Animate Monty Singing "Oh Yeah"

In the short animation tutorial below we show how to animate a character with no mouth saying a line of dialogue, part of our series of tutorials on character animation and performance.   But how can you animate dialogue and lipsync - with no lips?  The answer is - it's all in the acting and the performance. If the character's body language is working, then the audience will believe that the character is speaking - even if the character itself has no mouth.  In this tutorial we animate "Monty" saying (well, singing) a line of dialogue - "Ohhh Yeahhh". 

Lipsync with Monty

"Monty" thumbnails "Ohhh Yeeeaaahhh"

This simple Lipsync exercise uses the free "Monty" rig, a green pea with legs, which you can read about here, and download for free from highend3d.com. Monty has no mouth, so we have to use his body to make the dialogue work.  

Thumbnails

As always, start with thumbnail sketches to plan your work.  On the right are some rough planning drawings to figure out how the animation will look. 

Monty Dialogue Tutorial

https://vimeo.com/showcase/10468907

Escape Studios' Vimeo Learning Channel

The password is the same as for all our animation tutorials. 

To see another example of Lipsync animation with Monty, take a look at the animation by Escapee Rich Jeffrey below.

"Oh Yeah" Lipsync with "Monty" by Rich Jeffrey

How to Use the "Monty" Rig

"Monty"

And to find out how to get the best out of Monty, see this blog post. 

Vimeo Channel

You can find hundreds of video tutorials at our Vimeo Learning Channel here. 

Lipsync & Dialogue Resources
To find more resources on animating dialogue and lipsync, follow the links below:

• Why Lipsync Should be 2 Frames Ahead of the Audio
• Why Lipsync Needs Wide and Narrow Mouth Shapes
• Lipsync - Open Wide on the Big Vowels
• How to Block Out a Dialogue Shot
• Sesame St Sound Archive
• How to Animate Lipsync
• Lipsync Tutorial with Simone Giampaolo
• Animate Lipsync the Easy Way
  
  

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