<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
	<channel>
		<title><![CDATA[Forums - Bricks in Motion - Voice Acting tips]]></title>
		<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/topic/17180/voice-acting-tips/</link>
		<description><![CDATA[The most recent posts in Voice Acting tips.]]></description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:45:54 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<generator>PunBB</generator>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/303424/#p303424</link>
			<description><![CDATA[also if both people are on a mac you can use dropbox]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (masterlego)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jun 2013 02:45:54 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/303424/#p303424</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/303002/#p303002</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I do the gesturing myself!  That's one other idea that I didn't put in there.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:18:38 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/303002/#p303002</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302999/#p302999</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Holdingourown, 

What an amazing lesson you have taught me and I am sure others, I know alot of these things but just how descriptive you were with the parts, and stuff, and I even learned a few new things, you really are good at these things, and writing scripts, thank you, and I applaud you!

Its always good to give back to the community, it not only brings you good feels, but also that you have helped someone accomplish something they may have been struggling in the field of audio.

Thanks again!

Kind regards,
Generalned]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Generalned)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:03:16 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302999/#p302999</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302922/#p302922</link>
			<description><![CDATA[i'd like to add something i found helpful, Stand up, and gesture, this will increase the quality of the acting heaps, just try it, i dare you... :P]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Cooked Cat)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302922/#p302922</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302917/#p302917</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Thank you so much for this! It really did help out.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (PushOverProductions)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:57:33 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302917/#p302917</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302894/#p302894</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Maybe I could, but I'm just passing on things I learned, much from doing and much from othere brickfilmers' experience.  Maybe I'll compile the things I've posted on BiM that I've passed along into a pdf file.  And a lot of times the voice acting for others can be good but still not what yr looking for.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:09:10 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302894/#p302894</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302873/#p302873</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Wow. This taught me a lot I didn't knew, even part 4. I want to tell them its not good but not y'know hurt them. But thanks. You could be a teacher...in brickfilming... ;)]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (DCUniverseBricksPicturez)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:48:17 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302873/#p302873</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Voice Acting tips]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302845/#p302845</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Here's a guide I put together using whatever knowledge I gained both from my band and the year of brickfilming.  BiM has been good to me with advice and help, and hope that in turn, this helps someone out.

-----

VOICE ACTING


PART 1: Voicing a Character

If you're portraying a character in your own brickfilm, be sure to write a script.

Avoid recording on laptops. At least in my experience, they produce too much noise to have a low quality recording.

I always close my windows to minimize outside noises.

Record a few test lines, and play them back to check the voice to noise ratio and other settings.  It's no fun having to record an entire session twice!

When you perform your lines, do not read straight from the script.  Unless the character him/herself is reading, you will make your character sound like s/he is reading.

Imagine yourself in the scene, and how you would speak if you were that character in the situation the character is experiencing.  Be the character.  It makes all the difference.  One movie poster reads, “Tom Hanks Is Forrest Gump.”  He doesn't just play Forrest Gump, he IS Forrest Gump.

Think about your own natural patterns of your speech.  When you speak your lines, compare your recorded speech patterns to your natural conversational speech.  Try to identify differences and eliminate them.

When recording while holding a microphone, it's natural for many to move the microphone up towards your mouth as you begin speaking, and move it away as you are finishing a line.  Resist this,as it causes noises at the beginning or end of a line that are obvious and can't be removed without the resulting audio sounding unnatural and cut off.

Speak each line several times, experimenting with various inflections.  Leave at least two seconds in between takes, to make editing easier.  The more material you have to choose from, the higher your odds of having exactly what you want recorded.

If none of your takes are decent enough for you, editing together the best parts of a line from several takes may give you a satisfactory line without the need to rerecord.


Part 2: Finding Others to Voice Characters For You

When writing a casting call, include the following information:
1. Character's Name
2. Character's gender and approximate age
3. Character's role/occupation in the story
4. A Specific Accent (if applicable)
5. Vocal range (if applicable), and if the character needs to sing, indicate “must be able to sing”
6. Brief personality description
7. Whether the character is a main character or supporting character
8. Whether or not the character is a recurring character in an intended series
9. Whether or not the character uses obscenities or other objectionable/inappropriate language.  Some characters have certain standards they wish to uphold and should know outright.
10. Your contact information

Part 3: Where to find a voice actor

Bricksinmotion.com   The premier site for brickfilmers.

Voiceactingalliance.com  A generic voice acting forum.  I haven't had any luck there but it's there.

Sims (3) Overdub Series   You may not know of their existence, but there is a world of animation that resides parallel to the brick filming community: the Sims overdub series.  These people create a visual world in a Sims game, including the characters, and write scripts, then have voice actors play the parts of the characters, which are subsequently animated via control of the Sims virtual environment.  Most of these series are teen dramas with a soap opera feel.  Not my genre, there is a lot of female talent.  The ratio of females to males in the brick film community is low but females in the Sims community are extremely plentiful.  Therefore, it's a great way to find females to appear in your film.  Specific voice actresses' videos can be found on YouTube under keywords such as “my audition sims 3 series”.  Review many and choose someone who sounds professional (I recently went through eight before finding a suitable one), then send a message to that person.  Keep the account names of backup actresses available, but only contact one at a time, moving to the next one if the current request refuses or fails to reply.

Family and Friends.  Often times, family and friends are anxious to be a part of your project.  They may even ask to be in it.  So give them a role!


Part 4: Rejecting others' auditions

Sometimes a person's audition isn't what your looking for.  It stinks, but you have to reject people sometimes.  Just be polite, but terse.  Don't insult the person's acting; just let them know that it's not what your looking for, which is honest.  The person who auditioned may or may not take it personally.  That part is out of your control, so don't worry about it if they do.


Part 5: Processing

Be sure that the audio quality is consistent; if someone's audition is technically sub-par, refer to part 4.

Save a copy of each person's original audio as a separate file, in case something irreversible happens while processing.

Change the volume in the audio editing program so that each person's visual wave is at the same level.  Be sure that nothing exceeds 0.0 dB on the peak meter.

If you are muting microphone sounds or other stray noises in between lines, be very careful!  The attack/decay at the ends of a line may have natural breathing or slight intonations that don't register on the visual wave, but are necessary to give the voice a natural sound.  Cutting these off may result in an unnatural “cutoff” sound to the line.

Open a new file after processing to cut & paste the best takes from your actors and put them together chronologically.  Now you have the audio for your brickfilm.  It's recommended that you leave 2 seconds in between lines, so you have leeway to move wave or parts of it around in your video editor. 

To insert 2 seconds silence in between lines using Sony Sound Forge:
1. After inserting your line, Place your cursor at the end of the wave.
2. Press [ALT]-P (for “processs” menu).
3. Press [ALT]-I (for “insert silence”).  A window pops up.
4. In the “Hr:Min:Sec.XXX” field, type “2” in the “sec” portion of the field. Leave the “at” field unadjusted.  It defaults to “cursor”.

It is possible to remove microphone pops, usually caused by speaking the “P” sound while using an unshielded mic or holding it improperly, without disturbing the continuity of the wave.  But be sure to zoom in and just remove the one or two cycles of the sound wave that are affected.  Also, eliminate the complete cycles, so that the wave is not cut in two.  Otherwise, your audio may sound spliced.


Part 5: Miscellaneous

You know you have a good team when the characters sound like they're in the same room when you're finished, even if their lines were recorded separately.

Try not to have the files compressed too much.  44,100 Hz stereo .wav files are recommended, but 256 kbps mp3 is adequate for most.

Get a free account at gmx.com.  Unlike hotmail, yahoo, and that accursed gmail, gmx allows users to send and receive files that are larger than 25 megabytes.  This means that .wav files 3 minutes or longer can be sent without being broken up.  You can also send completed films, which also tend to be large, to others.

If others are singing a song, send them an mp3 of the song, in the correct tempo.  Send an instrumental version and one where you sing guide vocals. The guide vocal mp3 is especially important if you have more than one singer, so that they can sing in unison.  Provide a lyric sheet.  If you can write music and the recipient can read, also send the sheet music.

If you're lucky, you'll find actors who require little direction.  However, always be there for them if they have questions or need direction about delivery.

You're also free to ask your voice talent to redo a line or two if you want it to sound different.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:20:03 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/302845/#p302845</guid>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
