AGDInteractive - Sierra Adventure Game Remakes Forum

Yeah, but it still fun to discuss.

Governor Arnold for the blacksmith! hehe.

If you can make an estimate, what would it cost for one voice actor?

Hell, send me a script and I'll try to do all the voices!  :rollin

If you want a comparison of how a trained voice actor does over a Hollywood actor, just take a look at a well dubbed anime, Cowboy Bebop being one I don't mind dubbed vs. something like Princess Mononoke which had big name actors doing the voices.  You can usually hear the difference.

Aha! But have you ever heard the difference between a trained voice actor, a hollywood actor, or an amateur using a cheap USB headset mic? The difference is incredible!

 I have no doubt that it is.  ^_^

gamecreator wrote:

Grand Dad wrote:I'd rather have the VGA game than voice which must either be very good or not at all.

I strongly agree with this.  If the voices are amateur or "wrong," it drops my immersion in the game completely.

Really?  The use of MAGIC.... or fighting anthropomorphic beast COMPLETELY drop my immersion.  Oh, those damn Griffins too.  They're so fake; I hate it when games use mythic creatures.


Bt

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

<snort>

John Rhys-Davies will never be in another QfG for 3 reasons.

1) It's too expensive.
2) He refers to his work on QfG4 as "the script from Hell," due to being about the equivalent of five animated features in size.
3) Lori Ann Cole herself said she would only have wanted him narrate in Shadows of Darkness anyways.

Speaking of anime dubbing though, check out the VA list in the QfG5 manual.  A few of those names just might jump out at you.

Really?  The use of MAGIC.... or fighting anthropomorphic beast COMPLETELY drop my immersion.  Oh, those damn Griffins too.  They're so fake; I hate it when games use mythic creatures.

Bt

Yeah, right. Stop the sarcasm one second and tell us how would you feel if several animations were poorly coded and made the hero turns into another character for several seconds? Or if some backgrounds were in 4 colors?

antonyo wrote:

Really?  The use of MAGIC.... or fighting anthropomorphic beast COMPLETELY drop my immersion.  Oh, those damn Griffins too.  They're so fake; I hate it when games use mythic creatures.

Bt

Yeah, right. Stop the sarcasm one second and tell us how would you feel if several animations were poorly coded and made the hero turns into another character for several seconds? Or if some backgrounds were in 4 colors?

I would simply feel that an overworked programmer missed some minor thing, and I'd forgive him his trespasses.  Sometimes, you just miss things.  The four color background, now that I think about it, would merely make me go "Hmmm".

I'm merely saying that people often find reasons to be upset about something, instead of appreciating what is good.  I hear countless clowns talk about "the removal of immersion" and I often wish to immerse their heads in a giant vat of Vanilla Pudding.


Bt

Aha! Most of this is Greek to me, but you boys (and girls - if any?) go right ahead! Just by reading I am learning a lot  :D !


PEACE!!!

Talk about something like Cowboy Bepop vs. Princess Mononoke...

I actually much prefer having trained voice over actors than Hollywood stars. For one thing, with the star, it is hard not to picture their face when they are talking. Secondly, they do not quite know how to do voice over acting. So, they often sound funny. I would go with all voice over actors everytime if I had the choice. They know exactly what they are doing.

Some person with a USB mic on the other hand? Maybe not so much. It is tough though to get all your actors together and get a professional recording studio. It can cost quite a bit. But, I did once successfully transform my walk-in closet into a recording room.

But don't all hollywood actors do professional voice-acting every time they make a picture?  It's standard practice for movie actors to come in and re-dub all of their scenes in a sound studio.  That's how they record the dialogue for nearly all movies nowadays.  What's the difference between that and any other kind of voice acting?  

I don't necessarily think it is about voice-acting skill as it is about caring about your performance.  A lot of hollywood types just might not care too much about their performances when working on something like a video game.  You hear all the time of video game developers going out of their way to get big-name actors to do the voices and then getting utterly terrible performances from them.  If the actor isn't that invested in a project, they're not going to do as good a job; it's as simple as that.

Factor in how much you get paid as well. I regretfully don't know the figures, but I know that live action acting pays way more than voice acting does in the United States at least.  So big name actor's aren't getting paid the same amount for in the case of video games are double, triple, quadruple a movie script.

The difference between voice acting and live acting is in real vs. fake people. Take, for example, a TV show. On a live-action TV show, the actor's emotion can be displayed through body language, subtext, through subtle facial movements and such like that. The ENTIRE actor is there, and so the actor utilizes his entire body and all the complexities that comes with. The voice is simply one tool in the entire acting arsenal. If one tool is overused, it comes off as overacting or lack of actual talent. You KNOW when an actor is going over the top on live action, and you hate it.

An animated TV show is much more restrictive. The animated character only has a few stock expressions that it can pull off. If there were any more than that, the process of drawing and animating each character frame by frame would take exponentially longer than it does already (one 30 minute episode can take as long as a year to complete). That's just not doable in a practical world. Therefore, to make up for the relatively flat movements and expressions of the animated characters, the voice has to carry the rest of the burden. An actor who knows how to effectively communicate all the things a live actor can with just his voice is someone else entirely.

I learned this the hard way all during the KQ3 voice production. My then-ignorance of how voice acting works shows painfully in some cases. In some places, I was able to get an actor who could really utilize his voice and make an awesome character portrayal. Papa Bear is a perfect example of this. In other places, like when I had an actor drop out at the last minute and had to use SOMEBODY to meet release time (this ended up being my little sister's acting debut), you can tell how flat and lifeless the character is and it's just not enjoyable at all.

If a project is not commercial and hence has no official deadline, why would you throw in a voice that you already disagree with from the get-go? Isn't it better to postpone the release a little bit in order to have something that at least meets your own standards of quality?

There was a specific reason why it ended up being the way it was, but I'd rather PM it to you as opposed to blurting it out on here. Not that it's skulduggery or anything, just a personal preference.

Somewhat back on topic, I reckon QFG2VGA will be released between 1 September 2008 - 31 December 2008 (assuming thorough beta-testing by a reasonable number of beta testers being available (i.e. 15-20 people)).

I personally hope it'll be sooner. We'll just have to see.

Yeah, I'm being a bit conservative with my estimations here. It could be sooner, but given things that have happened with other projects, a quicker release date would be extremely optimistic, IMO. Then again, I'd rather as many bugs were found and corrected before its released, rather than rush the whole thing and release something that could've waited another month or two to fix things in order to get it right for its release.

Yeah, game making is like construction. You estimate a finished time, then multiply that by two.

Really? Do you think it will be done this year. Not 2010? You don't say  :rollin  Where is the voice pack???? lol

Until nextime stay cool.  :hat

Skyshark wrote:Somewhat back on topic, I reckon QFG2VGA will be released between 1 September 2008 - 31 December 2008 (assuming thorough beta-testing by a reasonable number of beta testers being available (i.e. 15-20 people)).

 :(      :\  :cry

Hey. If you guys start a cheerleading squad for the beta-testers, it may motivate them!

Just think, one hour a night extra for each beta-tester adds up to 10 hours extra a day, times 7 for a week, etc etc!  

Gronagor wrote:Hey. If you guys start a cheerleading squad for the beta-testers, it may motivate them!

Gimme a T!

Gimme an E!

Gimme an S!

Gimme a T!

Gimme an E!

Gimme an R!

Gimme and S!

What does it spell?

Testers?  No.

Testers? NO.

S-L-A-V-E-S.

Ten interweb point to whoever figures out the paraphrasing.