Have you ever wondered "WHY DO THE PONIES MATCH THE WORDS IN PMVS ARE THEY MAGIC AND WHY IS STELLAFERA SO GOOD LOOKING?". Well, I've seen this question a lot and I'm ready to provide some answers. Well, to the first part, at least. You're not gonna get a photograph outta me that easily, folks.

Although it is true; I am very good looking.

Resources

The truth is, though, not even I can do it all on my own. There's 4 resources that can be very helpful in this whole lip-syncing business. One of them is a video editing program. I favor Vegas Movie Studio because it's cheap, but whatever works for you. Another is this chart:

I use this as instruction for speaking with humans in real life as well.

It's very helpful for being able to glance at a scene and generally tell if that's going to fit or not. Play the audio clip in your head while you watch that bit of the episode and ask if that vaguely worked. And the more you work at it, the faster you'll be. Heck, half the time I don't even have to rewatch the scene to know that it'll fit.

"BUT HOW WILL I BE ABLE TO FIND THOSE EPISODE CLIPS I'VE ONLY REWATCHED SONIC RAINBOOM 4 TIMES AND ONE OF THOSE WAS AT 2 A.M!", you say. Well, dude, calm down, you don't need to talk in all caps or watch overrated Rainbow Dash episodes so much. You just need to check out one of these two sources for clips, or, even more usefully, check MLP Wiki's character and episode galleries. They have practically every moment a character appears onscreen on record there.

There is no particular reason why that link sends you to the Applejack gallery.

Actually Lip Syncing And Such

No particular reason why an Applejack scene was chosen to represent this. Or why I reused it from a previous explanation of PMV making.

Yeah, here's the secret. Most clips don't fit perfectly on their own. If they do, it's usually a freaky natural accident involving the theme song for some reason. Speeding up and especially slowing down clips are common tactics, but while they can be useful, sometimes there's just a good thing where the pony starts talking and some BS in between until what you want happens later. What's a PMV maker to do?

Franken-clips.

I'm serious, really! I use it all the flippin' time. Just go frame-by-frame in your video editor and cut the clip into pieces. The reason why I say frame-by-frame is because then you can catch good places where one animation can blend into a later one. For example, a character dipping their head to talk can connect with a character dipping their head to turn and nobody but you and me have to know. I promise I won't tell.

You can also use this when characters pause because they want to end a sentence or some other stupid reason. You want them to keep talking and they'll do that, dammit! Or the other way around, too. Shut them up by cutting out the parts where their mouths go gibber-gabber. It's cruel, but it is what we must do as video editors.

Seeing It All Come Together

Nah, just kidding, this is actually where you'll get to enjoy my best lip syncing work as a

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thank you note for actually getting to this part

generous gift to you, the reader.

Time to watch 50 minutes of My Little Assassins. Or this three minute long video. Whatever floats your boat. This one is basically all lip sync, so I feel like it demonstrates well how it all ends up fitting together. As well as my channel.