Voice Acting thread

[Jason_OCE]

Voice Acting Thread!

 

This thread is dedicated to the discussion of Voice Acting, as well as showing off any projects you've had a hand in. It's also for newbies who want to get involved in voice acting, but don't have the experience.

 

First off, I'd advise anyone that wants to get involved in Voice Acting to check out Casting Call Club. ( https://castingcall.club/ )

 

Here's a random old project of mine, an original poem with some audio work and Voice Acting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBgPlpAz0Lw 

 

[Zodai]

Personally I think voice acting ends up a luxury most projects can't afford - especially since the lack of the player having an interpretation of their voice themselves could end up taking something away instead.  Poor voice acting is a weakness where no voice acting is not, and thus the only option becomes to question if you have the budget for high-quality voices and then only going for it if thus.  The demand for high-quality voice actors can be considered quite high, but it takes a lot of practice from the actors' end themselves to reach this goal, so it's difficult to make a role unless you have at least some experience.

I'd say it's like writing in one area - the ability to craft a comprehensible sentence does not mean one is capable of crafting the language of the story in a way that evokes emotion.  Similarly, the ability to speak in a coherent fashion does not necessarily imply that the actor can evoke the necessary level of emotion, both in accuracy and consistency with the tone of the story and the raw emotional power itself, that is necessary to make voice acting a benefit rather than something loathed.

To those looking to get into it - best of luck to you.  Don't expect it to be easy, but if you manage to pull through I'll be looking forward to what you can deliver, for better or for worse.

[Rose]

Just as Zodai said, it's really risky and expensive. Still, voice acting is something that can greatly add to a VN, specially during important scenes where there are lots of emotions. 

[Jason_OCE]

This discussion doesn't even have to relate specifically to Visual Novels. There's a lot of other forms out there, and I'm sure at least one or two people within Fuwa have at least thought about it.

 

[Valmore]

Thought about it? Sure, I've thought about it, and while it would seem pretty cool to be a voice actor, I get the feeling it's a lot harder than it looks. There's a reason you hear the same voice in different cartoons...

[Jason_OCE]

Thought about it? Sure, I've thought about it, and while it would seem pretty cool to be a voice actor, I get the feeling it's a lot harder than it looks. There's a reason you hear the same voice in different cartoons...

It takes a lot of hard work to be able to do it for a living, but there's a fairly large group of people that do it just for fun, or maybe as a part time thing.

[Valmore]

If it were just for fun and I wasn't under the stress of compensation for it, I think I'd like to try it once. People say I have a face, I mean voice, for radio.

[Mr Poltroon]

Indeed, people have told me that I've got a good voice, especially for documentaries, and I love reading/acting. Even if I may not be good at it, at least I have an interest.

[Zodai]

Indeed, people have told me that I've got a good voice, especially for documentaries, and I love reading/acting. Even if I may not be good at it, at least I have an interest.

Your voice is glorious.  It's a little bit off in terms of the fact that I can't imagine a wide array of emotion VA-wise, but it could certainly do quite a lot of good depending on the work.

[Salurian]

There are certain people who have great voices innately.  A good friend of mine is one such.

 

I, however, do not have such a voice.  I have a singing voice only good for harmony, and a speaking voice only good for putting people to sleep because of how monotone it tends to be.  Now, if I trained myself, I could probably improve it quite a bit... but I don't see a need to, since I don't plan to VA much of anything.  I'm more of a designer/developer if I was going to be working on such a think - if anything I'd be the one recording, not being recorded.

 

I will say that good VAs make a work 10x better than a work with no VAs.  But bad VAs make a work 5x worse than a work with no VAs.

[Mikado069]

I remember when both me and my friend tried to voice act as for characters in fighting game we made in MUGEN. Well, what do you expect from beginners? The voice range was good, but the act was not. Plus, the recording quality was the worst. It's true that voice acting give life to "product" either it's game, anime, movie...etc. Even classes can be interesting or not depending on the voice range, if the voice range was monotone, you will fell sleep. Else, you will be engaged into the class contents. Changing range can have that kind of effect.

Equipment like mic with certain specs can have positive effect on the recorded voice. I think there are applications that helps with voice recording by removing noises, but I don't know much about it.

I still think that voices can be trained just like reading and writing. The more you practice, the better you become.

[Xelestial]

During my project's time on Kickstarter I was constantly contacted by voice actors. I felt really terrible because I'm sure they were quite good, but voice acting carries all of the risks mentioned here. I think that voice acting should just be one side way to get into whatever industry one is pursuing, because it is so very subjective. 

For my part, if I could afford voice actors, I would still be incredibly picky about them and unfortunately they're often shooting in the dark because they don't know what roles they might fit. I'd have loved to be a VA when I was younger, but the fact is that you generally have to be very skilled AND do a wide range of voices, or you could end up out of work for a while.