The letters used to represent the shapes do NOT correspond to an actual sound. The mouth shapes used by Studio are based on the conventional mouth chart used in the animation industry. You can lip-sync the traditional way or let the Studio automatically create the basic detection. To solve this problem, Studio provides a lip-sync feature which analyzes the content of a sound element and generates a mouth chart based (see below) on the eight animation phonemes (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and X, which is used to represent silence). However, it can be difficult to shape a character's mouth so it matches the sound at the precise frame. The sound file also appears in Exposure Sheet view.Īdding a lip-sync to a project can really enhance its quality and storytelling. The sound layer appears in the Timeline view and is displayed as a waveform. In the Properties view, click on the Import Sound File button.įrom the Open dialog box, browse for your sound file (*.aiff, *.mp3, *.wav, or *.m4a) and click Open. In the Exposure Sheet view, in the top toolbar, click on the Sound button. In the Properties view, click on the Import Sound File button. In the dialog box, select the Sound type, name the layer and click on OK. In the Timeline view, click on the Add New Elements button. In the Exposure Sheet view, right-click on any cell and select Import Sound File. Studio only supports the sound formats recognized by Qt®, with one exception: Flash ADPCM format, which is supported natively.įrom the Sound toolbar (Top toolbar on Mac OS X), click the Import Sound button -see Customizing Toolbars on Mac OS X.įrom the top menu, select File > Import File. Toon Boom Studio imports, exports and plays sounds using QuickTime. However, if you will be delivering your movies over the Internet, the more sounds you add, the larger the file size of your final movie. You can import as many sound files as you like. If the sound extends into multiple scenes, it will continue to play. Then, in Studio, you add a Sound element to organize sound files in your animation.Ī sound will play in the movie until it reaches the end of the file or a stop frame created in the Sound Element Editor. Think of the C mouth as a transitional shape that smooths out the motion from an A or B mouth to a D mouth.When you decide that you want to add sound to your movie, you must prepare this sound outside of Toon Boom Studio. To see the effect of the technique, here is a dialog line where all the frames are shape-tweened into one another for a smoother frame-rate (24fps): you don’t always have to have a separate motion for every word or syllable…be watchful for occasions when you can simplify the sequence of shapes. Note that in the example above, the words “in the” are described by CDCB – a single, fluid motion suffices for two words. If you look between the A and F mouths, you’ll see a consistent pattern: C D C and B shapes, opening and closing into one another, hopefully matching each syllable. In the above line, the A and F mouths are placed first, as their position is “non-negotiable”. Third, and lastly, is the placement of the chewing action – which can vary from BCDCB to CDB to as little as CB. Next in importance is any sound that would need an o-shaped mouth (the E or F mouth). The basic approach to dialog is to correctly place closed mouths (the “A” mouth) whenever you hear a B, M, or P. It’s not necessary to animate the character’s tongue or tonsils in order to create believable speech. NOTE: It’s common to see dialog tutorials talk about “phonemes”, and to see illustrations of up to twenty different shapes – this is overkill. Most animators over-think the process, whereas it’s really quite simple. Most of the work done while speaking is done by the tongue – the lips do quite litte…otherwise, we’d tire of speaking very quickly. Here is what the completed sequence sounds like: You’ll notice that the action is very smooth – from closed to open to closed as in “B C D E F” to make “Hello”, to A C D B for “My”, to E C D C B to make “Friend”. To show you an example of how they would be used, here is an average line of dialog, with the corresponding mouth shapes:įollow the shapes across the page. NOTE: These letters do not correspond to the sounds of the spoken words they are simply labels, nothing more. The shapes are labelled A, B, C, D, E and F. NOTE: The AF system of dialog animation was developed by companies like Hanna Barbera on the TV shows of the 1960s. Using these shapes, you’ll be able to animate any line of dialog. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll deal with six basic static shapes. The principles explained in this tutorial can be applied to 3D or Flash animation. Get 7 days of free unlimited access to .įollow that link and get 1 week of access, see how you like it. So, you want to follow along some of my Flash lessons?
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