Lip Sync Key Poses

The opening pose is only held for a split second. But it still isn’t very strong. I think I’ll show him bending down at first, and then jump up into shot when he gets freight. 

This is probably the strongest pose in the scene, so i bookended it like this. The character looks sheepish knowing he’s been caught out. But whilst trying to talk his way out of it , he slips up, before jumping back into this pose at the end. 

It’s only for a second, but i wanted his apology to be the kind a sullen child might give. So I gave him downcast eyes, hunched shoulders and a little head flick, to show that he doesn’t really mean it.  

This is reinforced when quickly followed by a cheeky grin as he explains what happened. He gets less worried and more exited whilst explaining. 

it’s hard to show with a single frame, but I’ve added a nice little blink and head flick as he gestures over to the chimney. I’ve never animated a blink but i think it worked out nicely. I just followed Richard Williams’s guidelines.

 I wanted him to have a nice hand flick, head roll thing going on as he says “my old brain...” but i haven’t quite fixed it yet. I just need to smooth everything out.   

i really exaggerated the “what the hell” gesture, arching his back and throwing his arms up in the air.

  He then holds this pose to emphasise his mistake and add anticipation. I have also animated his worried eye flicks and a subtle little flinch as he realises what he’s done.

I then contracted the timing of the frozen pose with the speed of his reaction, whipping his arms behind his back. I also gave him a cheeky little, “i hope they didn’t see that” look.  

He forces a smile to try and salvage the situation but I added a pause to show how fake it is. i included two frames of this because i like the first better, but it ends on the last, which I intend to change. 

One thing that i have learnt from this is to get my timing more precise, i was quite happy with the way it all worked together. But it was difficult for me to find a nice frame to illustrate each part. I’m sure if I have things working in precise timing my overall animation will be much tidier, easier to follow and therefore more effective.