Film Lesson #9: Finding Voice Actors For Animation

Welcome to the second film lesson that involves animation. In this lesson, you're going to learn about finding the right voice actors for your animations. Voice acting can be a chore, you can even voice all the characters, well probably not in a feature film, but a short film definitely.

You need software or an app, most video editing software has a built-in recording microphone.

Examples of voice acting:

#1. Animated children's series usually have different voice actors playing characters. It gives the characters individual distinct voices. Here's a behind the scenes clip from SpongeBob.

#2. Japanese animated shows (more commonly called "anime") are dubbed by voice actors when they are brought the U.S.A. The voice actors read the same script rewritten in English.

#3. Adult animated series, including South Park, Family Guy and the first season of Rick and Morty, commonly have the creators voicing most of the characters. While it gives the characters distinct sounds, they're not individual since the characters are voiced by the same person. This doesn't always work for an entire project as some of the characters' voices come off as cruddy. But it's a creative choice, saves money if you don't want to hire a lot or any voice actors and gives it an interesting charm.

I do most of the voices for the characters in my work, I also often hire people my mom and dad know to play characters.