Datasheet
14■n Chapter 1: Learning the Basics of Lip Sync
is called (not surprisingly) opposites, and it’s explained in Chapter 4. Opposites is an idea
not unlike anticipation.
what This has two shapes. With the w portion of the word, we need an OO shape—it’s a
viseme. With the ut portion of the word, UH-T, we’ve hit T. Like R, the T is relative. We
widen the mouth on this sound to show that another viseme besides UH is present. This
shape doesn’t need to be anything specific; it’s just wider than UH.
are Like the previous are, this one’s tricky. It’s influenced only by Open/Closed, so there’s
nothing characteristic that needs to be done with Wide/Narrow. We’re going to use this
sound like many of the preceding shapes, to emphasize its surrounding shapes. Because
the next sound is an OO and we’re already at a somewhat wide shape, we don’t want to
narrow it because that will take away from the impact of the next sound. We don’t want
to widen it either, because that would indicate a viseme, which it’s not. Instead, we “hold”
the shape we already have. It may not seem like it, but this reasoning is a subcategory
of opposites called stepping, also explained in Chapter 4. Briefly, stepping is used when
you’ve got multiple similar shapes in a row. You can pause on each one briefly to give each
a moment of its own and then move on.
you As before, this sound is in the easy territory of a basic viseme. OO viseme = nar-
rower key. The EE sound in the word you only comes into play when the word is at the
beginning of a sentence or after a long pause.
doing For the do portion, we need to consider the surroundings before we can choose
what to do. At the end of the preceding word we went narrower. This sound should also
be narrower, but by narrowing twice in a row, we risk not seeing the first shape as we
breeze right by it to even narrower. This is where stepping comes into play again. You
may need to take some strength away from the OO in you to allow the OO in do to be
narrower. The ing portion is wider—partly because IH is a viseme, and also because ing
is most definitely not an OO sound. Sometimes we need to key away from surrounding
sounds as much as we need to key into them.
“Who are you and what are you doing?”: Open/Closed
Now take a look at the Open/Closed patterns for “Who are you and what are you doing?”
Word opeN/cloSed SequeNce
Who Open, semi-closed
Are Open, semi-closed
You Open, semi-closed
And Open, semi-closed
What Open, semi-closed
Are Open, semi-closed
You Open, semi-closed
Doing Open, semi-closed
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