Cartoon and Animation as a Voice Actor

 

Do you find yourself intrigued and creating a variety of voices in your head that would be perfect for animation? If you are still enjoying cartoons as an adult then maybe being an animation voice actor is the niche for you.

Types of Cartoon and Animation Voice Over Jobs

Gone are the days where the only cartoon voice over jobs are with big animation studios. Yes, there are still those opportunities, however, there are many more jobs within this niche.

TV cartoons, character commercials, video games, toys, direct to DVD, plus companies are using cartoons in their business videos. All of these jobs are leaning towards the voice actor to fulfill their needs.

Specific Skills to Focus On

While creating a voice for the character is important, there are other skills that work into cartoon voice acting. If you can master these skills, then you are on your way to being a successful animation voice actor career.

• A long-form narration that hones the skill of stamina reading and clean character splits.
• Commercial reads that focus on the art of the sale.
• Animation projects that prepare for the development of special character work.

Creativity

With cartoon and animation voice acting it requires a great voice and creativity. A creative mind allows you to find the voice that perfectly suits the scripted character. Successful animation voice actors will work through hundreds of different voices until they settle on one.

Questions that Can Help You create the Character

Put yourself into the character and then ask yourself these questions:

• Who am I?
• Where am I?
• When is it?
• What do I want?
• Where have I come from?

These questions will help you determine lots of key features about the character, including accents, pitch, tone, age, gender and more.

Practice and Study

Practice with sample scripts and work with a coach that specializes in cartoon and animation. Another way to be successful is by studying. Study those voice actors that are successful in cartoon voice overs. Researching and studying will give you ideas on the best way to practice and the skills to work on.

Versatility and Consistency

Versatility will enable you to adjust to different styles. With this skill, one can perform voice overs for a wide variety of styles within the cartoon realm. Even after being hired to feature in a single-role.

Consistency is also another key factor. A voice actor needs to be able to offer the same kind of sound throughout a performance involving the same character. Not only in the voice, but the characters laugh, crying and other reaction noises.

Take Every Opportunity

Cartoon and Animation voice over jobs are only expanding and growing as technology advances. So, start working on your craft and skills. It may also prove to be useful to take any cartoon voice actor job as it will build your resume and your demo reel. Furthermore, you will be networking with other professionals in the field who in the future might land you a bigger job. Every opportunity is a way to showcase your talent as you never know where your next opportunity will lie.

Tips on Creating Great Voiceover Demos

 

Your demo is your calling card. It showcases your voiceover work and what you are capable of doing. A voiceover demo is your pre-audition to an audition.

Many questions that I get asked are: How do I keep my demos current along the way to represent my new work and my expanded talents? How do I build a demo that represents me and will book me the most jobs?

Creating demos is an ongoing process, it is something that will need to be updated and kept current as you work on new jobs and projects. Here is some advice on creating a solid voiceover demo, or a set of demos to land jobs.

The Truth About Demos

Demos can be passed on in the first 15 seconds of listening because of simple mistakes. It is important to put the time in to ensure that your demo has the best quality and that you are showcasing the best of your work.

You want your demos to be fresh, contemporary, and relatable to the listener. A demo needs to reflect your skill and range. Consider replacing spots that are old, dated, and don’t sound like you anymore. You want to sound like the person showing up for the job.

Skip the intro music that will not get you the job. They want to hear your voice immediately when they listen.

A commercial demo is historically the type that agents expect above all others, so if you only make one demo this is the one to focus on. A commercial demo you can showcase multiple aspects of your talent.

The Length of a Voiceover Demo

Your voice over demo can range between 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the type of demo. However, the ideal length for a demo that features multiple spots is 60 to 90 seconds, so that the listener gets a good sense of what you can do.

Different genres require different lengths of time, as do different markets.

A commercial demo that showcases your skills performing radio, TV and Web commercials should last around one minute. While an audiobook demo will be longer 4 to 5 minutes, so demonstrate your ability to stay in character for extended passages in a story, or to perform different voices from different characters. Narration demos (other than audio book demos) can fall in between but not much longer than 

2:00 or so.

If you are uploading your demo to an online marketplace, you will want to keep it to a minute which will load fast and sound great to the listener.

Send the Correct Type of Demo

The industry standard is to streamline the genre of reads to target your listener. You want to send them the demo of the style you are trying to book. You are working with people who have a short attention span, so you want to make sure they hear what they need. You want your best work up front. If they like what they hear in the first 15 seconds they will keep listening, if they don’t then they move on. I even have demos aimed at specific industries that I regularly work for. Such as Agriculture, Finance and Health Care.

If you record your demo in a studio and have it sound perfect, be sure that the quality of the work later matches. Once you get hired, be sure that your actual work is as good as the demo, if not better.

Focus on Your Strengths

Knowing your strengths and the style of work that you are best suited for is going to get you more work. Don’t worry about typecasting. While showing range in a demo is great, you want to target the types of pieces that you are most likely to get called and booked for.

A quality demo will help you create a successful voiceover career. Having training and skills is the first step. The second step is a quality voiceover demo.