Unit 8: Medium dialogue shot

In this unit, we revisit lip-sync to craft a longer dialogue scene, enhancing our ability to produce intricate and emotionally rich animations. This challenges us to go beyond the basics, enabling us to deliver a nuanced character performance that integrates specific techniques with storytelling. The unit is particularly exciting because we select a dialogue piece that incorporates a song or music. This is different from just speaking the words, as singing involves elongated mouth movements, holding specific frames for longer to indicate when a character is singing and maintain emphasis and volume. I needed to take various factors into account when choosing an audio piece, aiming to showcase my skills effectively while ensuring it included a relevant narrative element. This would allow me to weave it into a story, evoking emotions and engaging the audience.

I used the website moviesoundclips to obtain a piece of audio easily. I wanted to make sure I had the right to use this audio, and this website has various long or short clips from film and television. Even though I obtained the audio from this website, the audio is from the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), which allows me to create a musical dialogue shot. I'm familiar with the film, but resisted watching it for this piece of animation, as I wanted this shot to not be unintentionally influenced by the film, affecting my own creative judgment. I listened to the audio repeatedly to determine a narrative, and how well the rig would be able to animate, as well as maintaining some relevance to the style of rig and dialogue. The transcript of the audio is as follows -

Voice one "But there's no place like London"

Voice two "No there's no place like London"

-Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Burton, 2007, 0:05:31)

I believe it's a well-known scene from the movie, so I aimed to avoid setting specific expectations, although I also think a comparison would be inevitable.

Once this audio was confirmed, I imported it inot Maya (after setting up the project file) by dragging it into the timeline. As I was using the whole of the audio, there was no need for any adjustments. Next, I used the frame count to help breakdown key points in the audio. The frame rate came to 200 frames, but I broke it down into two parts, and the first piece of dialogue coming to 109 frames. For the first piece of dialogue for example, I timed out key moments of the audio. The first word "But", began at frame 36, "place", at frame 40, "like", at frame 56, "London" at frame 72. This helped me separate the words and characters in order to work on them individually.

I proceeded to create thumbnails for the key moments I aimed to capture, highlighting accents on specific words such as "like" and determining the type of gesture I wanted to portray from the initial pose to the final, settled pose. After establishing the basic key poses and feeling confident in the motion, I sketched the in-betweens and included the frame count. Besides the lip-sync, my primary focus was effectively conveying the character's emotion.. The character initially experiences sadness, characterised by a sense of longing and desire. However, upon mentioning "London," they transition to a state of happiness and tranquility, as if expressing their affection for the city.

Next, I timed the dialogue. I utilised the previous tutorials from unit 6 to assist in creating and comprehending each move, movement, and syllable to effectively portray the words in the dialogue. I outlined the pronunciation of each letter to refer to it during animation, and I also made a rough sheet that tracked the frame rate for each letter, using the audio in Maya to scrub through. I took notes from the book Timing for Animation, which presented this as a method used in traditional 2D animation. I found it efficient in this context to help deconstruct and deeply understand the art of lip-syncing. I also included key points next to the words/frame count to understand what each word would suggest in the animation. I synchronised the word/frame count precisely with the audio for my reference, but noted to reduce them by 2 frames so that the mouth matches the audio for the audience's benefit. I also included frames that needed to be held before moving onto the next letter, so it would have emphasis and snap to each letter, rather than gradually transition.

The planning for this shot was now complete, and I felt confident in executing it effectively. Like my previous projects, I used the Willy rig, created by Mathew Moore, since I was familiar with the controls, I truly value the well-designed, extensive, and fluid nature of this rig, and saved time on exploring the specifications of the type of rig for my desired shot.

I started blocking out the shot in Maya by setting my animation settings to default with stepped keys. I established the start, accent, and settle/end poses to determine the timing. Once I was satisfied with the timing, I added additional poses to highlight the dialogue and emotion of the shot.

Initial blocking

After completing the blocking, I proceeded to block out the dialogue, aware that it would be a time-consuming and complex task.

Blocked with dialogue

I thoughtfully planned the timing, ensuring the first character moved slowly and gently, while the second character provided a contrast with a quicker pace. I included additional key frames for elements like eyes, eyebrows, and subtle body or hand movements, which are typically refined later. However, I wanted to ensure the motion was timed accurately and that I had a solid understanding of this sequence.

The next stage involved working with splines to smooth out the curves and tangents, facilitating the transition between frames. Additionally, extra keyframes were added for motions that needed to be held.I had to adjust the eyes and eyelids, or the blinking motion. The eyes needed to move quickly, transitioning instantly from one frame to the next. The blink motion also had to be quick, completed within 6 frames, and used whenever the eyes or head shifted direction or to convey emotion. In essence, it's all about creating this animation in layers, and building upon it each stage until the motion is fluid and clear.

I used models from TurboSquid to design the "city" background and aimed to create an eerie, ominous atmosphere by utilising lighting to convey this mood.

Final animation

I'm pleased with the result, as it captures a dynamic and emotionally resonant shot. I think the animation could be smoother and exhibit more nuanced motion, but I believe that will improve with experience and confidence.

Bibliography -

Moviesoundclips.net. (2025). Movie Sound Clips. [online] Available at: https://www.moviesoundclips.net/download.php?id=2747&ft=wav [Accessed 18 Jun. 2025].

Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. (2007). [Streamed] Warner Bros. Pictures.

Whitaker, H., Halas, J. and Sito, T. (2009). Timing for Animation. 2nd ed. New York: Focal Press.