but addin
ng the “W” m
mouth position
n when it’s ccalled for for
added be
elievability.

If you do not want to re-draw eacch of these mouth

m shapess, feel free to
o download th
his Toon Boo
om
template that includess the recomm
mended five mouth shapees.

Lip syncin
ng is one of those
t hat you’ll justt have to sit down and pllay with in orrder to get th
skills th he
hang of itt. Soon you’ll see patterns emerging as
a your charaacters speak.. To get startted, try doing
g the
following:

1. Make sure Play > Turn

T Sound Playback
P On iss selected. W ith this on, ass you select a frame Toon
Boom
m will let you hear
h the soun
nd just for tha
at frame. You can even dra
ag the mouse
e with the leftt
button
n pressed and
d hear the au
udio for the se
elected range .
2. Go through the sou
und sample and
a establish open
o and clossed positions. If you’re usiing the samplle
template file I reco
ommend cells 1 and 2 only
y. Do this with
h the Cell pan
nel in Toon Bo
oom, using th
he
ded slider to choose
provid c the co
orrect cell for any particulaar keyframe.

d the basic open positions, go back and clarify those positions whe
3. Once you’ve found ere needed. IIf
there’’s a particularrly strong sylla
able you shou
uld consider u
using one of tthe two stronger open sha
apes.

4. Add th
he “W” shape
e where necesssary.

Your Frriend, The

e Cell Prop
perties Pa
anel

Those are
e the only ste
eps you need
d to make an
n accurate lip
p sync with T
Toon Boom. T
This is the exxact
process I use for my own
o cartoonss, and I’m ha
appy with tho
ose results. D
Does any ste
ep need
clarificatio
on? Let me know
k below and
a I’ll answe
er your quest
stions.