What is a lip-synching animation?
The animation below is a lip-synching animation created from SVG illustrations in 9VAe.
Here's how to make it.
This article explains how to generate lip-synching animation.
6 key shapes of the mouth
9VAe has six mouth shapes in ".aiueo" to generate lip-synching animation.
| . | a | i | u | e | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
 |
 |
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Mouth movements are specified in Romaji
Romaji is Romanization of Japanese.
The animation above is set up as follows.
| Duration(Second):Romaji |
|---|
| 4:kyuubee can meik a tolking animeition with alphabet. |
9VAe interprets the Roman letters in turn to create mouth movements.
Vowel to vowel
Vowel to vowel changes are created by keyframe interpolation of the mouth shape.
- First half: the change from the front vowel to the back vowel
- Second half: back vowel
| Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aa | |
ia |  |
ua |  |
ea |  |
oa |  |
| ai |  |
ii | |
ui |  |
ei |  |
oi |  |
| au |  |
iu |  |
uu | |
eu |  |
ou |  |
| ae |  |
ie |  |
ue |  |
ee | |
oe |  |
| ao |  |
io |  |
uo |  |
eo |  |
oo | |
Closed-mouthed consonant
The next letter has a "." shape that closes the mouth.
| . | n | m | b | p |
|---|
| Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ana |  |
ami |  |
abu |  |
ape |  |
ano |  |
Consonants in the form of the letter "i"
The next letter has a "i" shape in between.
| i | y | j | z |
|---|
| Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aya |  |
aji |  |
ayu |  |
aze |  |
ayo |  |
Consonants in the form of the letter "u"
The next letter has a "u" shape in between.
| u | w | v | f |
|---|
| Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| awa |  |
avi |  |
afu |  |
awe |  |
avo |  |
Ignore the other consonants.
I ignore all but the consonants above.
| c | d | g | h | k | l | q | r | s | t | x | space |
|---|
| Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth | Romaji | mouth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ada | |
iga | |
uha | |
eka | |
ola | |
| ari | |
ishi | |
uchi | |
eti | |
osi | |
It's a pretty lame rule for making mouth shapes, but since it doesn't matter how you pronounce it, and since it actually moves so fast that it's hard to follow it with your eyes, I'm using this rule as the first version for now. I'll improve it in the future.
Apply to French
| IPA symbol | 9VAe Romaji | |
|---|---|---|
| /a ɑ/ | |
a |
| /i y j ɥ/ | |
i |
| /u w/ | |
u |
| /ɔ̃/ |
 
|
un or on |
| /e ø ɛ œ/ | |
e |
| /ɛ̃ œ̃/ |  |
en |
| /o ɔ/ | |
o |
| /ɑ̃/ |
|
on or an |
| /p/ | p | |
| /b/ | b | |
| /t/ | t | |
| /d/ | d | |
| /k/ | k | |
| /g/ | g | |
| /c/ | k | |
| /ɟ/ | g | |
| /m/ | m | |
| /n ɲ/ | n | |
| /f/ | f | |
| /v/ | v | |
| /s/ | s | |
| /z/ | z | |
| /ʃ ʒ/ | j | |
| /ʁ/ | r | |
| /l/ | l |
French example
| IPA | Romaji | spelling | IPA | 9VAe Romaji | Mouth shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowels | |||||
| a | a | patte | /pat/ | [1:pat] |  |
| ɑ | a | pâte | /pɑt/ | [1:pat] | |
| ɑ̃ | on | clan | /klɑ̃/ | [1:klon] |  |
| e | e | dé | /de/ | [1:de] |  |
| ɛ | e | belle | /bɛl/ | [1:bel] |  |
| ɛ̃ | en | lin | /lɛ̃/ | [1:len] |  |
| ə | e | demain | /dəmɛ̃/ | [1:deme] |  |
| i | i | gris | /gʀi/ | [1:gri] |  |
| o | o | gros | /gʀo/ | [1:gro] |  |
| ɔ | o | corps | /kɔr/ | [1:kor] |  |
| ɔ̃ | un | long | /lɔ̃/ | [1:lun |  |
| œ | e | leur | /lœʀ/ | [1:ler] |  |
| œ̃ | en | brun | /brœ̃/ | [1:bren] |  |
| ø | e | deux | /dø/ | [1:de] |  |
| u | u | fou | /fu/ | [1:fu] |  |
| y | i | pur | /pyʀ/ | [1:pir] |  |
| Semi-vowels | |||||
| j | i | fille | /fij/ | [1:fi] |  |
| ɥ | i | huit | /ɥit/ | [1:it] |  |
| w | u | oui | /wi/ | [1:wi] |  |
| Consonants | |||||
| b | b | bal | /bal/ | [1:bal] |  |
| d | d | dent | /dɑ̃/ |  |
|
| f | f | foire | /fwaʀ/ | [1:fwar] |  |
| g | g | gomme | /gɔm/ | [1:gom] |  |
| k | k | clé | /kle/ | [1:kle] |  |
| l | l | lien | /ljɛ̃/ | [1:lien] |  |
| m | m | mer | /mɛʀ/ | [1:mer] |  |
| n | n | nage | /naʒ/ | [1:naj] |  |
| ɲ | n | gnon | /ɲɔ̃/ | [1:nun] |  |
| ŋ | n | dancing | /dɑ̃siŋ/ | [1:donsin] |  |
| p | p | porte | /pɔʀt/ | [1:port] |  |
| ʀ | r | rire | /ʀiʀ/ | [1:rir] |  |
| s | s | sang | /sɑ̃/ | [1:son] |  |
| ʃ | j | chien | /ʃjɛ̃/ | [1:jie] |  |
| t | t | train | /tʀɛ̃/ | [1:tre] |  |
| v | v | voile | /vwal/ | [1:vwal] |  |
| z | z | zèbre | /zɛbʀ/ | [1:zebr] |  |
| ʒ | j | jeune | /ʒœn/ | [1:jen] |  |
| spelling | IPA | 9VAe Romaji | Mouth shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| peinture | /pɛ̃tyʀ/ | [2:petir] |  |
| rare | /ʀɑʀ/ | [1:rar] |  |
| pendant | /pɑ̃dɑ̃/ | [2:pandan] |  |
| pétard | /petaʀ/ | [2:petar] |  |
| créateur | /kʀeatœʀ/ | [2:kreater] |  |
| crapaud | /kʀapo/ | [2:krapo] |  |
| donjon | /dɔ̃ʒɔ̃/ | [2:donjon] |  |
| clémence | /klemɑ̃s/ | [2:klemans] |  |
| trente | /tʀɑ̃t/ | [1:trant] |  |
| plan | /plɑ̃ / | [1:plan] |  |
| palette | /palɛt/ | [2:palet] |  |
| facile | /fasil/ | [2:fasil] |  |
| tutu | /tyty/ | [2:titi] |  |
| clan | /klɑ̃/ | [1:klan] |  |
| charitable | /ʃaʀitabl/ | [2:aritabl] |  |
| effacer | /efase/ | [2:efase] |  |
| élève | /elɛv/ | [2:elev] |  |
- IPA is from Collins French Dictionary
The Significance of the Romanized Lipstick
I think the main process of making a lip-synching animation is to recognize the audio data and make a mouth shape to match the sound.
However, if you don't need audio, as in the case of Twitter posts, there may be an easy way to make a lip-synching animation.
9VAe's method only requires you to create 6 mouth shapes, so you can easily create a lip-synching animation character from Openclipart's SVG illustrations.
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