We take a detailed look at just some of what it takes to be a top flight video games voice actor - and it's not what you think.
A whole new World(S)
Video gaming is huge. I mean, really huge. It is a big industry, overshadowing the movie industry by a long way.
With the release of the next-gen consoles – PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and the new next-gen games – the gaming industry is showing no signs of slowing. Which is good news for all of us.
The video gaming industry, however, has many parallels with the movie industry. Over the years, advancing technology has allowed games producers to make them ever more immersive. The use of voice actors is an incredibly important part of that experience, and the better the performance of the actor, the better the player experience is. Just like when you watch a really well-acted movie, you are absorbed for the duration of the film, and your experience is that much better. You are affected in some way by what you have just experienced. You care about the characters.
A huge amount of the games we see today are character driven. And that's where we, the voice actors, come in. It is our job to breathe life into the characters, to give them depth, range, layers and believability. Drawing the players in, making their gaming experience rich and vibrant.
SO WHAT ACTUALLY IS A GAMING CHARACTER VOICEOVER?
A gaming voice actor's job, in a nutshell, is to bring a character to life in a believable and compelling way.
We are storytellers. Our job is to take the player on a journey with us.
Cool! We'll just do that then... next! If only it were that simple (but it's not that difficult either once you have a process).
If you have had some acting training before, you may already know and recognise some of the processes we will look at here. If not, and you are a beginner to voice acting, welcome! This is for you too. I hope you find it useful in your journey as a voice actor.
For the purposes of this blog post, I really want to focus on how to approach and interpret a script for a gaming character with a view to making the dialogue sound as real as possible. As if it was spoken for the first time, by a real person. Yes, we can scan a script, figure out roughly what's going on and do a read. But if we wanted to truly come up with a performance that makes our character interesting and believable, we have to adopt a creative process. And this is the main focus of this article. I hope you find it helpful!
BEFORE WE GET STUCK IN!
It's good to be able to “do voices” of course. Games and animated projects often ask for more obscure, off-the-wall voices. Silly voices and super-crazy cartoon characters are all great to have in our arsenal and on our demo reels, but in gaming particularly you will more often than not be asked to play a real person/being/zombie whatever :)
It's really important to understand that no matter who we are playing, we need to approach it using our own vocal register. Our own voice. It's unique after all, so why wouldn't we?
I guess what I'm trying to say is this. If we are asked to play a pharaoh or a high priestess for example the temptation would be to say “Oh I can do a pharaoh voice!” and then proceed to put on a crazy stereotypical fruity voice which we think might suit the character, but this is straying into the realms of cliché and therefore we limit our ability to make our characters sound real.
Remember a pharaoh is, at first, a person. Just a man. And it is by looking at this man in detail that we can begin building our character. So I hope you are with me on this so far. We don't want to 'put on' voices. Sure, we can add weight to our own voices to suit a character, and also accents (if we are really good at them!) but my main point here is that the voices we come up with are our own, and the result of a clear (and fun) creative process.
All agreed? Fab. Lets move on.
HOW TO UNLOCK THE DNA OF YOUR CHARACTER
To understand how to approach a character voice for a video game or animation – or any other character based read - we first need to know what makes our voices tick. Yes sure we all are aware of our technical kit we all have on-board. Our diaphragms, our lungs, our larynx, vocal folds, resonators etc. etc. It's all in place to help us to technically achieve our vocal sound. But for the purposes of this article, I really want to deep-dive into what actually makes our voices sound the way they do as we say different things, in order for us all to understand how to make a character sound real in whatever situation they might be in.
A great way to begin to understand the process is by knowing this...
Every single thing that comes out of our mouths, literally everything we say, doesn't just happen. Our thoughts, mood, emotional state and even our physicality has a massive effect on how we talk. There's an endless list of factors that come into play, each one affecting our mood, and subsequently how our voices sound. In our day-to-day lives when we are not acting, this process happens organically within us. Thousands of times each day. Our vocal energy and delivery happens without us having to think about it.
Say, we might have had a tough day. We missed lunch so energy is low. The bus was crowded and noisy on the way home. It is pouring with rain so you wished you'd worn different shoes today.
You walk in through the door and are greeted by a housemate or similar. “Good day?” they ask...
Then you answer. And all of the above factors come into play.
Have a think. How might you answer? Of course it depends on who's asking, too.
If its a housemate we don't particularly care for we might heave a sigh, dump ourselves on the sofa and say grumpily “Don't ask!!” Or maybe you are greeted by a partner who you've been looking forward to seeing all day. It might be totally different. You may gather them in your arms, give them a squeeze, chuckle and say “Don't ask!!”
That's just one little scenario. But my main point here is to demonstrate that, when we go about our daily lives, our vocal delivery happens organically, without us even having to pay it any thought.
It. Just. Happens.
Now, where it gets tricky is when we, as voice actors, attempt to play a different character. We don't have the luxury of having everything in place for us like the person we just described. We have to do the hard work and use our imagination to create a set of feelings and emotions that our character might be going through in order to find our characters voice. Imagination is the key here. It needs to be vivid, alive and far reaching. I'm going to use the word imagine(ation!) a whole lot in this article. I make no apologies :)
LETS DO SOME VOICE WORK :)
Make sure you have an iPhone or similar that you can record your voice on to hand – I want you to get involved with this part!
So you have been given a script to record an audition for a character in a game. Awesome! Now the fun starts. And when I say fun, I really do mean it. Everything about creating, recording and producing gaming and animation characters is really fun! Time to use your imagination. There really are no limits here.
Here's where I want you to get interactive with this article. We are going to do a little exercise.
Make sure your phone is around and you can record your voice.
We're going to take a look at a script I worked on recently with a gaming reel client.
Here's the script.
(A battle-weary general addressing his/her soldiers)
“What a battle! Those Orcs can truly fight well... Eat something. And rest. Tomorrow we make the long journey through the great forest. Who knows what awaits us there...”
Without thinking about it too much, and before you read the next section just read the script out loud, and record it on your phone if you can. For the point of the exercise, keep your first take.
Done it? Good! Read on.
Now let's use our imagination and create a very real scenario – let's really bring this script to life.
Scenario 1.
You have just finished a long and bloody battle with an army of vicious Orcs. You have managed to escape to the relative safely of nearby woodland. It is night-time. You are down to your last ten soldiers, some of whom are badly wounded and won't make it through the night. The situation is dire. You are all freezing cold and hungry, supplies are low but you manage to light a fire and are about to share what is left of your meagre rations. You are exhausted, but you still have to muster the energy to address your soldiers because your quest is far from complete. A long and arduous journey still awaits...
How might you address your small band of troops? Would you stand and call out to the men like a stereotypical general? Maybe not! Those pesky Orcs could still be nearby and more importantly we want to avoid stereotypes and clichés, right?
We need to be specific with our characters. Remember the 'BEFORE WE GET STUCK IN' section on avoiding clichés and stereotypes? Nice :) It's from here we begin to build on that knowledge.
Let's use our imaginations and try to inject some realism into our character. Lets really flesh them out.
Consider this.
Maybe you are lying propped against a tree, hugging your cloak around you against the biting cold, wind and snow, your soldiers gathered close around the fire, listening intently to your every word. Your bloodied faces, dimly lit by the flickering fire reveal haunted expressions. There is searing pain where a glancing blow from an Orcish war hammer just caught the side of your knee. A lucky escape. Your voice may be just above a whisper, you're exhausted after all and your soldiers are very close. You might talk in a slow and measured tone, making sure every word is heard. As it is, after all, all you can do to raise the energy to speak.
Now let's go back to the script. Take a few minutes to imagine.
Really. Imagine.
Close your eyes. Picture the fire, the darkened woodland glade, the soldiers faces looking to you for guidance. Try to feel the cold, the pain, the hopelessness. Take as long as you need here. How is this making you feel?
Now with all this in mind, take a deep breath, visualise the scene in your minds eye. Really 'see' your soldier's faces. Have another read of the script, and record it.
And breathe!! Cheer up it's not all that bad! :)) If you've followed all of the above and really taken the time to vividly imagine the scenario, your second read should be dramatically different from the first, right? Good work, lovely people!
So by simply having a bit of fun and using our imaginations we have added depth to our character and lifted it off the page to become something much more interesting.
Ok let's go again. Scenario 2.
I'm going to ask you to do a little more work with this one now we've got the idea.
You have just finished a long and bloody battle with an army of vicious Orcs. But this is an entirely different scenario..
You were victorious!
Your well trained army took minimal casualties and easily smashed the Orcs into oblivion - laughing as the last surviving few ran for the hills. You and your soldiers, some 200 strong, have set up camp for the night in nearby woodland. Several large fires are burning brightly, the smell of ale and roasting meat pervades the air. You are exhausted, but with your belly full and spirits high you address your soldiers.
Ok now over to you. Have a think of some factors that might affect the delivery of the script now. I'll get you started – there are far more soldiers than scenario one, spread out over a wider area so the vocal energy has to reflect this.
Take a few minutes and come up with your own list of factors that will affect the delivery of the script, repeat the steps in scenario 1. Really imagine. Picture the scene in your mind's eye, then record the script one last time.
And relax! You're done! By now you should have three contrasting reads of the same script.
Listen to the first one you recorded as opposed to 2 and 3. I'll bet that 2 and 3 are much more interesting to listen to. And it's purely because we imagined what our character was going through, allowed ourselves to feel differently because of it and we held onto that feeling when we delivered the script. It's the difference between simply reading a script with a bit of energy - to truly lifting the text from the page and making it real. Feel free to do the exercise again, I guarantee you will end up with yet more different reads. It's fascinating, really.
Awesome job, lovelies!
SO HOW DO I FIND MY VOICES?
If you are looking at getting into the gaming industry as a voice actor then you will need to showcase yourself to the industry with a demo reel that shows your range. So taking into account all that this article has been about, you'll need a few scripts in there that you can read in your own natural voice. Have a listen to the takes we recorded in the practical exercise. What characters might your voice suit best? Can you do any accents convincingly?
General American is a good one to study and get under your belt, as is Scottish and Yorkshire/Northern. But don't worry if you can't do accents. Remember the important thing is that you use your own voice!
So once you have two or three scripts/characters that you can read naturally in your own voice, we can then look at whether you can do any other more obscure voices – a good balance for a gaming/animation demo reel is a mix of your natural voice, some accents and also some of the more outlandish stuff. The aim is to let the listener know that you can do well acted, natural character voices, but also it's good to have “and I can ALSO do this!!” type thing.
Maybe a crazy elf or comedy mad professor.
Now don't jump down my throat, I KNOW this article is about not putting on voices, BUT a good balance of both real and more heightened/cartoony characters really shows your range. So think, do I have any voices up my sleeve, what's my best accent apart from my own?
Start playing with your voice, making stuff up. You'll soon find a bunch of voices that you can do well.
A typical gaming/animation demo reel includes up to 12 different characters and scenarios so the scope to show off your range is huge. A good tip for inspiration is YouTube. Search there for say, 'top 20 strong female/male gaming characters of all time' or similar. You'll find lots of rich characters that you can draw inspiration from as we plan your own reels. Or search for gaming 'cutscenes'. These are the interludes within a game where you often find great script and character ideas too!
Well! Thank you so much for reading, lovely voice people! I really hope you've found this interesting and that you have learned some useful things. If you have, let me know in the comments and subscribe to my blog so you never miss a post. There will be lots more useful content and how-tos covering all aspects of voice work, recording, home studios and much much more. I'd be so happy to know you've found this article useful, and I would really appreciate it if you would share it with your peers too.
I've had such fun writing this!
Please have a look around the rest of my website, there's tons more content and information about hiring me as a VO coach and booking to record your voice reels.
Please do get in touch via my website or at darren@thevoicereelstudio.co.uk if you would like more info on recording your voice reels with me, or to book your free 15 minute zoom consultation where we'll have a chinwag about where you are on your voice journey, and how I can help!
All the best for now, amigos.
Lots of love,
Darren Street
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