And my lip-sync guide is done. @__@
The reason it takes a bit for each page is because I have to stay focused on how my mouth is moving when I’m sounding out the words. That’s the trick; don’t get distracted by the spelling. You might notice that a lot of my mouths look very similar to another (the “a’s”)...That’s fine, since I’ll be making adjustments during the actual drawing process anyway. This is just to help me get a general idea as to what the mouth-shape should be.
Now comes the best, most fun yet difficult and complicated part; the actual animation! :D The “key” frames come first -> then the “extremes” -> “breakdowns” and “inbetweens” are extra drawings to smooth things out. What makes the whole thing difficult (at least for me) is that this process often involves math because of the timing. According to my bulky copy of The Animator’s Survival Kit book (it’s been 4 years since I’ve graduated and I’ve only animated tiny text-stamps in Flash, so I’m gonna be rusty with this), the average frame rate is 24-30 fps (frames per second), depending on the kind of method used and what works. I’ll have to look at how long my bf’s dialogue is and estimate how much longer I need the whole skit to be, which is where the math comes in. There’s luckily frame rate calculators online, but sometimes I still have to guess the number of frames to add. And my brain likes to go blank when it comes to math. @__@