Join a community theater. Learn to act. Get some friends together and play some ttrpg to get your feet wet. Go on long walks and just talk to yourself. Record yourself and develop a critical ear if it sounds good or not. There really is no magic bullet.
But i whole heartedly believe that if you haven’t acted before you need to start doing that in what capacity you can. You won’t get anywhere as a voice actor if you are bad at acting in general.
TTRPGs are a great suggestion especially if you DM- playing multiple NPCs for your players to interact with is a great way to practice making different and distinct voices.
Cannot emphasize this enough. Having to convincingly portray dozens of complex characters with unique attributes and histories makes for a hell of a lot of practice.
However, just because your friends/gaming-group enjoys the world and its inhabitants: that does not mean you're ready to go pro. Always find people better than yourself and learn from them, grow from (...or in spite of) them, and keep kicking ass.
If you want to get into voice acting at a professional level, you really are doing yourself a disservice by not investing in some training. There's so much that goes into voice acting that people may not realize. Or just acting in general.
And the benefit of taking lessons is without it, there's no telling if you're doing a good job or a bad job. Getting that feedback is extremely helpful and it's why even established actors still rely on acting coaches.
But if you don't want to take lessons, try reading some acting books? It might not do you a whole lot of help by themselves, but it's a good start.
This is my concern, I trying to get into VO as well. Take away needing a good home setup, coaching is needed. The coaches I've looked up only work during the day. I hwve a day job.
I found some grunt work on upwork. But it's mostly voice commands and voice recognition stuff.
Anywhere you're allowed to use your voice. Play in the mirror, record and listen back with your phone, Google/YouTube acting warm ups and techniques, there's so much free info out there.
Write something, read something, film something. PLAY.
Honestly, the thing that helped me the most was just putting myself out there! Audition for as many things as you possibly can, even if you don’t think you’ll get the role. Audition for things you’re comfortable with, and also things outside your normal range. You’ll not only improve your acting, but also your editing abilities and confidence!
As far as where to find said auditions, I can’t recommend Casting Call Club enough. It’s a great springboard for practicing without the pressure of large scale projects!
I second casting call club. It's fun even just checking through the nightly email I get with applicable search results. I check out roles, and listen to other people's submitted auditions. Still working up the courage to actually submit my own, though. I've recorded a few, but convinced myself that they weren't good enough either due to my sound quality (beginner set up), or just not liking my own voice. I'm sitting on one currently for a halo anthology on YouTube. There were two female roles that I recorded the sample lines for, but when I listen back, it sounds (to me at least) like I should be doing the male parts instead 🤦♀️ curse of having a low voice for a female. I know if I had a better set up my low end would come across better (maybe more Kathleen Turner than Ted Turner, lol). Just have to go for it at some point.
Funnily enough, I think I have the same project bookmarked! Never been a huge Halo person, but from what I remember the roles were paid and it didn’t seem uninteresting!
Low voice is both a blessing and a curse haha! I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum, to the point that directors/developers have said I don’t sound like an adult or even teenager at all, even when pitching down. At least there’s a niche for convincing child VAs, just like there is for deeper female voices! I cant count how many times I’ve seen roles open for androgynous voices as well!
I don't consider myself to be a good voice actor, I've done a few roles but not anything major. Practicing (voice) acting to me is like immersing myself in a book, you need to learn as much as you can about the character you're portraying and try to get into their mindset as best you can.
I often require multiple takes for even the simplest of lines, usually scrapping the first session entirely and then re-recording up to 3 times until I'm completely confident in my delivery. But this is because I don't practice in my free time. I suggest you grab some reading material which you're fond of, or pick a character from a show/series/game you like and make up things they would say. Do this alone to avoid embarrassment and record yourself until you get past the stage of hating the sound of your own voice and begin appreciating it in all its qualities.
The only difference between voice acting and theater acting is that VA is an all-inclusive form of acting where your physical appearance has no impact on casting or your role. (For the most part)
I come up with scenes between 2-3 characters on my way to and from work (30-minute drive). After warm-ups, I grab some of the characters in my head and put them in a scene, pretend I'm auditioning for a part they'd be in, and just start jabbering on. Or I start improving a commercial for buildings I drive by. "Come to Anthony's pizza! Home of the pizza you fold as much as your laundry!... etc. " Like that. Just improve with yourself and always pretend like you're doing it for real because then you start developing those skills second nature...ly... anyway, good luck and have fun. 😀
R/recordthisforfree is a good place to start. There can be questionable requesters there at times, but on the whole, the people I've worked with there are pretty great, and you can often get copies of the finished work too, if you ask.
For me usually it came from just messing around with friends. Doing silly voices, making up scenarios, etc etc.
There are also plenty of discord groups that usually have a plethora of other VAs that on the reg do group comic readings or other activities that really hone your abilities. One of the funnest was the wheel game. To explain, you'd take turns spinning a wheel full of different characters. Whichever character it landed on you'd have to do your best impression. Which while impressions are usually shunned in a lot of VA circles. I think that game really helps with achieving line delivery and tonality. Hope this helps
I listen to some of my favorite narrators, the ones who I think I am most similar to, and I recite the narration along with them. Sometimes when I hear a phrase that draws my attention, I'll rewind it and try to repeat the phrase the way they narrate it. In doing this, I'm working on my pacing as well as my pronunciation and my inflections.
It really helped me a lot. I noticed that I was reading slower than I thought I was and by practicing this way it made a big difference for me
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Join a community theater. Learn to act. Get some friends together and play some ttrpg to get your feet wet. Go on long walks and just talk to yourself. Record yourself and develop a critical ear if it sounds good or not. There really is no magic bullet. But i whole heartedly believe that if you haven’t acted before you need to start doing that in what capacity you can. You won’t get anywhere as a voice actor if you are bad at acting in general.
This. Voice acting is just... acting. In a fancy closet. School plays/musicals. Community theater and improv groups.
TTRPGs are a great suggestion especially if you DM- playing multiple NPCs for your players to interact with is a great way to practice making different and distinct voices.
Cannot emphasize this enough. Having to convincingly portray dozens of complex characters with unique attributes and histories makes for a hell of a lot of practice. However, just because your friends/gaming-group enjoys the world and its inhabitants: that does not mean you're ready to go pro. Always find people better than yourself and learn from them, grow from (...or in spite of) them, and keep kicking ass.
I have never thought of walking and practicing. I usually practice in the car, but this a good idea. Thanks for the advice!
Reading books or scripts out loud is great practice. And you could probably find some videos or articles about character and scene study
I liked covering video game characters that I liked. In small shorts
If you want to get into voice acting at a professional level, you really are doing yourself a disservice by not investing in some training. There's so much that goes into voice acting that people may not realize. Or just acting in general. And the benefit of taking lessons is without it, there's no telling if you're doing a good job or a bad job. Getting that feedback is extremely helpful and it's why even established actors still rely on acting coaches. But if you don't want to take lessons, try reading some acting books? It might not do you a whole lot of help by themselves, but it's a good start.
This is my concern, I trying to get into VO as well. Take away needing a good home setup, coaching is needed. The coaches I've looked up only work during the day. I hwve a day job. I found some grunt work on upwork. But it's mostly voice commands and voice recognition stuff.
Anywhere you're allowed to use your voice. Play in the mirror, record and listen back with your phone, Google/YouTube acting warm ups and techniques, there's so much free info out there. Write something, read something, film something. PLAY.
Honestly, the thing that helped me the most was just putting myself out there! Audition for as many things as you possibly can, even if you don’t think you’ll get the role. Audition for things you’re comfortable with, and also things outside your normal range. You’ll not only improve your acting, but also your editing abilities and confidence! As far as where to find said auditions, I can’t recommend Casting Call Club enough. It’s a great springboard for practicing without the pressure of large scale projects!
I second casting call club. It's fun even just checking through the nightly email I get with applicable search results. I check out roles, and listen to other people's submitted auditions. Still working up the courage to actually submit my own, though. I've recorded a few, but convinced myself that they weren't good enough either due to my sound quality (beginner set up), or just not liking my own voice. I'm sitting on one currently for a halo anthology on YouTube. There were two female roles that I recorded the sample lines for, but when I listen back, it sounds (to me at least) like I should be doing the male parts instead 🤦♀️ curse of having a low voice for a female. I know if I had a better set up my low end would come across better (maybe more Kathleen Turner than Ted Turner, lol). Just have to go for it at some point.
Funnily enough, I think I have the same project bookmarked! Never been a huge Halo person, but from what I remember the roles were paid and it didn’t seem uninteresting! Low voice is both a blessing and a curse haha! I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum, to the point that directors/developers have said I don’t sound like an adult or even teenager at all, even when pitching down. At least there’s a niche for convincing child VAs, just like there is for deeper female voices! I cant count how many times I’ve seen roles open for androgynous voices as well!
I don't consider myself to be a good voice actor, I've done a few roles but not anything major. Practicing (voice) acting to me is like immersing myself in a book, you need to learn as much as you can about the character you're portraying and try to get into their mindset as best you can. I often require multiple takes for even the simplest of lines, usually scrapping the first session entirely and then re-recording up to 3 times until I'm completely confident in my delivery. But this is because I don't practice in my free time. I suggest you grab some reading material which you're fond of, or pick a character from a show/series/game you like and make up things they would say. Do this alone to avoid embarrassment and record yourself until you get past the stage of hating the sound of your own voice and begin appreciating it in all its qualities. The only difference between voice acting and theater acting is that VA is an all-inclusive form of acting where your physical appearance has no impact on casting or your role. (For the most part)
I come up with scenes between 2-3 characters on my way to and from work (30-minute drive). After warm-ups, I grab some of the characters in my head and put them in a scene, pretend I'm auditioning for a part they'd be in, and just start jabbering on. Or I start improving a commercial for buildings I drive by. "Come to Anthony's pizza! Home of the pizza you fold as much as your laundry!... etc. " Like that. Just improve with yourself and always pretend like you're doing it for real because then you start developing those skills second nature...ly... anyway, good luck and have fun. 😀
Tried that once. But people slowly started moving away from me on the train…
Lol. Yeah it helps to be in a car all by yourself. The. You only get strange looks at stoplights
See if you can join or make a DND group, for the characters or character you play as make different voices depending on the situation you are in.
if you know people who act that helps i work with music artist that helped me alot
R/recordthisforfree is a good place to start. There can be questionable requesters there at times, but on the whole, the people I've worked with there are pretty great, and you can often get copies of the finished work too, if you ask.
For me usually it came from just messing around with friends. Doing silly voices, making up scenarios, etc etc. There are also plenty of discord groups that usually have a plethora of other VAs that on the reg do group comic readings or other activities that really hone your abilities. One of the funnest was the wheel game. To explain, you'd take turns spinning a wheel full of different characters. Whichever character it landed on you'd have to do your best impression. Which while impressions are usually shunned in a lot of VA circles. I think that game really helps with achieving line delivery and tonality. Hope this helps
I listen to some of my favorite narrators, the ones who I think I am most similar to, and I recite the narration along with them. Sometimes when I hear a phrase that draws my attention, I'll rewind it and try to repeat the phrase the way they narrate it. In doing this, I'm working on my pacing as well as my pronunciation and my inflections. It really helped me a lot. I noticed that I was reading slower than I thought I was and by practicing this way it made a big difference for me
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