Hi Everyone,
Well, I'm at the beginining of production on these shorts (I'm doing 15 five minute shorts.) Since I'm doing the entire thing myself, I decided to switch things around a bit and wanted some feedback. A few things to note: all the shorts are done using limited animation. I'm doing all the layouts in photoshop, putting together my characters in flash, animating the characters in flash, compositing everything in After Effects, doing the sweetening (both sfx and fx and music) in After Effects, final edit and rendering in Final Cut Pro. Also, after much decision, I decided to eliminate storyboards. Since it's just me and I have a clear visual image of how I want each scene to look, instead, I wrote out what each layout should look like, taking close-ups etc into consideration. Also, I'm using the mouth comp system to lip-synch.
So, since I'm doing this all myself and a lot of my dialogue is kind of topical, I decided to animate the characters, THEN record the dialogue and do the lip-synching. Originally, I was going to do the layouts, create the characters, then record the voiceovers, then animate the characters, including lip-synching.
Is there any reason why I SHOULDN'T do the voiceovers/lip-synching after I animate the characters?
THanks.
Wally
Usually you want your animation to accent what's being said to help drive the point home. If you record and lip synch after the fact, you lose that ability.
And how are you going to time your sequences if you don't know how long the dialog segments are?
Thanks, DSB. Good points. I guess I'll finish the layouts, put together my character packs, do the voiceovers and then animate.
Another question: to save time, should I set up walk cycles for my main characters before I start to animate, then re-use and tweak as necessary?
we always do lip syncs at the end. simply coz we prefer getting the actions done first without distractions. also sometimes the tracks change or dialogues might so we prefer doing it last moment rather than simultaenously.
I'd say do the dialogue befor you animate like DSB said. You're never going to get the dialogue to sync up correctly with the animation after.
If you're animating the short yourself, I'd animate the walk cycles as you need them. If you animate a generic walk cycle, chances are they won't work for any of them. So animate one correctly, then re-use, and tweek it for other walk cycles.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I should have been a bit more clear (wrote the post while waiting for my flight). The lip synch itself can be done last, but you should have the audio track available before you start animation, for the reasons I mentioned.
Ape's advice about walks is right on the money.