Flash LipSync

There are various animated characters, some of which you’re really attached to. Most of them speak, but it’s not that easy to sync lip movement with audio. In case you want to try it out on your own projects, Flash LipSync is a small application that lets you import audio files, and create lip animations for perfect sync.

A neat advantage is that you don’t even have to install the application on your computer for it to properly run. As such, system registries remain intact, thus not affecting the stability of your PC. Moreover, you can carry it around with you on a USB flash drive to use on the go.

Upon launch, Flash LipSync brings up a compact main window, with several panes to let you arrange frames in order, set timing, choose frames, and preview your work. Although the visual design doesn’t make it stand out from the crowd, it’s simple enough to let anyone accommodate in a jiffy.

Before you can set up lip motion, you need to import an audio file, preferably voice. Supported formats only let you pick WAV and MP3 files, and this needs to be done through the built-in browse dialog, because drag and drop is not supported. In case you’re having a hard time getting around the set of features, there are several examples you can load.

The application comes with its own set of images that represent a mouth in different shapes, so you can combine them to mimic words. However, you’re free to replace the set with your own, and this is easily done by opening the contents of a folder.

Depending on the length of the audio file, which is not shown, total number of frames needs to be set. The sequencer is where frames go in the correct order, with options to set a numerical value that represents delay in seconds. When done, there’s the possibility to export either as FLS or AS autoscript.

All things considered, we can safely state that Flash LipSync comes with good intentions, letting you easily synchronize lip movement with a custom audio voice file. However, the process can take a little while, especially because every frame needs to be manually configured, while the variety of resources and features leaves more to be desired.