Important things to remember while drawing the Mouth Shapes:

• Anticipation
• Sound delay
• Expressions and exaggeration
• Check the synchronization

Anticipation:
This is a basic principle of animation, which makes it more realistic and believable. Anticipation is used to prepare the audience for the up coming action. Keeping anticipation in mind, we open the mouth of the character before it starts speaking.

Sound Delay:
Though mouth shapes are already assigned in the exposure sheet based on phonetic syllables, we need to consider sound delay also. If you carefully observe in a mirror while speaking, when we say AAA… the mouth opens but you actually hear the sound after fraction of seconds’ delay. That is why few mouth shapes start one or two frames before the actual sound is heard.

Expressions and Exaggeration:
While doing lip sync, we have to consider the expressions and angles of the face. To create a dramatic effect in the acting of the character, we need to exaggerate the expressions in some frames.

For example, while saying ‘mother’s roses’, the girl character in the video opens her mouth wide open and tilts her face a little backwards.

Considering all conditions mentioned above, some times we need to adjust the timings for the mouth shapes while drawing. In this way all mouth shapes from closed or open and extreme poses are drawn.

Check the Synchronization:
While doing this, keep checking the animation by playing it forward and then backwards with sound. Add in-between mouth shapes only if needed, otherwise drawing too many in-between frames will give a chattering effect.

Once all the mouth shapes are drawn with sync, clean up and coloring of all the drawings is done. The animation with lip sync is done!