During the blocking plus stage, lip sync is added to the animation. It’s important to analyze the pronunciation of each word and not simply mimic the individual sounds. Instead, consider how each word connects in a sentence and what phonemes are produced. When unsure of when the jaw should open, one technique is to place a fist against the chin and speak to understand how the jaw moves accurately at specific times.
In addition, attention should be given to what produces the sound, including the lips, tongue, jaw, teeth, and vocal cords, as outlined in the course material. Two key points of focus for me are that the lip shapes appear slightly ahead of the sound and the movement of the tongue is generally not exaggerated during speech.
Furthermore, referring to the phonemes provided in the course material, I match the various lip shapes with the corresponding sounds. By following this guideline and considering connected lip shapes rather than pronouncing each word separately, the lip movements appear more natural and less stiff.
Based on the modifications from last week, I made some changes to the animation. One significant change was modifying a portion of the limb movement, transitioning from bringing the hands together to spreading them apart. This was done to avoid the occasional interference of hand contact caused by movements of the waist or hips (to simplify things) and to add variation to the overall motion. To make the hand movements appear smoother, I incorporated the principle of overlap in the animation.
Additionally, I made adjustments to the waist. To avoid making the movement look too snakelike, I reduced the motion of the waist nodes and relied more on the hip nodes to control the movement. This approach gives the motion a more human-like quality and avoids making it appear too fluid like that of an invertebrate.