Mouth animation styles

In any sound-oriented Animutation, there is usually a desire to make at least one character appear to be singing or talking. This presents a challenge to the novice Animutationist, as most Animutations are created with several static images rather than animatable drawings. Here listed are a few methods to get around this barrier.

The Poorly-Cut Mouth

This style is one of the most common in animutation because of its relative ease and hilarious appearance (if done correctly). Basically it consists of cutting out the mouth of a picture from the mouth to the chin, then moving this separate object up and down to make it appear as though the character is talking or singing. The actual mouth movement generally falls into one of three categories - alternating between two frames for "open" and "closed", looping an animation from "closed" to "open" at constant speed (such that once the mouth is open, it immediately closes and starts opening again), and sliding back and forth between closed and opened (sometimes varying speed to achieve lip-sync).

Examples: The skull, Hank Hill, and Aaron Ackerson in Life is Like a Mop (respectively)

Super-imposed Black Blob

This style of mouth animation is considered by many to be the most "lazy", as all it really is is a black circular or elliptical shape that appears when a person is supposed to be speaking. Occasionally it is tweened to pulse so that the shape goes from a circle to an ellipse and back again, to make it seem like the mouth is opening and closing as the person talks. The mouth color can be a different one, most likely red.

Examples: Scrooge McDuck in Llamas in drag, the puppy in DEW HAAST

Frame-By-Frame Pronounciation

This is the most complicated method of mouth animation and is usually implemented through use of a movie clip object, thought it can also be done with copying and pasting frames. Basically, a frame drawing the mouth is created for each sound type a character makes, and then as the movie plays the correct frame for the pronunciation at that moment is displayed (usually a call to the movie clip via actionscript). FBF mouth animation can range in complexity from around three sounds (closed, open, and 'oo') to every sound in the alphabet. The complexity of the sound library is usually determined by the length of time the character will actually use it and the sounds they will need- why create a comprehensive library when all you character will say is "GAHBUNGA"?

Example: Lemon Demon in Hyakugojyuuichi Forever

Drawn Mouth

In some animutations, a mouth is drawn to make the characters sing. This is similar to the "Frame-By-Frame Pronounciation" type, except for the fact that the Drawn Mouth style is not in sync.

Example: The characters who sing in Nocturnal Dysfunction