Is the voice acting a little dodgy?

[RedCloud]

The voice actors fit the part, I give them that. But a lot of it seems to feel like they are reading it from the script for the first time. Which they probably are, mind you.

I think the problem is in how they record it. They just get them to read the lines, and they don't show them the visual, and they record individually (or so I've heard). Doing it this way would make it harder for them wouldn't it? Because they have to guess what they're doing I suppose.

If they had recording sessions together at least, and had some visual, do you think that would bring the characters to life?

What are your thoughts on the voice acting of the recent additions?

[Blitzballer]

Recording sessions similar to how CG and animated films are done? You make a good point. When you have the people together, they can play off each other- inject more passion, repartee i suppose. Thats an ideal world though- i suppose when you hire a bunch of actors, their schedule may not be able to accomodate a get together for many sessions recording their voices. This is why we get the voice acting as it is.

Then again, talented actors should be able to infuse their emotional being into the part- even without other actors to play off.

[Lady Lamont]

The scripts were incredibly huge, multiple changes were done and the majority of the script was recorded in a very short amount of time for the English dub, which has a set time to go exactly over the original Japanese dub. The voice acting in the English versions were attempting to match the same tone, pitch changes, emotional range and same voice as the Japanese version to convey the same effect basically but in the recording booths they were generally alone but when they had multiple VAs' in the large booth a fair few mishaps happened (like Yuna's voice actress had knocked her coffee onto her shirt by accident and had to borrow one of the SQEX guy's shirts and apparently he got into trouble over that) and they only did a few group ones, plus a lot of the VAs' got ill during recording so that is why they also sound a bit off in X.

[Garland]

So would the "HA-HA-HA" scene in X be an example?

[The Welsh Paddy]

That scene always cracks me up. xD

But, for the original voice acting, wouldn't they record the script first and then animate the character's mouths to fit what they're saying?

[RedCloud]

I guess so, but, if they could at least see what they were matching their voices to with a visual it would help set the scene. I heard they don't even get that, they are just told what is happening and then they have to guess it.

[FadedDreams]

ha...the laughing scene in X was a little awkward and hilarious at the same time.... I didn't really notice the weirdness of the script so much, just the annoyingness of some of the voices themselves. they were sick during recording? ha... that's interesting.

[Lady Lamont]

Actually not really RedCloud, they generate the basic mouth movements to their own patterns therefore all the programming is done based on the concept artists' designs of how the characters look facially when they pronounce various letters and/or vowels and is rendered from that.
They actually have a time limit to do the voice work and there is minor editing done to make the voice work match the movements in the final cut before everything is relayered onto the scenes (audio layers, sound effects, music... etc) before being replaced on the disc.
And most often they aren't even told, the script has details about what is happening but they try to match it as much as they can... though a lot of times some of the notes on the script can lead to weird thoughts (such as John DiMaggio trying not to laugh every time he did Kimhari's voice and tried to not make a Bender-sounding comment about some of the lines).

[RedCloud]

Originally Posted by Lady Lamont

Actually not really RedCloud, they generate the basic mouth movements to their own patterns therefore all the programming is done based on the concept artists' designs of how the characters look facially when they pronounce various letters and/or vowels and is rendered from that.
They actually have a time limit to do the voice work and there is minor editing done to make the voice work match the movements in the final cut before everything is relayered onto the scenes (audio layers, sound effects, music... etc) before being replaced on the disc.
And most often they aren't even told, the script has details about what is happening but they try to match it as much as they can... though a lot of times some of the notes on the script can lead to weird thoughts (such as John DiMaggio trying not to laugh every time he did Kimhari's voice and tried to not make a Bender-sounding comment about some of the lines).

Heh heh, it's hard to believe Bender is Kimahri and vice versa. Sometimes you can notice it in Wakka's voice though.

It's a shame, because the quality of the voice acting could be much better.

[Garland]

Originally Posted by RedCloud

Heh heh, it's hard to believe Bender is Kimahri and vice versa. Sometimes you can notice it in Wakka's voice though.

It's a shame, because the quality of the voice acting could be much better.

He used his Robot Santa voice for Gilgamesh xD

[RedCloud]

Originally Posted by Garland

He used his Robot Santa voice for Gilgamesh xD

He wasn't Robot Santa I don't think. I thought he was played by the guy who did the big blue guy in Monster's Inc. I don't know, but you can notice how it all comes back to Bender. In fact, I don't even like Futurama, I only like Bender.

[FFking]

Originally Posted by Garland

So would the "HA-HA-HA" scene in X be an example?

I liked that scene. Didn't think the voice acting was that bad. And overall, FFX had really good voice acting. Can't blame the one in XII either....


(Aerith in KH2 must be the worst accomplishment within voice acting ever)

[XxVivixX]

Voice acting in games seem to be gettting better. There were times in FFX, espically the laughing scenes, where it was a wtf moment. I don't think that they pay too much time or focus on it though. Is it really that important to the overall game?

[FFking]

Originally Posted by XxVivixX

Voice acting in games seem to be gettting better. There were times in FFX, espically the laughing scenes, where it was a wtf moment.

Can't understand what you all got against it... xD