Zarxrax's Guide to Lip Syncing [Updated in 2001]

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This guide was originally written by Zarxrax in May 2001.
It is presented as close to its original format as possible, with only obvious typos corrected.

Lip Syncing May 8, 2001 So you want to lip sync but are having a bit of trouble. This little guide should help those editing blues

The guide on archive.org

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Lip Sync 101

All right, so you're trying to lip sync to a cool song, but you cant get your characters mouth to move in time with the words? Well don't worry, because once you finish this tutorial, and practice a bit, you'll be lip synching with the best of 'em! But keep in mind, good lip sync isn't something that you can just do in five minutes; it's going to take you quite a bit of time.

For this tutorial, I will be using Adobe Premiere 6.0 and Adobe Photoshop 6.0. I'm sure there are other programs that you can use to accomplish a similar effect, but for this tutorial it will be assumed that you are familiar with the concepts in these two programs. Depending on the scene that you are trying to lip sync, you may have to use different methods to get it to look right. I will start out by showing you the easiest method.

Easy Sync:
For this method, you need a clip in which NOTHING is moving except the character's mouth. Simply place the clip on the timeline in Premiere, and then use the left and right arrow keys to skip through the clip frame by frame. Just move through each frame until you get to one where the character's mouth is completely closed.

Move the timeline to a frame where your character's mouth is closed.

Now, select the razor tool, and cut your video clip EXACTLY where the edit line is intersecting it. Now, tap the right arrow key to advance forward one frame, and use the Razor tool again here. You may need to zoom in to be able to do this accurately.

Select the razor tool. Use the razor tool where the edit line is touching your clip.

Now click the selection tool, and select the frame that you just cut out. You may want to move it to a different video track so it wont get in your way while you are cutting out more video frames.

The selection tool. After you have cut both sides of the frame, you can move it to a different video track.

Now, you need to repeat this process for the video frame where the character's mouth is completely open, and also for any frames in between. The amount of frames you should have will vary. In some clips, there may be only open and closed mouth positions, while in other clips, there may be four or five different positions. Once you finish, you should have a few individual frames set aside, like this:

Now for the hard part. Right click on the first frame that you will need, then select copy. Now right click in the empty space on your timeline where you want this frame to go, and select paste. Continue pasting the frames one at a time until you have got the phrase lip-synched. It is a good idea to say the phrase yourself, and take note where your mouth is open, closed, and partway opens. Depending on how complicated the phrase that you are trying to lip sync is, it can take you from a few minutes to a few hours to complete this step. Just keep switching the frames around until you get a result that looks like your character is actually saying the phrase.

It is VITAL that you master this before moving on to the other sections in this tutorial.

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Lip Sync 201

If you've made it here, then I assume that you have mastered the techniques covered in the first section. If not, click here to go back.

For this section, you will need an image editor. I prefer to use Photoshop 6.0, and that is what this tutorial will focus on.

Using Overlays:
In the last section, the lip sync technique that I taught you can only be used in scenes where nothing is moving besides the characters mouth. Lets look at a different scenario now. Lets say your character is standing still and speaking, but there is some stuff moving in the background. If you were to use the easy technique, it would cause the stuff in the background to be jumping around all over the place! So this brings us to using what I will refer to as "overlays."

First of all, load the video clip that you wish to use into Premiere. Next, move to a frame where your characters mouth is closed. Go to the File menu, then to Export Timeline, then to Frame, to save this frame as a .bmp file. Repeat this process for the frame where your characters mouth is all the way open, and for any different frames in between.

Now, start up Photoshop and load one of the .bmp files that you just saved. Select the Lasso tool and use it to draw an outline around your characters mouth area.

Select the Lasso Tool. Draw around the mouth.

Now go to the Edit menu and select Copy. Then go to the Layer menu and select New, then Layer. In the window that pops up, hit Ok. Now go to the Edit menu again, and select paste. What we have done is created a new layer on the image which contains nothing except the mouth. Go to the File menu, and select Save As. Save the file as a Photoshop type, with a .PSD extension. (Other extensions may work, though I have not tested them)

Save the file as a Photoshop type

Repeat this process for each one of the frames that you exported from Premiere.

Finally, lets go back to Premiere. Import the Photoshop images into your project, and when it asks you to select a layer, select Layer 1 (or whichever layer contains just the mouth by itself). Drag the clips onto video track 2 or greater. They WILL NOT work on tracks 1A or 1B! Next, adjust the length of each image so that each one only lasts for 1 frame. Right-click on each of the images now, and select Video Options, then select Transparency. In the window that pops up, there should be a drop-down box labeled "key type." Select Alpha Channel in this box, then hit Ok.

Finally, move around these images to make the mouth move in the way you want it to, similar to how you did it in the first lesson. Remember that in order to preview your work, you need to hold down the "Alt" key while moving through the timeline.

How your timeline may look after you have arranged the frames in order

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Lip Sync 301

Advanced Techniques:
If you've made it this far, you should be able to handle the majority of scenes that you will be faced with. However, there are a few instances when a character will be moving its head all around the screen while speaking, or there is just so much action going on that you simply cant use those techniques. There really isn't much that I can help you with here, as you may need to use a variety of different methods, depending on the scene.

One thing that may work is to try slowing down and speeding up the clip at various points.

Another thing that may be helpful is to create an overlay of the mouth like in the previous lesson, and then move the mouth up/down/left/right so that it fits on the character in the appropriate place.

In some situations, the best bet may be to just try drawing the mouth yourself. This is highly NOT recommended though.

If you come up against a scene that looks impossible to lip sync, don't give up. Just keep trying everything you can think of, and be as resourcefull as possible, and eventually you will get it.
That's about all I have to say on lip synching for now. If have any questions or comments, or if you found this guide to be difficult to follow, or anything of that nature, you can email me at this address: baclontz@unity.ncsu.edu

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