The voice can say a lot about a person’s character, his behavior, habits. Many experiments were conducted when the voice needed to recreate the image. The results were different, but some qualities, such as sociability, openness were determined quite successfully.
Any hero of a movie or a cartoon has its own character, which is formed largely due to the voice, or rather, the manner of scoring. In some cases, it is the voice that gives the heroes uniqueness and charm, makes them popular, carries this image into parody programs and forms practically a brand.
Given this fact, the primary requirement for the announcer when voicing the cartoon is the presence of acting talent, the ability to reincarnate internally, changing the timbre of the voice and manner of speech in such a way as to reveal the character of the hero, and often a very difficult character.
Who voices the cartoons?
Famous actors and musicians, for whom reincarnation is a daily activity, having clearly set diction, accustomed to the atmosphere of a recording studio, voice the cartoon characters. Actors voicing cartoons are not always easily recognizable by voice due to an intentional change in timbre. In other cases, it is difficult to confuse the actor, for example, the character of Yevgeny Leonov - Winnie the Pooh - is remembered exclusively with his unusual, but very expressive tone of voice, so there are no questions about who voiced the cartoon, beloved by many.
The selection of actors for dubbing and dubbing always takes place carefully, often with humor, given the recognition of the actors, especially their character, creativity and life.
In Hollywood, when dubbing cartoons, only stars of the first magnitude are attracted, often high requirements apply to foreign dubbing. This has a beneficial effect on the quality of voice acting, takes the actors and creates an additional marketing reason for the promotion of the picture. If we talk about many famous cartoons, the roles were voiced by celebrities whose names were actively used in the announcements.
Modern stars in the voice acting of cartoons
The work of voicing cartoons is not easy, but fun and interesting. Those of the famous actors and musicians who voiced the characters of the cartoons consider this a happy opportunity to plunge into childhood again, while others decided to please their own children, and someone was interested to endow the cartoon character with their own qualities.
For example, let's name a few modern cartoons, the characters in which are voiced by celebrities:
- Madagascar (Alexander Tsekalo);
- "Cars" (Dmitry Kharatyan);
- "Cars 2" (Leonid Yarmolnik);
- The Puzzle (Ksenia Sobchak).
In working with cartoons from modern stars, Alexander Pushnoy stands out: "9", "Monsters on Vacation", "Ernest and Celestins", etc.
An interesting project was obtained by Ilya Lagutenko (the Mumiy Troll group) in the animated film Moana, in which he sang a crab song. The text was even slightly corrected by adding quotes from the musician’s work.
The relationship between the actor and the character is interesting to watch when they invite Nikolai Drozdov, the famous zoologist and host of the TV show “In the Animal World”, to sound the roles. It is easy to guess which cartoons Nikolai voiced - about animals.
The first cartoons with sound
The first samples of films with sound began in the late 30s of the last century, qualitatively changing the film industry. At the same time, an unknown young animator, squeezed into a very limited budget, creates the first cartoon with sound - "Steamboat Willie." This breakthrough made a legend out of the name of the beginning animator. Today he is known throughout the world - this is Walt Disney. In Russia, the first sound cartoon is the painting "Street across" on the rules of the road.
How to voice a cartoon in the studio
The process of creating an audio track takes place in a special studio. The work is not easy, because you need not only to pronounce the text, but also to observe the rhythm, follow the movement of the lips of the hero, while taking into account the context of the plot to include emotions when the character interacts with other characters. To facilitate this process, a cartoon is shown on the big screen in front of the announcer, thereby immersing him in the atmosphere of the plot.
Immediately voicing the entire cartoon without blots and digressions is almost impossible, so the work consists of duplicates, which are subsequently glued into one audio track.
So, now you know where the cartoons are voiced.
Voice injection
When creating a cartoon from scratch, and not when voicing ready-made material, the actor has much more opportunities for revealing the character. The voice gives the character a character, creates his personality, therefore, for high-quality sounding, the actor is not put in a very tight framework. Moreover, if possible, they allow you to participate in the formation of the scenario. So, when voicing Aladdin, the actor and comedian R. Williams supplemented the script with phrases that came to his mind.
If the actor gets used to the role, improvises, begins to reveal the hero in his own way, creating a more vivid image, such moments, in agreement with the director, are built into the script.
Initially, the actor is presented with a compressed video sequence, which is voiced in the studio, then the audio track is analyzed and the animation is adjusted to the audio. The movements of the lips of the heroes are synchronized with the dubbing of the main phonemes, which most clearly reflect articulation. The sound is characterized by a special shape of the mouth, which is drawn in the character.
Modern animation uses a video of the audio process to further elaborate the facial expressions of the characters, while the hero even becomes like an actor. For example, the Donkey from the cartoon "Shrek" looks like Eddie Murphy, who voiced the hero.
It should be noted that these technologies are applicable when creating a cartoon in a modern studio with the latest technology, a team of professional animators.
How to voice at home
In this case, too, sometimes you need to put voice acting on existing material, but you need to remember that the quality of homework can never be compared with the studio.
If you wish, you can voice the cartoon at home, for this you only need a computer with the necessary software and a microphone. In addition, it is necessary to exclude all kinds of extraneous noise, as even minor rustles ruin the work. Before dubbing, it is recommended several times to carefully watch the video and read the text, feel the character, choose the moments on which you want to focus.
The need to voice a cartoon arises for various reasons (for example, translating a foreign cartoon, creating an author’s humorous voice acting, creating your own product), but, in any case, the process is very exciting and creative. At the same time, it is worth remembering that the quality of home dubbing is in many ways inferior to the studio version. If the cartoon is not planned to be shown at the box office, then this option is quite suitable.
Equipment for home dubbing
At home, you won’t get a studio recording, no matter what equipment is available, although a decent option for personal use is available with the usual equipment that almost everyone has:
- microphone;
- a device for recording sound;
- a computer;
- special programs.
Features of home scoring
When applying sound to a video sequence that already has an audio track, you must delete it in a special program for video editing (programs for editing video, deleting audio tracks, video editing are suitable). Work with such a program does not require special training. If you have questions, you can always ask for help with instructions.
The second step after deleting the existing audio track will be directly recording, and then applying a new voice acting to the video sequence.
In order to better get the voice into the plot, a video is included in parallel with the recording, so that the speaker better understands what the speed of the plot is, and is guided in the presentation of text and emotions. With this approach, the only drawback may be the noise that hits the record, making it less quality.
Cartoons from other countries
When voicing a cartoon shot in another country, you need to consider the final audience, who will watch it and where. The cartoon is always very emotional, and the manifestation of emotions and feelings in different cultures always differs quite strongly. For example, actors voicing American cartoons often adapt them to Russian standards so that the character is perceived adequately by the audience, although Americans' facial expressions and sound expressions are more vivid and expressive.