I have pretty much decided that I need to do all the voices in my 3D. Stuff changes too much and I have to synch with animation for me to easily farm it out. I’d either be stuck with what I get and have to animate around it, or I’d be constantly asking for updates.
I have a lousy voice and I’m a bad actor. Sucks. I’m looking at putting various audio filters on my voice to simulate a suitably Hank-like sound. There are things that can’t work in an audiobook, because it’s only voice. But in audio-visual, you have something you can see. Hank should have a ponderous voice. I heard an interview with an astronaut who came back from the ISS after months, and he said it was hard talking. Because his lips and tongue suddenly had weight. It’s not something we think about much. Hank is incredibly strong, but physics are physics. If his lips weigh 50 pounds, there is mass and momentum effects of that. Whales don’t chatter like dolphins.
Of course, there are limits. And having someone speak a word a minute and it sound like a tuba, is not going to be helpful. Even if it’s realistic.
I really liked the idea of slowing down the speed of my voice. This is a precarious thing to do as it throws off everything, including the animation that has to go along with it. It also has the effect of increasing every silence and pause. And I can’t edit that out, because then it would throw off all the animation completely.
In any case, here are few samples of my voice being modified. If you don’t like them, that’s fine, but I’m using my voice because everything is here. So get used to it.
My voice slowed.
My voice pitch-shifted.
Pitch then speed.
Filter, pitch, speed, echo. This is embellishing the low frequencies, killing the high, adding a tiny echo to simulate a huge chest cavity.
