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Lip synch

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Lip synch

Hey everyone. I finished this dialogue test over the weekend... please take a look at it and tell me what you think. I'm trying to make this really good, so please tear it to shreds.

Let the shredding commence...

David--

First of all, I'm not an animator, just a voice guy. So the opinions you're about to hear come from an "outsiders" perspective.

The good news: I think the animation itself is solid. Fluent motions, good gestures, great facial expressions. The gag is good, too.

The bad news: I *think* the lip-synch is OK, but it's hard to tell for sure because there's so *much* character movement. I can say this: I wouldn't walk away from this piece scratching my head and thinking "that would have been great had the mouth matched the voice better." In other words, the lip-synch is solid enough so as not to be distracting from the over all effect. By the same token, however, I will reiterate that because of the speed and amount of movement, (outside of the longer word sounds like "well," and "good-bye," and "world," and especially "barn," which are all obviously OK) I can't really tell what's synched and what's not. But again, I don't feel it's detrimental to the "big picture."

If the lip-synch is where your focus is, I'd suggest slowing things down a bit, perhaps limiting his motions some, and letting the viewer zone in on the face more. But if the lip-synch isn't your focus so much as the over all effect, I think you're in good shape. I've watched it several times and really think you're OK.

If I had to point out one thing that I did find distracting, it's that the music abruptly stopped just prior to the visual punchline. To me, it somehow made it seem incomplete.

My .02. I hope it helps.

ab

abvox: Voice and Sound Design Services
abVoices.com

May I ask why you are more conserned with the lipsync and not with the character acting?

The Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

abvox: Yeah, I don't like the sound stopping either... but this animation is done for the 10 second club and one of the caveats of the contest is that the clip can't be edited.

Ape: Sorry, I used the wrong term. I usually do stuff with no dialogue, so I call every animation clip with dialogue "lip synch"... I am mainly concerned with the acting and motion and not the lip synch... I just should have called it dialogue test.

Ok David, I thought it was from the 10 second club. I'll give you my honest crit tonight if you'd like.

The Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

David: I knew from just looking at the first image that you were entering the 10 second comp! I thought out a concept for it too, and came up with the same idea. It was weird to see a very similar version of what was in my head, come to life in someone else's animation! The main difference is I don't have the skill yet in 3D to accomplish what I want to! So this time around I'm not even going to consider entering in 3D. In the meantime, I'm trying to knock out a different idea in Flash just for the experience. I'll be interested to see what the other entrants come up with.

Constructive criticism: I've only got a few points as I'm certainly no guru.

I agree with Abvox in regards to a bit too much movement. More specifically, I think his head movements are a bit too big on "Guess" "Goodbye" and "Remember". His more subtle head movements in the rest of your animation are much more convincing.

With regards to his hand movements on one sentence: I thought about how I'd say "Just remember..." if I were him. You may disagree, but I'd say it with the finger point on "just", at the beginning of his statement.

I thought that it was interesting that you had him appearing to be speaking to someone off camera. Was that a conscious decision in answer to the dialogue? (it mentions "2 people" and "we") I deliberated for ages myself over whether to include another character or not.

I like the kick at the "manure", head scratch at the beginning, his facial expressions (in particular the little smile at the end of "barn") and the way his eyes hang for a bit on his listener as he turns his head at the end. (I'm sure there's a more technical way of explaining that, but I think you'll know what I mean).

Good luck in the competition! I'll be sure to vote for you!

By the way, what software are you using?

Well, Keen summed up just about everything I was going to say as well. I think you should pick out key points in the dialogue that you want to accent, and move at those points. Not just have the character moving all over, all the time. Part of animation is contrast. Contrast movement against no movement, this will add some variaty to your animation.

Good luck with the competion.

The Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Nice:)

I don't wanta get too techy on you. Seems like you've got enough of that going on, and what others say is correct overall.

As far as acting and dialog. You had me all the way.....except for the line about "amounting to a hill of manure...". When he kicks the earth, without a little pile of manure to kick over, it looks like the guy's searching for the next thing to say...even though he KNOWS exactly what he's going to say.
And then....we get back into focus.

I forget how that little kick goes in real life.
Don't we ususally KICK the actual EARTH when we kick the invisible pile of whatever over in a "shoot" kind-of manner??
I think the kick needs a little oomph and maybe and some secondary reaction in the arms from the foot kicking the ground. Nice bounce, but I don't think the kick was in the right place.....but that's just me, my friend. You may think you're kicking a soccer ball in the middle and never touching the earth:)

Enough out of me. As a whole, a really good job.
keep up the good work:)

L8r,

Overall, pretty damn good.