Lipsync is a small portion in delivering a good acting performance.

Before the animator even begins the lipsync they should have completed the animation of the character. Body language alone should sell the performance of the character.

That aside however the lipsync should not be overlooked.

Included is a MAX file of a simple head.

It uses MAX’s morph modifier with targets set up for lipsync:

They are as follows:

M_Closed: brings the lower lip to the top lip

M_Open: opens the mouth

M_Smile: brings up sides of mouth compressing the cheeks

*M_Up&Dwn: slides the mouth in an up and down motion not using the jaw.

M_OO: purses the lips and pushes them out.

M_Sneer: brings up the sides of the mouth.

M_Botlip Dwn: brings the front of the bottom lip down.

M_Toplip Up: brings the front of the top lip up.

*M_Botlip Wide: widens out the sides of the bottom lip.

*M_Toplip Wide: widens out the sides of the top lip.

* M_Up&Dwn: This target is a bit of my own invention. It’s used for getting a nice bouncy flavor to the lipsync also has been described as chewy. An example of its use would be to close the mouth then slide the mouth up and down.

*M_Botlip Wide

*M_Toplip Wide: These two are mainly used to get out of some sticky spots when you’re unable to avoid the mouth intersecting the teeth.

The bottom jaw is a separate object that has it’s own control for moving up and down. My advice here is to animate the lip sync without the teeth first. Once you have a good match drop in the teeth and animate the jaw with the mouths up and down movement. You might have to make some adjustments to the mouths but they should be minor.

Also a few eyebrow controls have been added, as well as eyelids closing.

The morph targets are set up using a form of muscle control instead of the common phoneme structure.

The muscle based technique gives allot more freedom in creating and moving in and out of the various mouth shapes than does the phoneme method.

You’ll notice allot more can be done to improve the morph targets I’ve created here, such as: Splitting the smile into two sides. Right side up, Left side up. This also goes for the Sneer and other shapes. There is enough here however to achieve some really nice mouth movement.

Remember lipsync has as much to do with good timing and hitting dialogue accents as it does with good mouth shapes. Just think of Kermit the frog. All he is able to do is open and close his mouth yet the puppeteers give him the illusion of speech by simply hitting accents.

Good luck and have fun.

Ron Zorman

Zorman@copuserve.com