kibblesticks Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I've started writing the dialouge for my mod already but I'm not very far through. However, I'd imagine that sorting out voice actors takes a fair amount of time anyway. Anyone out there had experience with recruiting voice actors who could share some tips on when to begin/ how to go about reeling in some voice talent? Big thanks in advance for any words of wisdom =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenstorm Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I've started writing the dialouge for my mod already but I'm not very far through. However, I'd imagine that sorting out voice actors takes a fair amount of time anyway. Anyone out there had experience with recruiting voice actors who could share some tips on when to begin/ how to go about reeling in some voice talent? Big thanks in advance for any words of wisdom =] Why don't you go check out this threadhttp://www.thenexusf...fer-your-voice/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlallen Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Here is my experience in adding voices to my mod. Voice actors may volunteer, but some voice actors have been burned by putting in work to a mod which never gets released. I recommend to release version 1.0 of your mod with no voice acting. Get some feedback, make sure you don't need to change anything, and then recruit. I sent messages to about 10 people who had advertised on the thread above, did one voice myself, and had two friends do a voice. Out of the 10 people, 4-5 never responded, some responded after a week, but some were very fast. Ask the voice actor to send a sample first, and check carefully for sound quality and volume. You can fix low volume, but it adds hiss and the result may cause negative feedback from players. ("Bad sound is worse than no sound".) Once you have voice acting, it is very difficult to make changes; the voice actors may be gone, or may not get around to doing 1-2 lines with fast turnaround. So you should be sure everything is stable first. It is helpful to write down phonetic pronunciations of any special words, and if you want certain words emphasized in a sentence, make notes of that also. The best voice actors do multiple takes with different emphasis, but average voice actors will just pick one, and it could be the wrong one. Editing and renaming the sound files took longer than I thought; I had about 300 lines, and it took about 5-6 hours. I did not even try to do lip sync. From first message to last voice edit done was about two weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCP768 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 (edited) double post Edited February 19, 2011 by JCP768 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCP768 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 To me voice acting is best done last. After you've already released the mod and you can't think of anything else you can possibly add. This has severeal advantages: 1: the voice actor can see what the character looks like, where they are, the context of the conversation, etc.2: If you release the mod and then realize 'oh crap I didn't stop to consider that maybe the player would already have the briefcase when talking to Mr. X, I need to screw with the dialogue a bit." You won't have to go through the hassle of trying to track down the voice actor for Mr. X who has disappeared.3: You won't have to limit your dialogue thinking "I better shorten this character up because no one will want to say 5000 lines."4: After release a mod usually has more fans, and advertising capabilities so you should be able to recruit more/better voice actors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kibblesticks Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 (edited) Thanks these tips are so helpful guys =] I hadn't thought about many of these issues before so cheers! :thumbsup: Edited February 19, 2011 by kibblesticks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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