Monty Python style mouth only animation won't lip sync to recorded audio! So simple a concept, yet-!

Gary sent me a direct message with the puppet. I tried to reply directly, but it said I had sent too many private messages. So replying here.

Hi Gary, it looks like I have a newer version of CH installed so I don't think I can send you the puppet (might not work), so here are instructions. To just get the mouth working its not much work - you are very close. 

• In Photoshop, drag the Neutral layer and all the visemes into the "Mouth" group. Currently they are not in the mouth group, they are next to it. This is the primary problem.
• Rename "Mouth" to "+Mouth".
• Rename "+ Neutral" etc for all the visemes to just "Neutral" (remove all the "+" characters - use it on Mouth instead)

You can tell all the visemes are under Mouth by clicking on the little expland/collapse triangle next to the "Mouth" layer name in Photoshop. If collapsing Mouth you can still see visemes, those visemes are not inside the group.

Once you have done that, lipsync started working for me!

If you want to go further, I suggest some more changes if you want the head to move with the webcam.

• Click on the "DOG" layer in rigging mode. Over on the right expand the "Tags" section of the properties. In my copy the "DOG" layer has had the "Head" tag added. Remove that tag. Note: There is a little "A" icon in the top right corner. If you click that it brings up the text names instead of pretty graphics. I find that mode easier. "DOG" should not have any tags on it. This "Head" tag on the "DOG" layer breaks the Face behavior.
• I suggest you rename the root "DOG" layer to "+Dog" Photoshop - make the root independent (it generally works better).
• Rename "Head" to "+Head" in Photosohp.  I am assuming you want head tilts without body moving too.
• Add the "Face" behavior back to the puppet root - looks like you removed all the behaviors except 2.
• Expand the "Face" behavior properties and look for "Head Position Strength" - this is 100% by default. Make it 0%. (You can try 10% if you like.) This stops the head "drifting" away from the body.
• Click on the LipSync behavior. If you look in the properties panel you will see there are some missing visemes. Decide if you want to add these in as well. (You can copy other existing layers that are close.) I think it will default to Neutral if it wants to use that sound and there is no viseme.

With that the head should tilt from side to side while talking!

There are two ways to do mouths ... visemes where you replace a default mouth with a different mouth image for different visemes, and nutcracker jaw which slides a jaw up and down. Nutcracker might visually look more like what you want, but I don't think can be computed from and audio track as it is controlled by the webcam. https://helpx.adobe.com/adobe-character-animator/using/behavior.html#Nutcracker

Assuming you are using the default visemes, the hierarchy of the layers in the artwork file are very important for ch. Could you share a screenshot of the rigging hierarchy you have for your puppet? eg do you have a Head layer containing a Mouth layer with visemes under that? There are special names for the visemes (Ah, Nueutral, Smile etc). The Face behavior looks for the mouth layer and expects the visemes as immediate children, so if you get those names wrong it won't work.

If you want a video to look at, try episode 22 from https://extra-ordinary.tv/2018/10/22/project-wookie-a-beginner-youtube-playlist/. There may be better ones around, but i know where this one is lol!

But i suspect you might want to use nutcracker jaw, which i have never used myself.