2025 CHARACTER VOICE CREATION FOR ADVERTISING, ANIMATION, and VIDEO GAMES
Starts: January 21st, 2025. Every Tuesday 7 - 9 PM for eight sessions
Cost: $320 payable in installments via Venmo or Square invoices
EMAIL Keith@BeAnActor.com and ask to join this course.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The Character Voice Creation course covers specific ways to manipulate your speech in order to create a diversity of characterizations in animation, video games, advertising, and on-camera work. A cumulative process, each week builds on the week before. The course also covers strategies for breaking into and working in the field. Using home recording software and mics is covered in Week 2 - equipment is recommended but not required to take the course.
Week 1:
- Start where you are. What character voice is and is not.
- Overview of how speech is created and the manipulable aspects.
- The anatomy of the speech mechanism - tell me how you say your name.
- The character voices you already use.
- The dos and don’ts of character voice.
- Using physicality and facial manipulation as a starting place- purpose explained in class.
- The world as source material.
- Keeping a character log / journal
- HOMEWORK: Applying the concepts of physically to give voices to household objects.
Week 2:
- Choosing your recording space
- Mitigation of sound infiltration and bounce in your space
- Setting up and using your microphone
- Using your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
- Open a new project - Recording, Setting Levels, Playhead, Basic Edits, Exporting Audio
- Homework – re-record your first VO spot using your DAW
Week 3:
- Review of your first submissions and discussion of how you used physicality to create the voice
- Introduction of vectors - Pitch and Inflection
- Exercises for sensing Pitch and Inflection
- Optimum pitch
- The glide
- Monotone speech
- HOMEWORK - Advertising copy that is based in character voice
- Create a voice for the character combining physicalization with a specific focus on using pitch AND inflection to create the voice.
Week 4:
- Review of your Advertisement submissions with discussion.
- Introduction of vectors - Resonance and Placement
- Resonating cavities
- Tongue placement
- Exercises in resonance and placement
- Changing resonator size in oral cavity and pharynx.
- The Yawn posture
- Hay Lady - throwing the voice forward out of the mouth (ie. sound vomit)
- Practice with text
- HOMEWORK - Character sketch samples from animation auditions.
- Create a voice for the character combining physicalizatio, pitch, inflection, but you must make a choice using resonance or placement.
Week 5:
- Feedback on your Character Sketch submissions with discussion
- Introduction of new vectors - Phrasing and Tempo/Rhythm
- Exercises in Phrasing and tempo/rhythm
- Practicing examples of fluid versus disrupted speech
- Exploring scansion and use of expected versus unconventional rhythmic choices.
- HOMEWORK - Text from Video Game dialogue
- Create a voice for a character using physicalization, pitch, inflection, resonance, placement, but you must make a choice using phrasing and/or tempo/rhythm
Week 6:
- Feedback on video game dialogue submissions with discussion
- Introduction of new vector - attack/decay and phonetic persistence
- Exercises with attack/decay and phonetic persistence
- Exercises to explore vocal energy in words and phrases, how that energy is idiosyncratic, how to create different patterns.
- Feeling vibrations in the mouth and face
- Sustainable consonants, cognates, and where their sound is created
- Cognates
- HOMEWORK: Dialogue scenes from animation with visual support
- Create a character voice using any of the tools we have already studied but you must use a choice including attack/decay or phonetic persistence.
Week 7:
- Feedback on animation dialogue submissions with discussion
- Introduction of final concepts - using alternate and abstract approaches to vocal characterization
- Energy states and elements
- Incorporating the unexpected
- Returning to you - most of your work will be as your own voice but with greater control over its expressiveness. You now have a host of tools to use to that effect.
- HOMEWORK: Foreign Language Dubbing
Week 8:
- Review of your dubbing submissions edited into the original video with music and sound effects replacing the original audio.
- Final points for self promotion
- Creating a character demo reel
- Video versus audio
- Low cost options
- Self motivated options
- High cost options
- Outlets for seeking opportunities - the hustle
- Self produced work as promotion and practice.
- Final thoughts.