It takes a lot of skill to be a voice actor. One must be able to give a variety of delivery styles, pitch, and enunciate the script with finesse.
To become a successful voice actor, you must put in a lot of effort and practice. For beginners, proper habit building can be challenging. Some basic voice-acting tips can come in handy in this regard.
There are two types of voice-acting tips you can follow. The first kind of tip is the essential day-to-day habits that will aid your performance. The second kind is more skill-related. Developing good practices as a foundation is more important for beginners.
Unlike singing, voice acting has little to no impact on your natural vocal abilities. It requires stronger pronunciation and acting abilities. Even the most experienced voice actors (VAs) put in a lot of practice time to hone their skills.
This article will provide you with some advice on how to improve your foundational voice acting skills.
Can I Practice Voice Acting At Home?
Yes, you can practice voice acting at home. Practicing does not require any high-end studio or equipment. But you will need some proper equipment to make demos.
Voice acting is a profession, and your employers will want to see some professional demos for almost every application. Making professional demos and retakes is essential for making an impression.
You can choose to go to a studio to make demos, but that can get costly very quickly. I suggest getting a reliable home setup with the essential equipment. That way, you can practice and record from home.
Is Voice Acting Easy?
Voice acting is easy. At the very least, it does not have as many complexities as acting. You can do an infinite number of takes, as long as one of them is good enough.
However, if you are thinking of choosing a voice acting career, thinking it would be smooth sailing, you are in for a rude awakening. It may not have many technical requirements, but you need to practice constantly to up your game.
From novice to veteran, every successful voice actor works exceptionally hard. So it is both easy and challenging work at the same time.
7 Voice Acting Tips For Beginners
I know you came here to find some good voice acting tips. Here are some that I think are crucial for beginners.
1. Warm-Up
Voice acting relies a lot on your physical condition. Every accomplished voice actor knows to warm up before performing. One must also do a warm-up before practicing outside of the studio.
Voice acting puts a lot of stress on your facial muscles and vocal cords. Overusing these organs will lower your range and productivity.
Warming up before practicing will give you more flexibility. You will also notice that some impressions become more manageable and less taxing.
2. Drink Lots Of Water
Drinking plenty of water is an essential part of keeping your vocals healthy. It is not there to prevent dehydration or anything like that; instead, it acts as a protective coating.
Avoid drinking too much water at the start or end of your practice session. It is usually best to take frequent sips between practice sessions. Drink a bit before doing your warmup routine too.
Doing this will prevent you from hurting your throat while practicing. It should also help reduce any discomfort or pain during a practice session.
3. Avoid Stressing Your Vocal Cords
This tip is mainly for when you are out of the studio or not practicing. You need to treat your voice as an instrument as a voice actor.
A skilled artist never mistreats their tools. Your voice can distort or get damaged if you yell too much or too frequently. In light of that, it is essential to avoid places and situations that require those things.
Taking care of your voice when you are not working can increase the longevity of your voice. So always try to avoid putting stress on it when you are not working.
4. Develop A Good Breathing Habit
Proper breathing habits are probably the most crucial fundamental skill a voice actor can learn. Even the slightest breathlessness can ruin a perfect recording. So, remember to take your time and breathe during a session.
You will need to master breathing between lines once you get to a more advanced level. Breathing soundlessly during a vocal session is also an essential skill.
Consciously develop a rhythmic breathing habit. That will give you more control over your lungs and related organs.
5. Fix Your Posture
Think of your body as a musical instrument. Some instruments require proper alignment to produce the best sound. The human body is the same. That is why most voice actors put a lot of effort into correcting their posture.
The so-called “correct” posture can vary from person to person. It can also depend on particular situations. Voice actors are different from singers because they need to replicate some mundane sounds.
Sometimes you need to sound breathless or hoarse to replicate convincing expressions. Each of these different situations might require a different posture. It would help if you practiced hard to determine which posture makes you sound the most effective for a given scenario.
6. Read Out Loud
Every voice acting job will give you scripts to follow. You do not get much say about the content, but you do get to determine how it sounds. You can create an infinite variety of the same script with different deliveries.
But you don’t need to think that far ahead as a beginner. Just focus on reading the script clearly with the proper accent. You don’t necessarily need to find a unique one.
Find some random ones and try to perfect your enunciations and inflections. Learning different dialects can also help you in this line of work.
7. Learn More About Your Topic
Having more in-depth knowledge about whatever you are working on will increase your performance. This one is one of the most crucial habits to develop. It may seem tedious at first, but it will serve you well in the long run.
Never skim through your project material. As the name implies, the voice acting is half voice and half acting. You can’t possibly act convincingly enough without having an in-depth understanding of the subject.
As a side note, I suggest researching audio engineering jargon too. That will help you communicate better with your coworkers.
How Do You Know If You Have A Good Voice For Acting?
Anyone without speech impairment has what it takes to be a voice actor. Most voice acting jobs are not about sounding like Giancarlo Esposito or Morgan Freeman. Your job is to sound like a regular human being with normal emotional fluctuations in most cases.
That’s what makes voice actors so popular. They sound relatable enough for regular folks. They also speak amazingly clearly and have better speaking skills than most folks.
The main point is that anyone can become a voice actor if they practice enough and have the “acting” part down. Voice acting is more about expressing normal human emotions.
There is a minimal requirement for your voice range and other physical factors. The most crucial part is acting and defining the proper emotional undertone.
Conclusion
I hope you find these voice-acting tips helpful. Voice acting is reasonably straightforward, and you can easily practice it at home with a minimal setup. But it would take untold hours of work to become a master of the craft.