How I became a voice actor. How you can do it too.

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When I was 9 and 10 I would use a cassette recorder and voice the comic books I had. That way they would be read along books.
I would do that until Christmas 1999 my family got a camcorder. Then I started making my own stop motion animations with my action figures and my own hand drawn cartoons.

When Dragon Ball Z changed voice actors and Funimation started casting localy I got mad. So to make up for the voices I didnt like I use to point my family camcorder at the tv and voice Dragon Ball Z myself.

When I got a computer I use to be a big fan of voice actors and look information on them. 
My favorite voice actor at the time was Brian Drummond.
While looking up information on Brain Drummond I ran into someone online who wanted to make a cartoon.
He had Brain Drummond down as so I asked him if I could be a character in his cartoon. He told me that it was a concept for a cartoon not a real cartoon.
I was disappointed but we became friends and we talked about voice acting and cartoons we wanted to make.

One day he introduced me to an amateur voice acting forum online and said I might like it.
I was pretty much hooked on voice acting after that.

I would stay up at night auditioning and posting online and chatting with other people who wanted to be voice actors. I got a little website and posted my voice samples. I made a voice demo that was just me doing impressions. I bought a microphone, and got recording software (Cool Edit Pro 2).
It is good experience for people who are interested in voice acting.

What voice acting forums like the voiceactor alliance (VAA), and voice actor club do is have fans post projects they wanted to make. They post the characters, and sample lines for auditioning along with a send by date. 

So the person auditioning must record there audition and e-mail it to the person making the project. When the date of auditions ends the producer will give a list of the people who were cast. If you were cast then you get the script e-mailed to you. You do the lines, and send them back to the producer.

Then you wait for the producer to mix the lines and make the cartoon, video game, fan dub, radio play or what ever it was they were making.

Some people don't finish their products and you don't ever get to hear what you voiced finished but it is really fun to hear your voice with other people in something.

I did that until I meet Sonny Strait at a Wizard World Comic book convention in 2007. At his Question and Answer panel people asked how he became a voice actor. 
His main answer was to be a actor, get trained, and make a voice demo.

So I took voice over classes at KD Studios, and got certified as a voice actor. Then I went and took acting classes.

I got my first part from a friend named Esteban Valdez who is a animator online I know. I ran into him on an art forum and he needed a voice for his short cartoon. So I offered to the voice for him.

After getting a couple of demos made I got a voice acting page on voices.com.

There I was voice acting for money. I had been on that site for 3 years paying to get real auditions. Pretty much a pay to play site. Earlier this year I  found an audition for a bad guy in a video game. I had no idea it was LEGO ULTRA Agents. It was posted as Video game ages 5 to 11.  That is when I finally got a real part as Adam Acid.

If you want to be a voice actor here is my advice.

Make sure you can voice act. Take acting or voice classes to get use to reading lines natural like you are making them up on the fly.

Have a good microphone. I suggest  Blue Microphone's USB Snowball for starters. Even though my first microphone was the best I could get from Radio Shack that is what I used a few years into my amateur voice acting carrier. It is expensive ($99), but not too expensive. If you go with a regular mic you will have to get a sound board to go with it for the best quality. I still have microphones from Blue. I record with a Blue Yeti Pro microphone. That is what Adam Acid was recorded with.

Next you need software/ a program to record with. I use Cool Edit Pro 2, but their is a free program called Audacity that you can use. Learn how to record with that and how to remove noise from your lines and you are set. Make sure you record the lines in CD quality or higher. Saving in MP3 format saves a lot of space. WAV format is the biggest file format and best quality, but are so large you would have to use a file sharing site to send the lines. So mp3 are best for fan projects.

Keep a amateur resume and a pro-resume. For every part you get that you don't get paid keep track of the project, your character's name, and the e-mail of the person who made the project. It is good reference for how many projects you have been a part of and who you have worked with. After a while of doing some many projects people will remember you and you will gain a reputation for your work.

Do not post pro work with amateur work.

As far as auditioning tips; I am male so I  audition for all the male parts. If you can do kid voices go for it. Just make sure you increase your odds of getting a part in the project. Auditioning for all the characters you think you are able to play is the best way.

Also a thing I found out that is an awesome way to get pro work is to get in on the ground floor. There area  lot of people making Indy videogames, and cartoons. They don't have the money to pay people to act in their projects so offer to voice characters for them cheap or if you are disparate free. Even if you don't get paid you get a voice credit in a real game/ project. Then you can use that to get paying work in the future.

I just spilled my guts here on voice acting so I hope it helps. :p
© 2014 - 2024 jaredjlee
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ToadslyQuinne's avatar
Wow! That was an AWESOME read! Kudos on being able to do what you love, especially after working so hard and being so dedicated! And this is all great advice- a buddy of mine has always wanted to do voice acting so I can pass this along to him. :)