xXxSkyyexXx
12-02-2010, 09:56 AM
Hello to all you aspiring voice actors out there!
So, you want to start voice dubbing and don’t know where to start? Well lucky you! I have the perfect guide to all your troubles, and if you just want to know abit more about it, then you can brush up on your info here too!
When I first started voice acting I went the long way round everything. I tried looking up guides and tutorials to help me, but none where available.
In this guide I will show you how to begin your voice acting journey. I have bullet pointed each heading. If you just want one section from the bullet points without scrolling for ages press: Ctrl + F and type in the heading, then press enter. It will quickly take you to what you’re after.
Okay then! Let’s begin!
•What is fandubbing?
•Internet Safety is Number one!
•Equipment and soft wear
•Lights, camera action!
•Uploading
•Demos
What is fandubbing?
Fandubbing is a community mainly made up of people who like Japanese anime and Manga. People usually stumble across fandubs the wrong way and are immediately put off it when they hear someone who has just done a dub for a laugh. There are allot of people who take it very seriously, and would love a career in it, but getting there is hard.
A fandub is when someone downloads a clip from an animation and strips it bare, so all that’s left is the animation. They then write a script, record lines and put their voice, music and sound effects into their chosen clip and are then usually uploaded on to YouTube for people to critique. Here is an example of a brilliant fandub staring ValerieVee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBaPmGOrS4
Cristina Vee is a perfect example of how someone who did fandubbing as a hobby from home hit the big time! Cristina Vee is now a massive voice actress, making her the star of Anime’s like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya!
Internet safety is number one!
Allot of people are put off by fandubbing as it might allow people to invade their privacy, but that all depends on how you go about it.
So if you decide to start dubbing and create an account on youtube and put your REAL name, address, age and what you look like or picture your privacy is totally gone.
Some people on youtube who dub do decide to upload videos of them selves, either have bags of confidence and aren’t afraid of what people may say, or could be hugely popular in the fandubbing world. But either way, these people usually have still protected their name.
So when creating a youtube account, use a FAKE name or a fun username that people will refer to you as. Age isn’t a big thing but that all depends if you want people to know. You may also want to create an alternative email address so that your real identity is still hidden.
And the most important thing of all, NEVER give out your address, phone number or location. There are allot of bad people on the net and to keep you safe, it’s a damn good idea not to tell anyone. So for example if you’re from London, just say you’re from England, if you’re from Paris say you’re from France. And never answer this question: “ASL?” (Age, sex location) If someone ever asks this, they are usually some perverted freak who “wants to chat and be friends”. Say away from people like this, never reply or talk back.
Equipment and software
Before you start any voice acting you will need your equipment and software.
All of your equipment you will need will cost money, but your software to start you off is free.
You will need a decent microphone for starters. If you have some spare cash I would recommend the Samsung CO1U microphone. It’s about £60 ($95us) but is a brilliant microphone. If you haven’t got the cash to splash out, a Logitech USB Desktop Microphone is also great to start off with, but after a while you may want to upgrade. It’s about £17 ($27us) so a perfect bargain to start you off! You will also need a pair of head phones, any will do, even the ones for your mobile will be great!
Software is no problem. Your computer should come with Windows Movie Maker. It’s obviously not the best of software to use when making a dub as it can crash when you use large videos, but it’s free! You will also need to download something called “Audacity”. It’s a free voice recorder. It’s easy to use and easy to convert your sounds into any file format.
Download Audacity here: http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net/
You will also need some sort of video conversion and downloader. I personally use realplayer to download clips from YouTube and then convert them using a conversion website.
Conversion Website: http://www.media-convert.com/
Lights, Camera, Action!
Well, obviously not the camera and the lights but time to get started!
Right! You have you microphone, all of your software and you’re ready to go!
You now need to choose a video clip. You clip should be no more than 3 minutes, just to start you off, and should have voices from the original cast that you think you can either mimic, or are in your range of voices.
Girls can tend to do voices for young boys as men’s voices are too deep to do children’s voices, so have a little experiment with that. Boys, stick to something that you can mimic for the time being as it will be hard for you to extend your range for the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTyGYawD8I
I have shown you a clip of my boy’s voice, just so you get abit of an idea of what you might go for. I personally have chosen Goten from Dragonball Z because I can mimic his voice.
Watch your clip and write yourself a script, find your background music and sound effects. You then need to download your clip, strip it bare and start recording. Look at each line one by one and then watch the clip when the character speaks, you should then record as the character moves its mouth.
When all lines have been recorded, save them all and put them in your video clip. You will then need to save the clip with your voices in as a movie. To add your music on top, you will then need to put your newly made movie back into windows movie maker to add your music. You will need to do the same thing again to add your sound effects.
Uploading
Uploading is simple. Once you have made yourself an account on YouTube you can upload any videos that you have made. Make sure to give credit to the producers of the show and mention any copyrights and that you do not own the movie, no profit was made and that it’s just for fun.
Make sure you show your video off on this website too! We’ll all be happy to critique!
Demos
A voice demo is usually one minute – two minutes long and contains your voice range. To make a demo you just have to record as many different types of voices you can do, and act out as many emotions as possible, scared, happy, hurt, you get the idea. Then just upload it onto YouTube and of course, here too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HGG5j9o9cc
I have shown you ValerieVee’s demo because she is someone to look up to. She started at home and is now massive! He voice acting is something to listen to, and something you can learn from.
Try not to take a bad critique to heart, and take it as a learning process. Listen to what other people have to say and you will become better!
So then, that’s that! I hope that you have all the information that you need to begin your voice acting journey! Feel free to message me with any questions that you may have!
I hope to see some amazing videos on YouTube and some brilliant voices!
Good Luck!
So, you want to start voice dubbing and don’t know where to start? Well lucky you! I have the perfect guide to all your troubles, and if you just want to know abit more about it, then you can brush up on your info here too!
When I first started voice acting I went the long way round everything. I tried looking up guides and tutorials to help me, but none where available.
In this guide I will show you how to begin your voice acting journey. I have bullet pointed each heading. If you just want one section from the bullet points without scrolling for ages press: Ctrl + F and type in the heading, then press enter. It will quickly take you to what you’re after.
Okay then! Let’s begin!
•What is fandubbing?
•Internet Safety is Number one!
•Equipment and soft wear
•Lights, camera action!
•Uploading
•Demos
What is fandubbing?
Fandubbing is a community mainly made up of people who like Japanese anime and Manga. People usually stumble across fandubs the wrong way and are immediately put off it when they hear someone who has just done a dub for a laugh. There are allot of people who take it very seriously, and would love a career in it, but getting there is hard.
A fandub is when someone downloads a clip from an animation and strips it bare, so all that’s left is the animation. They then write a script, record lines and put their voice, music and sound effects into their chosen clip and are then usually uploaded on to YouTube for people to critique. Here is an example of a brilliant fandub staring ValerieVee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBaPmGOrS4
Cristina Vee is a perfect example of how someone who did fandubbing as a hobby from home hit the big time! Cristina Vee is now a massive voice actress, making her the star of Anime’s like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya!
Internet safety is number one!
Allot of people are put off by fandubbing as it might allow people to invade their privacy, but that all depends on how you go about it.
So if you decide to start dubbing and create an account on youtube and put your REAL name, address, age and what you look like or picture your privacy is totally gone.
Some people on youtube who dub do decide to upload videos of them selves, either have bags of confidence and aren’t afraid of what people may say, or could be hugely popular in the fandubbing world. But either way, these people usually have still protected their name.
So when creating a youtube account, use a FAKE name or a fun username that people will refer to you as. Age isn’t a big thing but that all depends if you want people to know. You may also want to create an alternative email address so that your real identity is still hidden.
And the most important thing of all, NEVER give out your address, phone number or location. There are allot of bad people on the net and to keep you safe, it’s a damn good idea not to tell anyone. So for example if you’re from London, just say you’re from England, if you’re from Paris say you’re from France. And never answer this question: “ASL?” (Age, sex location) If someone ever asks this, they are usually some perverted freak who “wants to chat and be friends”. Say away from people like this, never reply or talk back.
Equipment and software
Before you start any voice acting you will need your equipment and software.
All of your equipment you will need will cost money, but your software to start you off is free.
You will need a decent microphone for starters. If you have some spare cash I would recommend the Samsung CO1U microphone. It’s about £60 ($95us) but is a brilliant microphone. If you haven’t got the cash to splash out, a Logitech USB Desktop Microphone is also great to start off with, but after a while you may want to upgrade. It’s about £17 ($27us) so a perfect bargain to start you off! You will also need a pair of head phones, any will do, even the ones for your mobile will be great!
Software is no problem. Your computer should come with Windows Movie Maker. It’s obviously not the best of software to use when making a dub as it can crash when you use large videos, but it’s free! You will also need to download something called “Audacity”. It’s a free voice recorder. It’s easy to use and easy to convert your sounds into any file format.
Download Audacity here: http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net/
You will also need some sort of video conversion and downloader. I personally use realplayer to download clips from YouTube and then convert them using a conversion website.
Conversion Website: http://www.media-convert.com/
Lights, Camera, Action!
Well, obviously not the camera and the lights but time to get started!
Right! You have you microphone, all of your software and you’re ready to go!
You now need to choose a video clip. You clip should be no more than 3 minutes, just to start you off, and should have voices from the original cast that you think you can either mimic, or are in your range of voices.
Girls can tend to do voices for young boys as men’s voices are too deep to do children’s voices, so have a little experiment with that. Boys, stick to something that you can mimic for the time being as it will be hard for you to extend your range for the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTyGYawD8I
I have shown you a clip of my boy’s voice, just so you get abit of an idea of what you might go for. I personally have chosen Goten from Dragonball Z because I can mimic his voice.
Watch your clip and write yourself a script, find your background music and sound effects. You then need to download your clip, strip it bare and start recording. Look at each line one by one and then watch the clip when the character speaks, you should then record as the character moves its mouth.
When all lines have been recorded, save them all and put them in your video clip. You will then need to save the clip with your voices in as a movie. To add your music on top, you will then need to put your newly made movie back into windows movie maker to add your music. You will need to do the same thing again to add your sound effects.
Uploading
Uploading is simple. Once you have made yourself an account on YouTube you can upload any videos that you have made. Make sure to give credit to the producers of the show and mention any copyrights and that you do not own the movie, no profit was made and that it’s just for fun.
Make sure you show your video off on this website too! We’ll all be happy to critique!
Demos
A voice demo is usually one minute – two minutes long and contains your voice range. To make a demo you just have to record as many different types of voices you can do, and act out as many emotions as possible, scared, happy, hurt, you get the idea. Then just upload it onto YouTube and of course, here too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HGG5j9o9cc
I have shown you ValerieVee’s demo because she is someone to look up to. She started at home and is now massive! He voice acting is something to listen to, and something you can learn from.
Try not to take a bad critique to heart, and take it as a learning process. Listen to what other people have to say and you will become better!
So then, that’s that! I hope that you have all the information that you need to begin your voice acting journey! Feel free to message me with any questions that you may have!
I hope to see some amazing videos on YouTube and some brilliant voices!
Good Luck!