Voice Acting?, Is it viable? Options

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

I have been toying around with this idea for so long. Voice Acting. Is it possible to do with RPG VX, and is it worth it? I've seen voice acting fails a few times, but I've seen it succeed too. I know gathering the right people would be hard, and the timing of everything as well.

What do you guys think? Is all that trouble and hassle worth adding Voice Actors to a game?

[Jonnie19]

Yes it is very possible. I do it my projects. I've actually spent the entirity of last night inputting a ton of lines into RPG Maker VX.
There are positives and negatives to having Voice Acting:
You must ensure that your characters are VERY develop, I use voice acting in two of my projects, You should always have good contact with your Voice Acting cast.

The timing is simple, I've actually got a tutorial on inputting Voice Actors Line Effectively, which helps with the timing, it very simple, as long as you use SE, and then you can stop the SE after each line.

I'm gonna move this over to Game Theory as that's probably the better place for this.

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Yeah sorry. I'm not used to the forums being like this and I don't really know if a topic belongs here or there

It seems like a neat idea it's just hard to get a crew going =/

[Jonnie19]

Well, You just need to look around. There are many different sites that you can used to work with other voice actors. You just gotta know where to look.
It all depends on your project, and how detailed it is.
If you DO plan in hiring people I'd suggest a small piece of software called Celtx. It gives your scripts an act of professionalism, and also get an editor, someone who reads through your scripts, before sending them. It doesn't have to be a profesional. If can just be a mate.

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

I might do it but possibly not cause I'm used to using text boxes

[Redd]

I might do it but possibly not cause I'm used to using text boxes

I plan to have some voice acting if I ever freaking finish a full game :|
You just play an SE before the message box comes up, and after the player clicks the space bar (after the message command), you end it. That way if they just want to play the game they can skip through all of the message boxes without the voices continuing. It helps to have message boxes too, if the player has their volume down or something. They're kind of like subtitles. Many games do this.
If you ever need some voice acting, I would be happy to do it for you I was almost in a game as a lead character, but the game got cancelled sadly. I was also almost in an internet series about Billy the Kid, voice acting for him, but a WAY better dude came in at the last second and took it :|
Anyhow, yeah, I'll do some if you want since I have Audacity, I can even modify my voice to fit different characters, like not human characters. I was going to have aliens in one game and just reverse everything I said and add a wah-wah effect to it to make it sound like an other-worldly language.
I think I'm pretty good at voices x) so yeah.
Usually you want to have tryouts for each part, and tell everyone specifically what you want the file format. The most common for RMXP is OGG with anywhere from 1-4/10 quality. Since it's just voices, the quality of them doesn't need to be that high, and it saves TONS of space in your game.

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Thanks for the offer. I might do it, it's just my voice sucks and if I do voice acting I want to be a part of it DX But my voice is TERRIBLE!

Also that's gonna be so much eventing and such .3. I don't know, I'm still only in the infant stages of making the game (making a short game to help me write the real one)

[Redd]

It isn't that bad, really. You just name the file what the character says at the moment, insert it above there. It's not bad haha.

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Holy shit that was fast o.o

Bleah, I need an eventer on the team >.<

[Redd]

I'll do it.
Is it in RMXP or VX?

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

VX, as stated in the original post I'm not really looking for Voice Actors at the moment though. I still have to get a storyline down.

[Redd]

Ohhh derrr. Haha xD Sadly I don't have a copy of it used to, but my old comp crashed. I've actually bought XP like 5 times.
Well, I wish you luck

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Thanks I still need a musician though (case my music SUCKS). If you wouldn't mind helping with that when the time comes then that'd be great :3

This post has been edited by UmbrotheUmbreon: Mar 3 2013, 12:50 PM

[Redd]

I might be able to. I've got tons of other music-related stuff that I'm doing, but I can probably provide a few tracks at the least.

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Right now I'm still working on the story, so it'll be a bit before a musician is needed :3

[Redd]

Okey dokey I'll most likely be able to do it.
I usually work with actual instruments, but I am taking a music composition class in school currently for electronic stuff working in Logic Pro, and I have Mixcraft at my house (since I'm on a budget xD) and I've been doing quite well, I believe x) I'd love to work on a game of your's though, man.

This post has been edited by Redd: Mar 5 2013, 03:06 PM

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

Thanks Well I'm sure by the time we get that far you'll be a pro

[Clord]

In the end you might want to get paid voice acting if the result is not up there. Just saying.

It is unbelievable how much a bad voice acting can ruin the good story. One Portal mod found clever way around this by using TTS. However your characters would en up sounding robotic.

This post has been edited by Clord: Mar 6 2013, 01:07 AM

[Rukiri]

If you know your voice is close to what you want you can record and modify the sound, however the trick is.. to reuse those settings each and every time they need to talk. It's an engineering process and if you got the tools go for it, I'd probably spend a lot of money on a high quality microphone and possibly a mixer(a mixer is used in just about every production these days) Also if your computer is a bit noisy, clean it out and you may have to buy quieter fans or buy a sound booth or convert a closet if you can get in there (I can't.. too many cloths)

Your looking at about a grand here but it includes protools so that's kind of a bonus, it's also pretty nice as I have a few of these.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/a...en?src=3WWRWXGP

This post has been edited by Rukiri: Mar 9 2013, 11:10 PM

[UmbrotheUmbreon]

@Rukiri: Thanks for the help man but as of now I don't think I"ll be doing VA, too much work and money right now