Animating Lipsync for "Underdog"

In the short video above (15 minutes) I describe my experience working on the Disney live action feature film "Underdog", animated at Cinesite (and also Framestore) in London back in 2006.  As part of the development process I did a large number of expression sheets, a few of which I have uploaded below.  The purpose of the expression sheets was to help the modelling department create blend shapes for the character rigs, showing a range of expressions and moods, which could then be captured in the animation.  Underdog was a delightful project, directed by veteran director Frederic Du Chau, with whom I had worked previously on "Quest for Camelot" and "Racing Stripes". 

Underdog Animation

You can see a clip from Underdog below:

Underdog Expression Sheets & Style Guide

In "Underdog", Shoeshine is a photo realistic beagle. So the expressions needed to be as realistic as possible, but also as expressive as possible. 

The Brief - If Dogs Could Talk

The brief for Shoeshine (and the other dogs in the film) was they should talk just like a real dog would talk, if only dogs could talk.  So, realistic and believable.

Eyes

Shoeshine's eyes were important. As the saying goes: "Eyes are the window to the Soul".  Eyes are what the audience will looks at; get the eyes right, and you are half way there.

Especially in a close-up, the eye expressions will sell the shot. 

Noses

Dog noses are very expressive too.  Dogs have a keen sense of smell, and their noses are constantly at work, sniffing out their surroundings.

Nostrils

Nostrils can flare and inflate, helping to punctuate accents in the dialogue. 

Blinks

In real life dogs mostly only half-blink, but on Underdog we animated full blinks, usually including the brows to get extra flexibility in the face. 

Lipsync

At Cinesite we did over 600 talking dog shots.  Our pipeline got very efficient (as you might imagine), with each animator getting very good at lipsync. 

Mouth Shapes

The trick with the dialogue was to get lots of flexibility into the mouth to avoid the "clapper" look - lots of forward ("ooh") and back ("ee") shapes to add texture. 

Live Action Reference

Before animation began, the CG Team at Cinseite spent a day up at a puppy farm in Oxfordshire, filming beagles and gathering as much reference as we could get. 

Blend Shapes

This reference was hugely valuable later on when it came to creating realistic blend shapes.  The blend shapes mimicked the real-life muscle system of the dog's faces, so that we could make the lip-sync as believable as possible. 

Lipsync & Dialogue Resources

Racoon Dialogue Short - Animated by Mark Masters

We have many resources on animating dialogue and lipsync at Animation Apprentice. To find out more, follow the links below:

Lipsync - General Principles

• Why Animators Should Hold "M"s "B"s and "P"s for two frames
• Why Lipsync Should be "Two Frames Ahead"
• Why Lipsync Needs Wide and Narrow Mouth Shapes
• The Secret to Animating Dialogue and Lipsync
• Speed Lipsync - How to Animate Dialogue Fast
• Why Animators Should Open Wide on the Big Vowels
• Animating Lipsync - Why Animators Should Avoid Famous Lines of Dialogue
• How to Block Out and Animate a Dialogue Shot
• Why Animators (Usually) Leave Lipsync Until Last
• Lipsync Resource - The Sesame St Sound Archive
• Why Animators Need to "Hit The Accent"
• Why Animators Need "Head Muppeting"

Lipsync Tutorials

• Animate Monty saying "Oh Yeah!"
• Animate Monty saying "Smokin'!"
• Animate a Sneeze with Monty: "Achoo!"
• Dialogue and Lipsync Tutorial

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