TALECRAFTERS
GLOSSARY · CONTROL · ETHICS

LIP SYNC

Matching a generated or existing face’s mouth movement to an audio track, and the point at which a synthetic presenter becomes convincing or does not.

ALSO CALLEDlip synchronisationviseme matching

Audiences forgive a great deal in a generated face and forgive almost nothing in the mouth, because lip reading is partly involuntary. Sync that is slightly wrong reads as dubbing, and dubbing reads as untrustworthy.

The technical failure modes are consistent: plosives arriving late, the jaw moving without the lips shaping, and a mouth that keeps moving fractionally after the audio stops. All three are visible at normal speed once you know to look.

The consent position is stricter here than anywhere else in synthetic production. Putting words a person did not say into a recognisable mouth is the definition of the thing regulation is aimed at, and it needs an explicit release naming synthetic dialogue.

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

Why does generated lip sync look like dubbing?

Usually timing: plosives landing late, or the mouth continuing fractionally after the audio ends. Lip reading is partly involuntary, so small errors register as wrongness rather than as detail.

What consent does synthetic dialogue need?

An explicit release covering synthetic dialogue specifically, separate from any release signed for the original footage. Words a person did not say in a recognisable mouth is exactly what transparency regulation targets.

THEORY IS FREE

Knowing the word is the cheap part.

Running it on a deadline, at volume, without burning the budget is the expensive part. That is the bit we do.

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