The Make It Speak: 2D Animation Lipsync 5-week course at The Art Club focuses on bringing characters to life through believable phrasing and lipsync. This all-levels workshop breaks down the mechanics of lipsync, facial construction, and performance, guiding students from foundational phonemes to fully realized animated shots. The emphasis is on clarity, timing, and acting, helping artists understand not just how mouths move, but how characters think, feel, and speak in dialogue scenes. Through demos, critiques, and hands-on assignments, students will build confidence in animating dialogue that is believable and engaging for audiences.
MAKE IT SPEAK: 2D ANIMATION LIPSYNC
The Make It Speak: 2D Animation Lipsync 5-week course at The Art Club focuses on bringing characters to life through believable phrasing and lipsync. This all-levels workshop breaks down the mechanics of lipsync, facial construction, and performance, guiding students from foundational phonemes to fully realized animated shots. The emphasis is on clarity, timing, and acting, helping artists understand not just how mouths move, but how characters think, feel, and speak in dialogue scenes. Through demos, critiques, and hands-on assignments, students will build confidence in animating dialogue that is believable and engaging for audiences.
Over the 5 weeks, you will learn to:
Break down the head and face for animation, including front, ¾, and profile views
Understand and construct clear, functional phonemes for dialogue
Apply articulation and lipsync to dialog
Explore phrasing and performance, including contrast in styles (e.g. broad vs subtle acting)
Use blinks, holds, and visual markers to enhance clarity and expression
What You’ll Make: Multiple head angles (front, ¾, and profile) with fully animated lipsync, a complete set of clearly defined phonemes, and a polished, portfolio-ready animation that showcases strong lipsync and character performance.
Participants may join as Active Students with feedback and drawovers, or with a Viewer Pass with access to live sessions and chat.
Dates
Wednesdays - May 20 - June 17
Time
6:00pm - 9:00pm PST
Location
The Art Club - Discord: <https://discord.gg/TZb8wK292j> Orange Classroom
FORMAT
Class meets once a week on Discord.
Recorded Access: Class recordings are provided after the course, viewable for one year for Active & Viewer Pass students.
Active student’s must upload homework to Google Drive folder before the next class begins.
Active student spots are limited to 15 participants, and Viewer access is limited to 50 seats.
THE FACULTY
Nick Leysens is a designer, storyboard artist, illustrator and animator who has been working for the last 10 years in the tv/film, tech, and commercial industries. His clients include Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, Titmouse, ShadowMachine, Miley Cyrus, Duolingo, Cinemax, Fox, and Adult Swim. Nick studied at the Laguna College of Art & Design. Nick has worked on shows such as Animaniacs, Looney Tunes, BoJack Horseman, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, Baby Shark’s Big Show, Mike Judge Presents Tales from the Tour Bus, and Clone High.
Nick has taught on the collegiate level for 5 years at the Cleveland Institute of Art and also serves at the School of Visual Arts MFA program as a mentor.
Nick’s Credits
Prerequisites
This is an all levels class. To participate as an Active student and get the most out of the class, Active students need to fulfill the following requirements:
Animation software (Adobe Animate, ToonBoom Harmony, etc.)
Computer with microphone (camera optional)
Access to Google Drive
Access to Discord
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We focus on the fundamentals of facial construction for animation, learning how to break the head down into front, ¾, and profile views. Students are introduced to phonemes and how mouth shapes function in a profile view.
Assignment: Active students create a head turn (front, ¾, and profile) and develop a set of phonemes for the profile view.
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We review and refine head turns and profile phonemes, then expand phoneme construction to the front and ¾ views. Students are introduced to dialogue and begin learning how to approach basic timing in lipsync animation.
Assignment: Active students add dialogue to your file and begin blocking in lipsync using the proper phonemes.
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This week focuses on acting and performance in lipsync. Students learn about phrasing, including different stylistic approaches, and how to think beyond mouth shapes by incorporating body language, blinks, and holds. We begin roughing out a phrasing pass to a new dialog scene.
Assignment: Active students complete a rough phrasing pass that clearly communicates the performance and dialogue beats.
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We build on the phrasing pass by adding refined mouth movements and tightening the animation. The focus is on clarity, consistency, and making sure the lipsync supports the performance choices.
Assignment: Active students take their scene to completion. -
In the final week, students receive feedback on their completed shots while also breaking down professional animation examples to better understand what makes lipsync work at a high level. We’ll also cover animation portfolios and presentation, focusing on how to showcase your work clearly and effectively.
Who is this Workshop for?
The Make It Speak: 2D Animation Lipsync 5-week course at The Art Club is designed for artists who want to bring characters to life through believable, expressive dialogue animation. This workshop focuses on breaking down lipsync into clear, manageable steps (from phonemes and facial construction to timing, phrasing, and performance), so students can confidently animate dialogue that feels natural and engaging.
Beginners – looking to understand the basics of lipsync, facial construction, and animation preformance in a structured, approachable way while building confidence with dialogue animation.
Intermediate Artists – aiming to strengthen their understanding of phonemes, improve timing and clarity in lipsync, and learn how to push performance beyond simple mouth movement.
Advanced Artists & Professionals – in animation or related fields who want to refine their acting choices, improve polish and performance quality, and better understand how to elevate dialogue animation for production or portfolio work.
Hobbyists – who want a fun, hands-on introduction to animating talking characters while learning practical techniques they can apply to personal projects and creative experiments.
Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, students will be able to:
Break down the face into clear, functional construction for animation, including front, ¾, and profile views
Create and apply accurate phonemes to support believable dialogue animation
Time and synchronize dialogue with character animation for clear and readable lipsync
Develop performance-driven animation using phrasing, holds, blinks, and body language to support acting choices
Active Students will receive feedback and drawovers throughout the workshop to improve clarity, timing, performance, and overall animation quality.
What You’ll Make: Active Students Multiple head angles (front, ¾, and profile) with fully animated lipsync, a complete set of clearly defined phonemes, and a polished, portfolio-ready animation that showcases strong lipsync and character performance.
The Make It Speak: 2D Animation Lipsync 5-week course at The Art Club focuses on bringing characters to life through believable phrasing and lipsync. This all-levels workshop breaks down the mechanics of lipsync, facial construction, and performance, guiding students from foundational phonemes to fully realized animated shots. The emphasis is on clarity, timing, and acting, helping artists understand not just how mouths move, but how characters think, feel, and speak in dialogue scenes. Through demos, critiques, and hands-on assignments, students will build confidence in animating dialogue that is believable and engaging for audiences.
