I think I can do this better but it is a start. What do you think?http://youtu.be/4j22Habo0TY

Wow! for a start , it is a very good start. You're on the top of the Iclone character animation!

Thank you. I think that with iClone 6 I will be able to refine the animation and the lip-sync. If I get it reasonably figured out, I hope to share the technique with others. There are a number of things that make animating in iClone challenging but I think it has many of the tools that can make animation fairly easy.

Here is a quick one with iclone 6.

http://youtu.be/8FXk0chlfxI

I really would like you share your technic!!!!
Did you Puppet all animations ? Body and face ?

I should mention that in a former career "life time ago" I did quite a bit of lipsync work for movies back in the 20th century. But I have to say that iclone is the real deal. I personally like it better than the autodesk 3d software for lipsync.

The first thing I do is try to get the best VO audio recording I can get. After the recording is done I barely process the audio. Typically, I will normalize it and save it as a 48k wav file.

When the avatar is a Genesis figure I modify the visemes in 3dxchange to make sure they look right and work properly. If the tongue is a bit of a problem. I go back to the original Genesis figure and add some parameter controls. I make the adjustments on the time line in DAZ studio. I export the avatar as an fbx and it transfers the morph controllers as well.

I check the expressions in 3dxchange again. If I like it I export it to iclone.

I then load the avatar in iclone and hit ctrl J to make the head full frame.

I am now using iClone 6 so I click on the words Animation at the top then click on Create Script and select Wave File. Locate the file and click Open.

The audio file will populate your timeline. Hit F3 to show the timeline.

On the top left corner of the Timeline toolbar click on the the Timeline Item list icon. Then check mark the Avatar box.

The Avatar you selected should now be listed below Project. The the right of the name of the Avatar there is a circle with a down arrow in it. To the right of that is a circle with an x in it. Click the circle with a down arrow. Check mark the box next to Viseme

Next to the work Viseme click the arrow in the circle then check mark both Voice and Lips if they are not already selected.

Your imported Audio should be on the timeline.

Now the fun begins. You can play the Timeline and the lips will flap away. The thing to keep in mind is that mouth has very few shapes and the tongue does most of the tonal changes of the voice.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the mouth is Open, Closed, Wide or Narrow.

Also, work at full speed. Pick the first few words and say them in a mirror and put your hand under jaw and get the feel of how your jaw drops. Say it at the same speed as your Avatar.

You will notice that on your timeline has way too many Viseme that it automatically put in. You will also notice that it put in Visemes that seem to be the wrong ones. Don't worry about that.

Now I start at the beginning of the timeline and get the first word. I then go to the next word and playback from the beginning including each word as I go along.

I zoom in to the section I am working on.

I continue working in this manner until I come to a natural break in the sentence structure.

But, what am I actually doing you ask?

After I say watch the phrase I am working on several times I look at the Voice track waveform and the Lips track. Some of the visemes will be correspond correctly to the wave forms but most of them need to be moved.

You will also discover, what I mention above that the visemes are not necessarily the ones that work the best.

For instance, my avatar says "Welcome to the show that builds a team of movie makers from the top undiscovered cast and crew in America."

The first word is "Welcome" The first phrase is "Welcome to the show"

iClone automatically selected the T.L.D. viseme and put it at the beginning of the waveform for the word "Welcome" iClone put the wrong viseme sort of in the right place.

This is very easy to fix. Just double click on the T.L.D. and the Lips Editor will appear. Click on the W-OO viseme. It magically appears on the timeline.

I don't typically deal with the vowel sounding visemes. I go through and listen for all the consonant oriented visemes that make the mouth open or close.

For example; "Welcome" has two consonant oriented visemes that make the mouth move open or close. W_OO and B_M_P. You will also notice that the position of the mouth sometimes looks the same for several different sounds.

I go through the whole sentence this way.

You will also notice that some of the visemes drop the jaw down, some are narrow and some are wide. With practice and a lot of looking at yourself in the mirror you will get the hang of which ones to use.

After I do the consonant oriented visemes that make the mouth move open or close I go back and work on the vowel and blend sounds.

Along the way I try to get rid of all the unnecessary visemes that got stuck in by iClone.

There are a few more things that seem to make a big difference.
1. Getting the visemes to blend. Without a sticking or popping kind of motion.
2. Getting the mouth to move open and closed at the right time.
3. Getting the facial expressions to show what is being said before it's said.

Blending: You will have to experiment with this. But the basic idea is that the two adjoining visemes blend with each other. Keep in mind that the strength of each viseme will determine how smooth the blend looks. Also how near are far they are from each other and how affects the look how the lips correspond to the sound of the words.
After you put the visemes in the proper location relative to the word's audio play the timeline cursor over the visemes and watch how they blend.

Timing: The mouth anticipates the sound. In other words, the viseme should be placed just in front of the point where the corresponding sound begins.

Facial expressions: Expressions usually show what you're thinking before you say it. So do cartoons. So, anticipate with your facial expressions what your character is going to say.

I know this is a lot of information and a lot of it is conceptual. Maybe one of these days I will make a tutorial, probably not. But here is a link about some of the basics of animation that will help.

http://animationsalvation.com/free_tips/lip-sync/1

Thank you cKalan1 , this the information that I had not.....

And for the body and arms , do you use poppeter feature ?

@cKalan1

I somehow liked your Lipsync with the DAZ character than G6.
Perhaps we need a bit of movement in the eyes with G6 character animation. And towards end, the face goes up a bit extra and loses contact with the camera.

Just a personal observation.

@ckalan1: that is a good description of the process.

I do more or less the same thing (unless I'm in a hurry) bit I never got around of writing it down. And I picked up a few tips from you.

Unfortunately, the lip sync accuracy in iClone has been a weak point for a long time. It works more or less, but as you point out, a lot of cleaning up is needed.

I have suggested that RL uses a script of the dialog as a guidance for viseme assignment, but that hasn't materialized yet.

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I did not spend much time fixing the face on the g6 avatar. It reacts a little different than the Genesis avatars because I exaggerated the Genesis morphs in 3dxchange. I have not figured out how to get the g6 Characters into 3dxchange yet. We might have to wait for 3dxchange version 6 to come out to modify the morphs.