Lip Sync Project - Reflection

Time to build: ≈ 6h 50m

designing mouths/phonemes: 3h 34m

cutting mouths: ≈ 45m

puppet building ≈ 2h 30m

Time to animate: ≈ 3h 30m

Time to edit/ post-production: ≈ 2h 30m

Mouth only test: ≈ 2h

Post production (audio fix): ≈ 30m

Problems encountered: I had some issues in creating my initial lip sync test. This included some unnecessary mouth movements between the words "have" and "just" and far more difficulty than expected with the words "peanut butter" (peanut butter alone took me almost the same amount of time as the entire rest of the lip sync). The audio also somehow slipped almost an entire second out of sync when I exported the video from my animation software. I fixed it to the best of my ability. While it's still not as perfect as I would have liked, I'm still satisfied with the final product.

Aha moment: The ear movement towards the end of the animation was one of my biggest aha moments, I wish I had thought of it sooner because I think it's a really cute character quirk. Another aha moment for me was realizing that the putty in my took kit stuck really well to the sculpey while still peeling off without any residue or damage to the face.

If I animated this again I would: Add more of an intentional head movement as he talks. Towards the beginning of the animation there's a slight unintentional head wiggle. I feel like if I had added slightly more wiggle intentionally it would have made the puppet seem less static. I also would have added more ear movement from the beginning.