Is there a better way to keyframe lip sync switch layers?

[Poptoogi]

Does anyone know a better way to key-frame lip sync switch layers besides using a drop down menu? And before suggesting using auto lip syncing, that is something I don't like to do. I'd rather spend hours doing myself to have it look right you know what I mean? I've gotten pretty fast at lip syncing by scrubbing through the time line with the arrow keys and selecting the proper mouth in the switch layers but this just seems more time consuming than it needs to be. I thought cheat the system by making actions for mouths and using short cut keys but for some reason you can only use the short cut keys during live playback which is great for making character movements and gestures but way to fast for accurate lip sync keying. It would be ideal if I could scrub through the time line with the arrow keys with my right hand and use short cut keys for my switch layers bound to the keys 1,2,3,4, or ,q,w,e,r,t ect. Is there a way to do this or just a better way of using switch layers without having to use a drop down menu?

[b15fliptop]

If you're going to do a lot of lip synching, I recommend Magpie Pro. I have to do a lot of lip synch, so it was worth the $200. You can do exactly what you're describing, i.e. assign a key to each phoneme and scroll thorough with the arrow keys. It doesn't take long at all before you're burning through your lip synch tasks. I don't think there's any way to achieve something similar in ASP, although you can assign keys to actions. Maybe if you made an action for each phoneme?

I'm rambling, but I hope that helps.

[Poptoogi]

Thanks for the quick reply b15fliptop!

I thought of assigning actions to shortcut phenoms which would work IF you could use them while scrubbing but you can only use the shortcuts if the timeline is playing back at full speed. That is SOOOO frustrating because AS can essentially do what I want it to do but doesn't allow me the control I need for precise key framing. Magpie pro looks cool but I'm hoping I can just request that this feature be in the next version of AS or someone can make a script for this to work because like I said it is so so close to being able to do it already. I've gotten pretty fast at my current method of lip syncing but if I could do what you do in Magpie pro, I'd be in heaven!!! Thanks again for the suggestion though!

p.s. here is my latest lip sync test. I'm guessing it took 4 or 5 minutes for just this short clip. If only I could keyframe as fast as i type....that would be awesome!!!! LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8VmxoktHe4

[sbtamu]

Have you looked into Morph Dials?

Its a script made by Rudiger.

viewtopic.php?t=14122&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Here are a few examples. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lORDeHcr ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ0BztguZdw