ToonBoom Lip-sync Tutorial for DM24B

What you need:
1. Cleaned-up and processed audio file of dialogue: wav or aif, stereo only if needed, 44.1KHz-16bit (CD-quality)

2. Character without mouth area that will show behind mouthshapes (mouth area can include chin, cheeks, bottom of nose – depending on character)

3. Mouthshapes set – See the two charts below for ToonBoom's mouth-shape sets.

ToonBoom uses an 8-shape mouth-set named A through G with X as the silent mouthshape. These letters do not correspond to the phonemes (sounds). The A mouthshape is not the A sound.



The ToonBoom mouthshapes correspond to the following phonemes or dialogue sounds:
A - M, B, P
B - TH, J, R, CH, G, Z, X, K, N, D, T
C - EE, A
D - Ah, Ay
E - U, Oh
F - OO
G - V, F, S
X is silence (similar to A)

Better yet, the ToonBoom mouth-shapes can be described as:

A – closed mouth for M sound
B – mouth slightly open
C – mouth open a little more
D – mouth open the most it gets 
E – mouth open tall but not wide, big O shape, say “uuun”
F – mouth open round, small O shape, say “moon”
G – mouth using teeth and closed lips for ffff sound
X is silence (similar to A)

Other animation instruction on developing mouthshapes for lip sync will show mouth-shape sets with their corresponding phonemes. See the mouth-shape chart shown below. Study the ToonBoom chart above and the other charts to design the set of 8 mouth-shapes for your character.   Click this link for a couple other mouth-shape sets. These should all be studied, maybe you'll find some similarities to the mouth-shapes for your characters.

2 Ways to Create a Mouth-Shapes set - start with a rough sketch of shapes for both methods
1. Using the drawing tools in ToomBoom with onion skin turned on to see previous shape.
2. From drawings on 8.5x11 paper (landscape) using lightbox
   --Draw character as described in above step 2, include registration marks
   --Study charts and draw 8 mouthshapes, add reg. marks and ToonBoom mouthshape letter to the drawings.
      (A and X may be the same depending on character.)
   --Scan and vectorize drawings into ToomBoom, name the drawings A thru G and X.

Lip-sync process in ToonBoom
Right-click this link to download a 3.7MB Quicktime movie showing the process.

1. The mouthshape set should be in its own element, in order from A to G and then X. The face or body the mouths go onto should be in a second element. If using Import and Vectorize, rename the shapes from A to G plus X for ToomBoom automatic mapping in step 7 below.

2. Create a sound element. The element order from left to right should be Sound, Drawing with your mouth-shapes, Drawing with full face or body that mouth-shapes go on top of.

3. Right click sound element to Edit Sound. In the Sound Element Editor, Import the dialogue wav file.

4. Click in the waveform to select it in the edit window, select select Streamed, the select Lip-Sync, then OK.

6. Right click the top of the sound element and Modify Lip Sync Mapping, in the sound mapping window select your Drawing element with the mouth-shapes.

7. If the correct mouth-shapes are not mapped to the sound, go back to Lip Sync Mapping and type in the correct drawing name for each of the 8 mouth-shapes. (You don't need to type the word "Drawing".

Magic happens.