Step 3: Draw Deb Ant’s Missing Lips

In the sample Lip Sync lesson, we drew six out of seven of the lip positions for Deb Ant. It is up to you to draw Deb’s lip for the “D” position using the lip sync preview images.

To draw Deb Ant’s missing lips:

1. In the Exposure Sheet window, press [Command] and drag the debSpeaks element so that it is next to the mouth column. This will make it easier for you to see the lip chart while you are working on Deb’s lips.

2. [Control]-click a cell in the debSpeaks element and select Show Lip-sync from the pop-up menu. Toon Boom Studio displays the phoneme assigned to each frame in the sound.

3. Click the Toggle Thumbnails button to show the lip chart.

4. Scroll down the Exposure Sheet window. At the frame in the debSpeaks element that is labelled D, you must double-click the equivalent cell in the mouth element and rename the cell D.

5. Now, with the lip sync preview image as a reference, draw Deb Ant’s lips in the D position. After you have finished drawing her lips, paint them using the swatches in the Deb Ant color palette on the Color Palette tab.

This is how Deb Ant’s lips look in the D position we drew.

Here are some tips that will help you out:

Use the Stroke tool to create a closed zone without visible line art.
Use the Close Gap tool to close the zone in the neck so that you can paint it.
You can copy and paste drawings from previous cells (try the F cell) and modify them to suit the lip position.
The lips must fit on Deb Ant’s head.

You can use the onion skin to display the previous and next drawings and use those drawings as a reference.

You can use the Auto Light Table to display other drawings in the frame, including Deb. You will need to hide other elements (using the Element List) to display only selected elements.

You can add a drawing (like the F drawing) to the Static Light Table so that you can use it as a reference.

Set up the Drawing View window so that you have a clear view of Deb Ant.

To turn off the grid, press [G], the default keyboard shortcut.

To zoom-in, press [X], and to zoom-out press [Z].

To pan the Drawing View window, press and hold [Spacebar] and use the Grabber tool to change the part of the window you are seeing.