How to make a lip-synching animation? : 9VAe

What is a lip-synching animation?

The animation below is a lip-synching animation created from SVG illustrations in 9VAe.
Here's how to make it.

This article explains how to generate lip-synching animation.

6 key shapes of the mouth

9VAe has six mouth shapes in ".aiueo" to generate lip-synching animation.

.	a	i	u	e	o

Mouth movements are specified in Romaji

Romaji is Romanization of Japanese.

The animation above is set up as follows.

Duration(Second):Romaji
4:kyuubee can meik a tolking animeition with alphabet.

9VAe interprets the Roman letters in turn to create mouth movements.

Vowel to vowel

Vowel to vowel changes are created by keyframe interpolation of the mouth shape.

• First half: the change from the front vowel to the back vowel
• Second half: back vowel

Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth
aa		ia		ua		ea		oa
ai		ii		ui		ei		oi
au		iu		uu		eu		ou
ae		ie		ue		ee		oe
ao		io		uo		eo		oo

Closed-mouthed consonant

The next letter has a "." shape that closes the mouth.

.	n	m	b	p

Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth
ana		ami		abu		ape		ano

Consonants in the form of the letter "i"

The next letter has a "i" shape in between.

i	y	j	z

Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth
aya		aji		ayu		aze		ayo

Consonants in the form of the letter "u"

The next letter has a "u" shape in between.

u	w	v	f

Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth
awa		avi		afu		awe		avo

Ignore the other consonants.

I ignore all but the consonants above.

c	d	g	h	k	l	q	r	s	t	x	space

Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth	Romaji	mouth
ada		iga		uha		eka		ola
ari		ishi		uchi		eti		osi

It's a pretty lame rule for making mouth shapes, but since it doesn't matter how you pronounce it, and since it actually moves so fast that it's hard to follow it with your eyes, I'm using this rule as the first version for now. I'll improve it in the future.

Apply to French

IPA symbol		9VAe Romaji
/a ɑ/		a
/i y j ɥ/		i
/u w/		u
/ɔ̃/		un or on
/e ø ɛ œ/		e
/ɛ̃ œ̃/		en
/o ɔ/		o
/ɑ̃/		on or an
/p/		p
/b/		b
/t/		t
/d/		d
/k/		k
/g/		g
/c/		k
/ɟ/		g
/m/		m
/n ɲ/		n
/f/		f
/v/		v
/s/		s
/z/		z
/ʃ ʒ/		j
/ʁ/		r
/l/		l

French example

The pronunciation of French

IPA	Romaji	spelling	IPA	9VAe Romaji	Mouth shape
Vowels
a	a	patte	/pat/	[1:pat]
ɑ	a	pâte	/pɑt/	[1:pat]
ɑ̃	on	clan	/klɑ̃/	[1:klon]
e	e	dé	/de/	[1:de]
ɛ	e	belle	/bɛl/	[1:bel]
ɛ̃	en	lin	/lɛ̃/	[1:len]
ə	e	demain	/dəmɛ̃/	[1:deme]
i	i	gris	/gʀi/	[1:gri]
o	o	gros	/gʀo/	[1:gro]
ɔ	o	corps	/kɔr/	[1:kor]
ɔ̃	un	long	/lɔ̃/	[1:lun
œ	e	leur	/lœʀ/	[1:ler]
œ̃	en	brun	/brœ̃/	[1:bren]
ø	e	deux	/dø/	[1:de]
u	u	fou	/fu/	[1:fu]
y	i	pur	/pyʀ/	[1:pir]
Semi-vowels
j	i	fille	/fij/	[1:fi]
ɥ	i	huit	/ɥit/	[1:it]
w	u	oui	/wi/	[1:wi]
Consonants
b	b	bal	/bal/	[1:bal]
d	d	dent	/dɑ̃/
f	f	foire	/fwaʀ/	[1:fwar]
g	g	gomme	/gɔm/	[1:gom]
k	k	clé	/kle/	[1:kle]
l	l	lien	/ljɛ̃/	[1:lien]
m	m	mer	/mɛʀ/	[1:mer]
n	n	nage	/naʒ/	[1:naj]
ɲ	n	gnon	/ɲɔ̃/	[1:nun]
ŋ	n	dancing	/dɑ̃siŋ/	[1:donsin]
p	p	porte	/pɔʀt/	[1:port]
ʀ	r	rire	/ʀiʀ/	[1:rir]
s	s	sang	/sɑ̃/	[1:son]
ʃ	j	chien	/ʃjɛ̃/	[1:jie]
t	t	train	/tʀɛ̃/	[1:tre]
v	v	voile	/vwal/	[1:vwal]
z	z	zèbre	/zɛbʀ/	[1:zebr]
ʒ	j	jeune	/ʒœn/	[1:jen]

spelling	IPA	9VAe Romaji	Mouth shape
peinture	/pɛ̃tyʀ/	[2:petir]
rare	/ʀɑʀ/	[1:rar]
pendant	/pɑ̃dɑ̃/	[2:pandan]
pétard	/petaʀ/	[2:petar]
créateur	/kʀeatœʀ/	[2:kreater]
crapaud	/kʀapo/	[2:krapo]
donjon	/dɔ̃ʒɔ̃/	[2:donjon]
clémence	/klemɑ̃s/	[2:klemans]
trente	/tʀɑ̃t/	[1:trant]
plan	/plɑ̃ /	[1:plan]
palette	/palɛt/	[2:palet]
facile	/fasil/	[2:fasil]
tutu	/tyty/	[2:titi]
clan	/klɑ̃/	[1:klan]
charitable	/ʃaʀitabl/	[2:aritabl]
effacer	/efase/	[2:efase]
élève	/elɛv/	[2:elev]

• IPA is from Collins French Dictionary

The Significance of the Romanized Lipstick

I think the main process of making a lip-synching animation is to recognize the audio data and make a mouth shape to match the sound.

However, if you don't need audio, as in the case of Twitter posts, there may be an easy way to make a lip-synching animation.

9VAe's method only requires you to create 6 mouth shapes, so you can easily create a lip-synching animation character from Openclipart's SVG illustrations.

Free lip-synching animation characters

• Miku usagi, Miku usagi VR
• Anime Girl School Chalkboard, Brunette Anime Girl , Suikawari Boy, Suikawari Boy - covid-19, Beatnik broomstick dance