Voice Acting

[David Brasher]

In Oblivion, the voice acting part of the CS was broken and most people did not have the time and skill, and in some cases, the hardware to work out around the break. So mods generally did not use voiced dialog. The pro was that people could write hundreds of lines of really detailed and branching dialog for a really in-depth quest experience. The con was that silently moving lips and roughly matched delay lengths were not nice.

 

I was actually a bit concerned that when Skyrim came out and the voice acting was not broken in the CK, everyone would stop making quest mods with dialog because it would be too hard and take too long, because they would be expected to use voice-acting.

 

So now I see tons and tons of threads on Skyrim Nexus:

 

Type 1: "I am a voice actor! I want to help on modding project!"

 

Type 2: "We have a modding project! We desperately need voice actors!"

 

Then I go searching through the list of mods available for download, and can hardly find any quest or faction mods with voice acting. I haven't been able to figure out what is happening and why.

Edited April 4, 2012 by David Brasher

[chaospearl]

Part of it at least is because lots of the people offering their voice acting services can't actually back it up. You need a decent microphone (read: not the one that came with your Xbox) for starters. I suspect another part is because the majority of really good quest mods, the ones where the modder put in time and thought and detail upon detail and even went so far as to wrangle voice acting talent ... those types of mods won't be made en mass until certain issues with the CK are fixed. I'm sure there are other reasons, but those two come to mind for me.

[gasti89]

I'm among the ones making a serious storyline for skyrim, and believe me. I haven't found a serious voice-actor yet. Everyone PMs me and then disappears O.o

 

And also, believe me, serious questlines need lot of time to be completed.

 

In 1 month (as a little noob modder) i made 2 quests. I'm trying to prevent every single possible action from a player, wich is really a long work ;)

[Miyumi]

Hi, I'm looking to get back to voice acting ( when i get my new mic), but in the mean time have you tried a VA site like VAUK? Those sites have people dedicated to voice acting so you should be able to find people. I also recommend you don't cast until most of the work in your mod is done, if you cast then ask for VO over a long time the Voice actor's personal circumstances may change and they may not be able to record. I for one have to schedule time when my family is not about! Edited April 4, 2012 by Miyumi

[BigKevSexyMan]

I've always wondered why no one has tried using text to speech software. I've been looking around for a bit, and some of the voices are passable. Sure, it won't sound like premium quality voice actors, but isn't that better than nothing?

[Jay33721]

Well, I'm a voice actor for the mod Interesting NPCs, which already has 20 voiced characters placed around Skyrim, along with a bunch that still need voicing.

 

I assure you, there are a lot of good voice actors out there, who are willing to provide. This mod is proof.

[Korodic]

Well, I'm a voice actor for the mod Interesting NPCs, which already has 20 voiced characters placed around Skyrim, along with a bunch that still need voicing.

 

I assure you, there are a lot of good voice actors out there, who are willing to provide. This mod is proof.

 

This mod also doesn't have every actor voiced yet :P

[Godfroy]

I'd love to do voice acting.

 

I speak french and english. I'm from Quebec Canada, and i can do quite a bit of accent.

 

Should anyone here want some voice acting, just tell me what kind of mic i would be needing.

 

I can go mid to low.

[BrianMJWood]

VO Artist available here. My demos are available at http://voice123.com/brianwood2

 

Skyrim mod work is of course free. Can't expect people making a free mod to afford to pay me. Besides, it's some of the most fun work available! If you're interested, email is the best way to reach me at [email protected]

 

Cheers.

[Esteris]

I believe that majority of mods that will include voice acting simply take a lot more time to finish. And not only because of the fact that the voicing takes time - some modders take care of it concurrently with their other work. But if a modder plans on adding voice acting from recordings of quality - so yes, many less actors available due to the simplest reason: they need a good mic - it also means they likely pay big attention to details. Which postpones the release.

 

At this moment I'm doing VA work for 3 incoming mods (one of which is also Interesting NPCs like Jay said). 2 of them will take a lot more time to complete, but the modders are already gathering voice files as they themselves did a ton of work to prove they can pull it through.

 

But as with any free amateur project, I fear the come-and-go tendencies appear to VAs as well. They oblige to do stuff, then disappear, making the mod maker bang their head on the wall. Because while you can part ways with, say, your modeller peacefully - you take the models, give the credits and continue the work with someone else - once you lose a VA you're back to square one when it comes to their character/s. That may be quite off-putting.