Career in Voice Over Acting – Voiceover Artist |Step-by-Step Guide

 

Are you interested to make your career in voice-over acting; because someone has told, you have an incredible voice. (Or) Do you recently realize you have the interesting voice?

(Or) just curious to know about the career in voice-over acting. You are on the right page because you will get some plenty of useful information regarding voice over acting.

You will get to know these following information in this article…

  • What is meant by voice-over acting?
  • How to become a voice-over actor with simple and easy tricks
  • The Career scope of voice over acting
  • World famous voice over artist
  • Which are the industries required voice over artists?
  • What are the education and skills required to start a career in voice-over acting?

Are you a good storyteller that people just stuck and lost in your story and they listen to every word of your story? Because they feel you are funny and you are good at conveyed a message or story. 

voice-over storyteller

Then congratulations you have some hidden talent and have the calibre to be a success in this career option. Thus this might be the right career for you.

Apart from this are you really enjoying to mimic the characters on the television and make fun of them? Because at the end of the day your passion and dedication for this work matter the most.

Ok, so let’s roll the ball to know about voice over as a career option.

  

What is a voice-over Acting?


 As the name implies, someone who provides voice according to the visual graphics or written script known as a voice-over actor; and their work called as voice over acting.

Voice-over Artist plays a role of an unseen narrator in the studios for different types of motion projects. 

In a simple way, you can say that voice over acting is backstage or off-camera acting.

A wrong sound not able to endow the proper context of the picture. And the message of the visual could be conveyed in the wrong direction.

So to be a success of every single motion pictures voice plays a vital role. Voice over artist provides a right and correct sound based on the situation and the character behaviour.

I don’t think any picture or advertisement would be the same without the incredible voices as we are used to watching.  Without the voice actor, every picture got to be boring.

via GIPHY

From the above points, we can understand the importance of a voice over artist in any motion pictures.

A voice over actor could be a Funimation voice actor, cartoon voice actor, commercial voice actor and video game voice actor.

What voice over artist Do?

“Selling the Voice to Earn Money”

 

How to become a voice over actor: 8 Easy and Quick Methods


The best thing about voice over industries that anyone belongs to any age group can be a part of the voice over career industries.

These are the points help you to get quickly into the voice over industries.

[Point No. 1] Be a Copycat

In our schools days and in the society we all hear about don’t be a copycat try something new. 

But in the path of voice-over acting the first stair is to mimic the voices of others. Like, mimic the voices of your friends or some famous celebrities or fictional characters (like Optimus Prime, Megatron, Tintin etc.).

You can also listen to the small radio and television advertisement/commercials and mimic the voice-overs.

Try ‘something new’ would be your further steps but first, you have to learn how to imitate the voices of others.

Copy the voices of famous characters and actors give you some necessary knowledge of how to create different voices. Watch television shows with foreign accents and imitating the voice and accents.

During your copy journey of other artists, tries to find and develop your signature voice.

Note: This practice helps you to improve the voice modulation techniques.

 

[Point No. 2] Read a lot and Aloud                                                                  

Reading with high voice gives your ears drum some real-time genuine feedback. So you can work to improve the voice by yourself while reading.

During the practice, hours try to speak in different tones and develop some new characters in yourself (like angry, laughing, singing, etc.)

You can prefer anything to read, for example, a magazine, newspaper, some interesting articles on the internet and some of your favourite novels. In the starting, you can also read children’s book and create a different voice for each character.

You don’t need to read aloud all the times (Especially don’t try in public places). Fix some amount of time (like one hour a day) to practice this module.

Note: This exercise helps to improve your voice pitch.

 

[Point No. 3] Record your voice

While practising the point no. 1 and 2 you can record your voices for the afterwards reviews. So after each little session, you can analyse your voice over to overcome the weaknesses of yours. Don’t forget to write your mistakes in the papers.

A personal Notes will help you to remember your mistakes. And from this notes you can check your improvements; Like which are the weaknesses you have overcome, over the period of time.

And this habit of yours gives some inner joy and motivation to move forward in your path. So using the personal notes you can track your improvement.

Note: Recording helps you to improve your point number one and two.

 

[Point No. 4] voice over Coach

If you are really want to get into this industries as fast as you can. A voice-over coach would assist you to pursue your dream.

Nothing is better than to learn from one of the voice over acting professionals in the industries. Because they know every aspect of the voice over acting, so it’s highly possible you will get some valuable experience from them.

A good mentor helps you to develop your talent fast; they know what are the problem comes for a new guy while learning. And they also know what are the initial mistakes are done by beginners. Thus you will get to know things fast with minor mistakes and errors.

The best thing about to learn from the voice over coach is; you can find and develop your unique and signature voice in the short period of times.

 

[Point No. 5] Be on your own

If you cannot afford a coach or training classes then no need to worry, it will take some time to be a success. But at the end, you will definitely!

A passion and dedication to learning anything make everything possible. So try to follow the above 1, 2, and 3 points with full dedication.

If you don’t have a coach then what you have your friends.  You can recite your funny acts in front of your friends. From this practice, you will get some honest feedback. Using the opinions of your friends you can improve and skilled your voice acting.

You can also evolve your unique and signature voice while doing this.

 

[Point No. 6] Online Portfolio and Demo

Record you multiple types of voices with different characters and with different behaviours. And make a short demo (2 to 5 minutes) after editing. A demo helps you to build your profile in the voice over industry. So you can market yourself using this short demos.

After record your perfect demo you can upload in your online portfolio [ Click Here to see how an online Portfolio look-alike]

Sometimes you will get voice over projects by just only sending your demos to the directors and producers. They will judge your talent based on your voice over demo file. A demo replicates you and demonstrates your voice talent to the employers.

Make sure to build your online portfolio and demo to promote yourself. Because this small demo bomb shows what types of magic you can do with your voice and what are the voices you can perform well.

This is like resume so build it well.

 

[Point No. 7] Participate in Auditions

However, it is highly possible you will face some rejection in your starting audition. So do not take more stress and get frustrated or feel incompetent; it is a bit normal to fail in your starting stage of voice over audition.

Thus attained more audition will help you to figure out what the voice industry is really seeking for. So you have clear visions of what are the things you have to work more to get into this career.

During the audition, you would get some valuable knowledge and lots of improvement in your voice. Which will really helpful for your entire voice over career.

 

[Point No. 8] Follow voice over artist

Follow the voiceover actors on social media (like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter). The voice over artist community is one of the supportive community as compared to other professional communities. If you have any queries ask them, they will definitely get you back.

These are the 8 prior preparations you need; If you want to get into the career of voice-over acting.

Related Career option: Career in Sound Engineering

 

The Voice over Industries: Where does a voice-over actor work?


 A voice-over actor has opportunities to go into different industries. So you can choose any of the work based on your preference or need. Although you can work for multiple industries at the same time as other actors.

Voice actors provide their valuable and unique voices for..

  • Animated feature films
  • Cartoon Series
  • Corporate industries
  • E-Learning
  • Television shows
  • Video games [Click Here to know: how to get into the gaming industry]
  • Theatre and Puppet shows
  • Radio Station
  • AudioBooks
  • Dub-over voice (Dubbing)
  • Advertisement
  • Television commercials
  • Documentaries
  • Entertainment Industries
  • Japanese Anime voice dubbing
  • Interactive voice response (IVR)
  • Airport and Crowded place like the amusement park (Disney)

 

So if you are choosing a career in voice-over acting. Then it is highly possible you will get the voiceover job in the above fields.

You can watch this video to know how a voice-over actor work. This artist is giving his voice for E-Learning industry.

 

What are the education and skills required to become a voice-over actor?


 You do not require any higher education or degree to make a career in voice-over acting. If you love to make funny voices and have a unique voice, then you are more than qualified to start your career in voice-over industry.

Although if you have a diploma in sound engineering or any sort of training in the sound-related field will be plus.

If you have some experience in sound recording studios then this will endure your resume some extra edge over the other candidates.

What are the Skills a voice-over artist should have

  • Voice Modulation
  • Breathing Control
  • Marketing and Networking
  • Feel the characters in the script
  • Adaptive: Always be ready to learn and try new things.
  • Technical knowledge of sound recording equipment and sound recording software ( Audacity).
  • Multiple languages (optional)

You can join some sorts of training institute or take some coaching classes to learn these skills (Or) learn by yourself.

However, spend some bucks on voice over coaching is completely worth full.  So if you are deciding to choose this career path I would suggest you go for the training on voice-over acting. You will not regret it!

Also Read:

 

List of famous voice Actors


American voice over artist

  • Tara Strong
  • Frank Welker
  • Jack Black
  • Mel Blanc
  • Daniel Louis Castellaneta

Indian voice over artists (Hindi)

  • Vinod Kulkarni
  • Mona Ghosh Shetty
  • Viraj Adhav
  • Damandeep Singh
  • Simran Kaur- Voice of Nobita

You can follow these artists on social media and watch some voice over acting of these artists. And try to mimic the voices of them to get some basic ideas of voice modulation and how they modify their voices.

 

Job Description of Voice over Artist


 

  • Read the given script as per the client requirements.
  • Feel the character situation and behaviour to provide the exact voices as the client needed.
  • Collaborate your voice with other artists.
  • Auditioning the new voice over talents.
  • Give the training for beginner’s voice-over artist as a Coach.
  • If you have your own studios then you are going to manage the voice acting, accounting, sales, customer service, and marketing by yourself (Yah! Lots of designation for one man)

You should watch this video to know; how a voice-over artist spends their whole day.

 

Career Scope in Voice over Acting


What I like most in the voice over acting that you can be your own boss (CEO of your own studio).

So you can work from home after getting some experience in the voice over acting. Or it might also possible you will get your first voice over project based on work from home. Nowadays most of the voice-over artists are work from their own recording studios.

Many freelance websites are providing jobs for voice over acting. You can try to pick these freelance projects. 

Some popular freelance websites for voice over projects are  

 

To get the job in the voice-over industry you have to promote and market your voice as many places as you could.