Voice over in Animation: How to get started in this amazing career

Did you love watching cartoons while growing up and are still intrigued by them? If you have imitated the voices of your favourite cartoon or have thought about giving it a shot, maybe it is time to consider Animation voice over as a profession. Nowadays, more and more companies are implementing Animation voice over in their marketing campaigns that have opened up various horizons for professional Animation voice over actors. 

Getting started in any new career can feel daunting, and if you’re considering how to break into cartoon voice over and animation voice over work, these tips and tricks can help ease the transition! These tips, combined with hard work and persistence, will help you make your entrance into the world of character work.

1. Own your Animation Voice Over Niche: To be truly successful in this day and age of voice acting, you’ll need to find a niche so that you can truly enjoy doing voice overs as an Animation voice actor. Specializing doesn’t necessarily mean only knowing one thing. Before settling on a niche, it is good to expose yourself to these three pillars of voice overs:
   1. Animation projects: The work involved in acting and performing out a character helps in honing career development
   2. Commercial reads: These enhance the art of selling to the audience
   3. Long form narration: It enables sharpening the skills of clean style splits and increases stamina for reading
      Once you dedicate your time to developing skills in each of the pillars above, you will be able to comfortably find a niche where you can flourish in cartoon voice over jobs. When it comes to Animation voice over jobs, merely recording your voice for an audition then submitting won’t cut it. Rather than just reading through the script, you’ll need to understand it first. Successful voice actresses suggest that this is what led to their success in the field. Strengthen your grasp of a niche by regularly practicing your voice scripts using various voice over scripts. Over time, you’ll be improving your level of competence in the area.
2. Do Your Research: To be successful in any industry, studying those who are successful in their craft is quite essential.  The study will provide significant insights as to how the experts became successful. Also, researching these people can give you clues on how they overcame great ordeals and challenges in their career paths. These clues might come in handy when you are facing similar problems on your own.
3. Essential Voice Acting Skills: You need to appreciate that there is a lot to learn and do before your land up with your first paid voice acting job. Yes, you want to get out there and start auditioning. But first, you’re going to need proper training, equipment, resources, and some natural talent. The great news is that even though the voice over industry is competitive, there is plenty of voice over work in Animation industry out there for everyone. Before you do anything though, ask yourself why you want to become an Animation voice actor. If you know upfront what your goals, expectations, and motivations are, you will be more successful. Setting small achievable goals and placing deadlines on them will make sure you stay on track, even if you only want to do voice over as a hobby instead of a full-time career. Let’s cover some essential skills you need to become a pro:
   1. Getting the Tone right: The tone of the voice plays an important part as to how the audio or narration will sound. The voice actors should be able to captivate the listeners through their tone and should have a consistency throughout the script. Whether you want to be an Animation voice over actor for Hindi or any other language, different scripts require tone variation and only a professional voice artist can provide the right tone to enliven any story or character.
   2. Native Accent to enhance the voice overs: Providing the right accent to any character is one of the trickiest parts of any voice over. Rigorous voice and speech coaching is required to master the art of accent with which the native audience can relate.  Accents can make or break any voice over, hence it is important that you go with native voice artist so that your voice over hits home with the target audience and does not sound ‘foreign’ to them.
   3. Pitch it right: For Animation voice over, the pitch requires a lot of variation to add depth to the character’s life. The voice artist must be able to fluctuate between different pitch and speed because this incorporates shades and layers to the character’s persona.
   4. Moulding into Characters: The voice artist must be able to morph into whichever character is presented to him/her to play. Also, there must be originality in portrayal and a streak of creativity. It takes years of efforts to master the art of sculpting and illustrating a character and only a seasoned voice actor with years of experience can help you achieve this challenge.
   5. Ease of doing Multiple Roles: The Animation script may have a myriad of characters requiring the voice actor to voice for multiple characters. Clients looking to hire professional voice over artists require versatility and flexibility in performing multiple roles and the talent must ensure that their voices provide credibility to every role.
   6. Integrating body movements with voice: It is important to have a guided visualisation where the voice artist becomes one with the character- both physically and mentally. Proficient voice artists are able to filter through different voices in their heads until they find the one which fits the scene of the narration. Using props and recreating scenes can help to create authentic sounding and integrate the movements with the voice of the character.
   7. Creating an aura of the character: It is essential to create a ‘life like’ persona of the characters through voice.  And this only happens when the Animation voice artist knows certain techniques and has enough experience to modulate his/her voice such that it adds substance and depth to the character. Reacting to different scenes with the appropriate reactions and understanding the essence of the character are required while making any script sound genuine and a seasoned artist can help to incorporate various facets to the same line or scene.
   8. Understanding the context: If the voice artist does not know the context behind the message and is unaware about the terminologies, how will he/she breathe life into the content? To become a professional English voice over artist for Animation, voice artists must have a complete idea about what and how to deliver as they are the bridge between your brand and the listeners.
   9. Mastering Cold reading: This skill is a must-have as the ability to cold read text will save you a lot of time in the studio, not to mention a lot of editing time. The ability to scan ahead, to make sense of run-on sentences, and to navigate incorrect punctuation is a skill that is very useful for any voice actor. Solid cold reading is the manifestation of excellent eye-brain-mouth coordination, and can be strengthened every day by constant reading practice. Grasping the content and reading the text aloud will help you become a great cold reader.
   10. Minimized Noises: Sibilance is the excessive hissing when producing S’s and F’s sounds and popping is producing extra bursts of air when pronouncing words containing P’s and B’s. While these sounds may go unnoticed in normal conversations, these are painfully obvious while recording and a good voice actor must know the right angle to reduce these traces of unwanted noises.
   11. Expertise in Studio Techniques: Knowing the studio equipment beforehand can help to ease out during recordings and produce quality narration. Artists with little experience behind microphones make fidgety head movements that can ruin the recording. A good Animation voice actor will have a thorough knowledge of various types of microphones used in recording, how to use editing software and how to position the mic appropriately.
4. Figure out your strengths: Pay attention to the voices of various characters on TV, movies and radio. Look at the visuals and then turn away and see if you can distinguish that sound in the mix. Identify the qualities and tones you hear and implement it in your own voice recording. Don’t make the mistake of worrying that you will be typecast. While it is important to feel the levels and dynamics in the scene, it is also important to not overdo any action and enact naturally. Voice acting for Animation requires skills that are developed through experience. To not feel ‘forced’, you need to let the character speak for you and then see where you are going to end up. Knowing your strengths leads directly to more work, so although you’re looking to show range in your demo, target the types of pieces you’re most likely to get called in for. Your voice over demo can range between 30 seconds to 300 seconds, depending on the type of demo. The ideal demo gives ample time to the listener to appreciate your voice and what you can pull off within that duration so keep it crisp and versatile.
5. Have a growth mind-set: Of course, you should not forget to have a growth mind-set. This type of mind-set is developed to create greater accomplishments through hard work, love for learning, and dedication. Developing a growth mind-set, like anything else, is about willingness and commitment. It might be a difficult, lesser-taken route but its numerous advantages should compel you to at least give it a try. Just like any other goal you set out to achieve, cultivating a growth mind-set is going to take time and effort, but will notably improve your likelihood for success as a voice actor. Be proactive in developing the kind of mind-set you will have. Create a vision, list down your goals, and make them as vivid as possible. The more you see your vision, the stronger they will become. Your specific goals will shape your mind-set, and it will be easier to reach them. Having a ‘to-do’ list will ensure that you actually have to work on it.
6. Build on your Resume: One can’t expect to be an instant hit in the Animation voice over jobs. The road in the show business is long and filled with uncertainty. The best place to start as an upcoming Animation voice actor is to keep working on your resume and build your marketing skills. Working as a freelance voice actor is akin to running a small business. Like any other entrepreneurial endeavour, it takes talent, time, dedication, passion and the right medium to start working. With an increasing interest in technology and remote working, it is high time that you create your profile at various online casting sites. When you’re ready to pursue voice over work, you’ll need to have a web presence and a steady source of auditions. Voyzapp is a reputable online voice over agency where you can register for free as a voice artist, upload your previous voice over demos and get better opportunities. Registering for a Voyzapp Artist account is an optimal way to get hired by top clients, market your talent on a global scale, and most importantly, gain access to our vast job board full of amazing voice acting opportunities

Animation voice over jobs are growing steadily as technology advances. Small entertainment groups are getting in on the action, providing numerous opportunities to upcoming animation voice over actors and actresses. Providing voice to any Animation character requires right skills, flexibility and immense experience. Diving headfirst into your voice over career without prior knowledge of the industry will make things even harder for you. When you’ve found your purpose and specialty, you can start taking jobs and making the right connections. With the right approach you can create a thriving Animation voice over career for yourself and become a reputable professional in the industry!

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