FMP – Lip sync and eye blinking (animation)

Lip sync

I’ve looked through several lipsync videos and tutorials and I’m highlighting some research related to that. All my technical notes are on my small journal.  However, I had to decide whether I was going to animate the beak in order for it to say every word or if I was just going to open and close it. I took the second option (even though I didn’t start the animation that’s my plan). A helpful video:

I also did a lot of research on mouth shapes and understanding lip sync. In the end, I concluded that I would be safer with just opening and closing the beak of my puppet.

Eye movement and blinking

Since the mouth won’t move a lot I thought that giving blinking to my character would help her be more life like. I researched and there are several types of blinking and took some notes:

• Normal blinking – 2 frames to go down (close the eye) 1 hold frame, 3 frames to open the eye again. Apparently, we are slower opening our eyes than closing them.
• Fast blinking – 2 frames down, 3 up (usually used when staring at something)
• Long blink – 3 frames to close, 1 frame to hold, 4 frames to open – used when thinking (slow)
• Flirty blinking (fast blink) – 1 almost closed, 2 to open

With this, I can really give life to my puppet. I now have to think of a better eye mechanism.

Regarding eye movement, I took some notes on

• changing eye direction: no more than 3 frames, eye movements are really fast
• When talking with someone: Eye moves from left to right ( just one frame)
• When looking around: eye makes a triangular shape – 1 left, 1 down, 1 up.

That is my research so far regarding these aspects and I am saving all the video and websites links on a word document so I can evidence my research.