Voice actor for animation

Animation is one of the primary professional venues for voice actors. Some of the best-known voice actors found their fame while acting as cartoon characters in Disney and Looney Tunes animated films.

This article will tell you more about cartoon voice actors, their responsibilities, and how to hire them for your animation projects.

Essential skills for animation voice actors

Becoming a voice actor for animated characters might sound easy. But like most jobs, it requires a great deal of skill, confidence, and something extra to make you stand out from the crowd.

Before you start acting out character voices, many professional voice actors in the animation industry suggest that beginners start with commercial voice acting. Together with projects that test stamina with long-term narrations and animation projects that teach more about character development, these aspects form the basis of cartoon voice acting.

Voice acting isn’t just using your voice, so taking acting classes and reading books on acting is beneficial for further developing voice acting skills. Technical books are also a great source to learn more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the job.

Listening to the voice acting of other people, commercials, audiobooks, etc., will help with training your ear, discovering what’s popular on the market, and helping you find your style. It’s essential to be creative and experiment with different voices.

The last thing every successful voiceover actor needs is persistence. If you decide to pursue a career in the voiceover industry, know that you probably won’t land every voiceover job. You need to be prepared for rejection but understand that it doesn’t mean you should give up.

What to expect from a voice actor (and how to hire one)

The requirements for a voice actor will depend on the specificities of your voiceover project. Before you start looking for voiceover artists, it’s necessary to determine what role you’re casting them for, what you need them to do, and what you expect from them.

Determine the project type

Different voice actors will perform differently for video games, TV shows, commercials, and animated movies. In addition, if you need voiceover for audiobooks, e-learning, and explainer videos, hiring voiceover talent might be better than a voice actor. Ensure that you and the person you’re hiring know the type of voiceover casting you’re aiming for.

Lay out the details

The next step is ensuring you can write out the details and requirements for your voice actor. It will make it easier for them to showcase their skills and for you to make the best final decision.

One way to do this is by listening to demo reels. Demo reels are a good source for figuring out what styles fit which projects, what’s trending, and what individual voice actors can achieve.

If you can only afford one voice actor, you can try finding those who can do several types of voices. Furthermore, if you don’t own a recording studio or have decided on a remote voice actor, hire those who own a home studio.

Hold the auditions

As you determine the details of your project, you’ll probably go through several platforms that offer voice-acting services. Go with the ones where you found voice actors who match your project the best and invite them to audition or post the job ad on their website.

If you want to save time, try custom voiceover auditions since some actors might send you readings of the script for free. If you’re looking for a way to save time, hiring a voice talent agency will do the job.

Review the samples

Once the auditions are complete, ensure that you and your team review all the entries. Some might need slight improvement, so don’t discard them immediately but send them feedback first.

When reviewing, don’t forget to consider the animation that will accompany the voice. Ask the animation client what they’re looking for and see how your chosen voice actors fit their requirements.

Hire the voice actors

When you narrow your choices, send the voice actors your rates and details, which will affect the pricing. Once they agree to the terms, they’re ready for hire. Send them details about the project, such as deadlines, schedules, availability, and similar.

Speechify Voiceover – a different solution for animation narration

If you want to avoid dealing with auditions and other steps of the voice actor hiring process, consider Speechify. Speechify is a voiceover service that can produce excellent, natural-sounding narration for different voiceover projects, including animation.

Speechify allows you to narrate videos, presentations, books, or any other text in one of the 200 voices and 20 languages offered on the website or app. You can check it out for free today and listen to your first voiceover.

FAQ

How much does an animation voice actor get paid?

The salary of a cartoon voice actor depends on the length of the project and the actor’s role in it. For short 15-second animations, it can be up to $10. For animated movies of less than 10 minutes, it’s around $1,000, while the main role can bring up to $10,000. Professional cartoon voice actors earn the most and can get $300,000 per episode.

Do voice actors need to match the animation?

Whether voice actors need to match the animation depends on the individual project. Usually, the script will be recorded before the scenes have been drawn and animated, and animators will draw inspiration from the voices. That is not the case with dubbing the animation in a different language since the animation will already exist in the original language.

What are some examples of animation voice actors?

There are many famous animation voice actors, some of which are movie actors as well. For example, Tom Hanks lent his voice to Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story saga. Jeremy Irons voiced Scar in The Lion King (1994), and Robin Williams played Genie in Aladdin (1992).

Who is the best voice actor for animation?

Some of the best voice actors for animation are those who starred in famous cartoons. Some of the famous ones are Mel Blanc, who voiced more than 100 characters in Looney Tunes cartoons, Nancy Cartwright, who voiced Bart Simpson in The Simpsons, Tara Strong, who voiced Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls, and Tom Kenny, who voiced SpongeBob in SpongeBob SquarePants.