Acting without speaking

Using the audio as our guide, we can cast aside all doubt about the timing of our animation. We know exactly what words Rain will say, when she will say those words, and how long it will take to say them.

But does that mean we should begin by animating her mouth? Not necessarily! In fact, it looks kind of weird if we solely animate that part first. All those little phonemes and syllables that the mouth makes are details, and we mustn’t start with details. Besides, a character doesn’t just speak with their mouth. For this exercise, we’ll start by making Rain speak with her whole face.

Key facial expressions

If you’ve been thinking ahead, you’ve probably already listened to Rain’s lines a few times and mouthed them out yourself at your desk or in a mirror. That’s great. Keep doing that. As animators, we can rehearse what we’re about to have our characters do by letting the voice actor speak through...