Updates

2 car accidents, the near-death of my grandma (MRI read some scary things, but things are actually okay), and 2 sick family members later, I'm sick too (my voice is almost all dried up) and I'm studying for a LOT of tests, plus working on a big paper. That said, I'm still on my voice acting hiatus...

Know of any good adventure, point and click games?

I like point and click games! Especially the adventure kinds! I already played a bunch here on NG (like Alice is Dead, Legend of Pliskin, A Small Favor, Foreign Creatures, Reincarnation), but I just can't get enough of them! Know of any other good ones I can play?

Not too fond of "scary" games though. Like, the horror ones where things pop out at me and scream while I'm deeply concentrating on clicking everywhere on the screen. I get startled too easily.

How about Let's Plays of good horror games?

...Then why the hell did I watch a Let's Play of "Amnesia: The Dark Descent"? I blame Omahdon and GeneralIvan. And uuuhhh... I like watching other people play scary games instead of playing them myself, 'cause I'm a cowardly dork, yet like being scared when occasion calls, a la "It's Halloween month! Time to get scared for funzies! Yaaaaaay!" Geez, I NEVER keep quiet during the "water monster" scene (23:49)...

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"AAAHHH!! OMIGAWD OMIGAWD OMIGAWD GET UP GET UP IT'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU JDFGMDHMGMJ"

...Know of any other good Let's Plays of survival horror games? This guy made it less scary for me with his silly-when-appropriate moments (instead of yammering during cutscenes and being annoying), but I can bear silent Let's Plays too (does that technically make them walkthroughs). I already watched Haunting Ground (technically not scary, but...yeah). I actually haven't watched the Silent Hill or Clocktower games, so maybe I'll start there.

=P Bioshock was... Semi-scary to me, but not really since it's not a survival horror and I can shoot the scary things and set them on fire. Too cool to be scary. Looking forward to FLYOSHOCK.

I'm "making a game" + Dating Sims for Girls

A super simple, "Choose your adventure" one on YouTube, but a game... Adaptation. It's technically pretty easy to do, but time consuming if you don't want to make a piece of crap, so maybe one day, after I'm done with this project and if I'm extremely bored, I'll make something similar in flash using not-copyrighted artwork (::coughs::).

I like dating sims for girls... Especially for OLDER girls (not hentai, you pervs; look up: otome games) since it's awkward to date guys that're in their 15-17's when I'm 20. It's also awkward to date guys in the right age range, but look really underraged because of the anime art style. If I were to make a dating sim, the guys would have to actually be interesting to look at instead of bling'd out clones with the same face and body types.

I wonder if there's anybody who'd like to do all the art while I figure out the rest? Just a question. Nothing happening yet since I'm new to flash. The most I'd be able to do is a YouTube version.

Thought Dump

Craaaaazzzyy off schedule with my personal projects (recording something cute and random + Bioshock project), but then again, I had more important things to deal with anyhow... Like university, my internship, getting into a car accident 2 days ago (+ legal/financial issues; may need to see a doctor), and my grandma nearly dying. Such is life!

Fun Fact! I can imitate Rina-chan's voice! She does it better though, being the original and all (you can hear my voice breaking at times and it's more voice than acting 'cause it's not what I'm used to), but imitating her is a fun mini hobby I do when I'm bored 'cause my natural range is much different from hers and it's my way of broadening my vocal range higher. In a way, it's just a matter of how I set my mouth for to imitate her speech pattern rather than changing cadences and whatnot.

I have no intention of abusing this ability 'cause she's my friend~

I'm currently following the Majora creepypasta. I absolutely LOVE it~ It reminds me of the days when I participated in ARG (alternate reality game)s! I totally missed "Something in the Sea" for Bioshock 2, so this is satisfying~

Who else is following it? OH GAWD, I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT...

FILLER TIME - A Creator is Me!

What I WAS able to work on, however, was a super-duper tiny project inspired by past roles and a silly comment made by a YouTuber. Why? 'Cause I'll eventually forget how to use a bunch of programs if the next time I touch 'em is next year and I wanted to see how fast I could finish it. I aimed for 6 hours at most.

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I worked on this from, what, 2 PM to 1 AM, give or take with looking up how to do certain things again, eating dinner, and homework/studying in between? So instead of 6 hours, I made it in... Maybe 11 hours. For a blinking turret. Wow. Way to aim too high, me! But it's okay. Hopefully I won't take as long next time for a slightly more challenging mini-project and the good news is that ALMOST everything in that project is all done by me (I would've drawn a turret if I "had time", but alas).

In part due to copyright reasons and wanting to earn money without getting fined (read the TOS for Freeplaymusic.com; you WILL get sued if you use their pretty music and make money), I always wanted to "make everything" in a project to really call a project my own instead of a parody, adaptation, or fan-thingy. The only reason why I'm using "familiar crutches" for now is for gaining initial exposure. If you've ever set up shop at a convention, people are more likely to LOOK at your booth if you have something someone will recognize and potentially be interested in. Eventually I'll do original stuff, but I'll be needing plenty of me-time in order to give 'em all the effort I want to give.

Let's see... What are my current skills in my toolbox...

I can voice act -- Gee!
I can write -- I'm a screenwriting major at my university and have been writing for most of my life. I get writing scholarships often enough to fund for my tuition.
I can draw -- Mostly self-taught, but I do practice as much as I can, with the help of those who actually know how to draw. Ignore the crappy things I upload into the Art Portal. My doodles/sketches look less stupid 'cause me and colors don't quite get along.
I can Photoshop -- Decently enough. Not as well as uber-artists, but enough to make simple things that don't entirely look bad.
I can mix -- Kinda; I'm not uber, but at least I'm not terrible and I've listened to enough great mixing to slowly figure out how I want my projects to sound.
I can animate -- I know the basics and I have lots of animator friends supporting me~
I can edit video -- Sorta; It takes some tinkering and experimenting before I get the hang of it.

Things I'm certainly not as confident in? Erm...

I can't manage my time -- I'm an impulsive sonnuva gun. Go figure.
I can't make music -- I can come up with tunes in the shower and while driving to school/work and I can improv a song (really--give me something long enough to "read" and I'll go wild), but what good are those tunes without instruments? Or without TOO MUCH FREE TIME (a la those uber acapella things)?Maybe I'll teach myself how to make music someday... Or talk to some musician friends.
I don't sing often -- At least, not enough for me to count it as "good" or "decent". Not enough training for me to be confident in it.

You can kinda hear me sing as Franziska von Karma in this li'l video...

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...But that's only a few lines. I'm told that should I sing, I'm best suited for jazz and blues, so maybe someday I'll practice singing beyond "when I think no one is listening". Maybe. I feel too embarrassed and awkward to ask my singing friends for tips.

Questions for You!

What are some skills you have?

And what are skills you wish you had, but are willing to pick up?

Do you have any personal goals regarding the skills you have? Or how you plan on picking up the skills you want?

o hey hai

Have my most recent doodle dump featuring one of my many TF2 fan characters. I drew engies, scouts, a medic, and a sniper--Here, have a heavy to prove that I don't draw people with the same animu body type. I call her "Aracelli"~

Thought Dump

Whoooaaa... Okay, I hit the "Voiced for 100 Released Projects" mark a long time ago, but now it's more official for those who don't count stuff like anime on DVD, fan movies, and indie games.

The projects I voiced the most for are machinima (33+).
The second most projects I voiced for are flashes (30-ish).
Radioplays (14), adaptations (11-ish), fandubs (7), and the rest (student projects, covers, "others") follow.

Fun Fact: Both of the "100th projects" are from the Sanity Not Included machinima series~! Particularly since episodes for that series is worked on crraaazzzyyy advance, like, whoa (mini fun fact: guess why Ultimecia's voice keeps changing). The episode where I talk to my bewbs is maybe gonna be released months from now.

Fun Fact: Wanna hear a quality jump in my voice acting and sound quality?

Compare my 2010 voice acting and sound quality...

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To my 2009 voice acting and sound quality...

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Good golly, I'm getting a rash just hearing the room echo in these recordings! And yet, this was when I didn't have enough stamina to get through paragraphs of text in a single breath! I'm much better now and it's kinda neat hearing how much I improved~

It'll be more fun to hear when Egoraptor's Puzzmosis comes out: You'll get to hear my old set-up and acting, my new set-up and acting (recorded just days after), and Ego's set-up and my acting with his direction. It's pretty darn cool~

(We tried to get the live recording session in visual for a possible behind the scenes thing, but I was still pretty inexperienced at the time and got nervous easily on camera.)

RE: Professional Pursuits - Internship

So last time I interned at a post production studio as a marketing intern. Now I'm interning at a college radio station, helping my very first voice acting teacher with her voice acting class~

Not only am I in charge of script stuff, researching, and giving some personal insight, but I'm also gonna work the booth (WHOA, LIKE A SOUND ENGINEER!?), direct (got plenty of experience working with directors who know how to work with new talent!), and mix demos. Okay, I'm not uber at mixing demos, but I'm just a tick above average and this is a lot of people's first voice acting class, so a good/decent start shouldn't hurt~!

Even more cool: Whenever we're not using the 2nd booth, I'm allowed to record lines for my personal projects (demos, flashes, machinima, whatever)~ Methinks in part to help me get used to performing in front of others (a class of 30-something, dang the class grew; I was there when it was only 15-20!) and to show how animated I can get to pump them up!

Next time, once all the equipment is set up and stuff, I'll be bringing my camera to upload more of my live sessions onto YouTube, haha!

Also... Field trips! Field trips to studios and radio stations and stuff! In the past I couldn't make it to the radio station field trip where students got to do some commercials (schedule conflict), but this time I'm most definitely gonna be looking forward to that. Not to mention neato networking opportunities~

AWESOME INTERNSHIP IS AWESOME.

RE: Professional Pursuits - Voice Acting

Didja know that I took a voice acting workshop in regards to voicing for Disney theme parks? It's true! And an Imagineer directed us and everything! I didn't know my voice was made for valley girl, surfer chick stuff, but I guess it totally makes sense now that I sound like a stereotypical Californian! Totally looking forward to hitting those California Adventure opportunities, yo. I wanna upload the stuff I recorded, but I caaann't... Bummer!

Next time: Recordings for my Bioshock project and something highly reminiscent to dorky way I asked questions in the last paragraph.

Alternate Title: What makes a good voice actor/character demo?

Bleh, since I'm holding off on accepting new voice acting opportunities (IT'S SO HARD MY GAWD), I've been busy working on my character demo and improving my voice acting.

This blog post might get boring/SRS pretty quick since this is a subjective, mind-barfy matter, so I'll just trim the fat and just hit some points as quick as I can. If you want the LONG version, I made a guide about demos already.

Some Key Objectives in Making a Character Demo!

Demonstrate: Vocal & Acting Range

-- Emphasis in Vocal:
if you can do vocal gymnastics in your sleep and can mostly get by with your acting
-- Emphasis in Acting:
if your vocal range is limited, but you can play almost any character under the sun convincingly enough that it doesn't matter what voice you use (channeling characters into a single body, basically)

In a way, if you can't do an AWESOME balance of both (you're a GODLY FORCE OF NATURE if you can do this and there are people who can), it boils down to:
"A LOT of bit characters (vocal range) versus a FEW quality characters (acting range), like leads, in a single project."

[ME] -- : I have range, but I honestly perform easiest with roles within my natural range. Like, voices I can place around my mouth and throat? Easy as pie. Voices placed high in my head or deep in my chest? Challenging stuff. I can do it, but it'll be challenging to do it WELL and not sound like a n00b.

This is why I'm working on improving my acting beyond technical skills and into actually emoting (more on that later).

Characters

-- Make them General
archetypes (NOT STEREOTYPES, FARK NO UUUGGGHGH) so interested listeners can fit you into certain types of roles; the lineart

-- Make them Specific
distinct characteristics that make a character unique, interesting, and memorable; the coloring

[ME] --: You know what n00bs do? n00bs only focus on general STEREOTYPES in their demos by employing crappy impersonations (EW EW EW EW IT HURTS MY EYES JUST TYPING THIS), as in, they don't know how to really bring an imitated personality to life beyond their catchphrases. As for awesome people? Awesome people know how to make these both work together, especially the distinct traits.

I used to hate my voice since it's "too weird to fit anywhere"; People still bash on my voice and I sure do still lose roles to people who can do generic voices because they were born with that ability. But over time, the more I worked with my voice and with others who share the same "problem" (Druox has a frikkin' unique voice and Tomamoto too), it turns out that having a weird voice alone can at times be that little special something that'll make a character a bit more special. It's a bit of an advantage over those whose voice can be used for everything under the sun, but ONLY if you know how to act/use that voice to its fullest.

Thus, I'm gonna be experimenting a lot with acting styles in general and some technical aspects, like changing up vocal cadences, speech patterns, and such. Practicing harder in the improv department to make different characters natural ones at that.

Non-Actors Will Be Listening To My Demo Too; The BEST Ears EVER

Well, who else am I performing for? I bet the majority of the world doesn't know how to act too well and practically everything I do is made for that very audience, so it'd be self-centered to say that I won't listen to the critiques of those who "don't know acting".

You wanna know something cool? There are people out there who don't actively "study"/practice acting but are EXTREMELY good at it. The general hypothesis at the moment is that they simply know how to emote very easily and very well. While I'm taking the "book smart" approach because of my personal circumstances (not enough time/resources), there're folks who are VERY "street smart" with emoting--Their instincts are crazy sharp and they can improv circles around anyone. They're the Pirate Day, Renaissance Fair people who can make you speechless out of confusion because they know what's going on and you don't.

I kinda suck at emoting compared to these AWESOME people who instinctively know what's natural and what isn't. It's like I color by number while they actually study colors in the world and whatnot. There're also REALLY talented producers who don't even act, but can get insanely good casts together and bring out their best performances. Right now, if I want to improve, I'm gonna have to work with producers/performers who have these kinds of ears.

These are harder to find than you think...

Buuuuuttt~ I will say so now, these people share a common trait: Their minds aren't polluted by anime or such-like. They think very much for themselves and aren't the sort to "recycle crap every other fan already did".

That makes it a bit easier to know who I want to work with the more I keep at my voice acting endeavors~

I'm looking forward to quite a few projects to be released soon~ I worked on those roles with folks with insanely good ears before my hiatus (a good chunk of which done through live direction), so I wanna see what other non-actors think of my performance!

It's mostly about animating this time! A voice actress going into animating, compare to animators going to voice acting! How many of those are out there, I wonder?

Animating!

Bioshock Project

Rapture's Best & Brightest Trailer

Yay! I released my first flash! Its description speaks for itself, so let's talk a little about the rest of the series and later animations.

I kid you not, Samantha Precourt was an impulse character and I just kept expanding on her since she was so open ended. I feel bad that I'm starting my Bioshock project before even planning EVERYTHING out (which is BAD, since I'm a screenwriting major and going straight to pages never ends well). The LAST thing I want is for my project to be a crappily-written fanfiction. I've seen a few Bioshock fan series, but they never quite compare to what Bioshock is really about, which is the immersion and all that good stuff with its world.

Admittedly, I'm really rough around the edges in the art department. My "art deco studies" come from browsing the Internet and taking inspiration pictures from the inside of the New York New York hotel/casino in Vegas, to name some issues that come to mind (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON 50's FASHION)... However, I think I at least have enough writing experience to know when a story isn't doing what it's supposed to and a keen enough ear to know when the sound isn't "good" enough. Bioshock won awards for its sound design because you seriously can't play that game on mute--All the sounds are crucial to making the game come together. That said, while the visual end has to be done right, the audio has MUCH more weight in the production process.

Upcoming Projects

Meanwhile, I only have a few weeks left of this Flash CS5 trial before I resume animating with Flash 8, so I'll be abusing the crap outta flash to animate random sprite stuff to get more familiar with the program(s). Expect me to abuse sprites from Ace Attorney, The World Ends with You, and other random crap 'cause I always, ALWAYS wanted to do these kinds of things, but never had the patience to do it with Windows Movie Maker like the insane/dedicated people on YouTube.

Original Projects

Do I wanna make original stuff? Hell ya! But at my current skill level, I wouldn't be able to properly convey the visions I want to put forth. Vector and tweening is okay, but the stuff I REALLY wanna pull off are FBF fight/chase/dance scenes at the very least. So... At best, people who see my sketch-doodle dumps on The Backalleys will be able to see the kind of things my brain spits out.

Voice Acting!

Again... Gonna have to cool it on accepting new opportunities. I suck at saying "no" as much as I suck at responding to PM's/emails because I can't resist the opportunity to voice act. But I GOTTA knuckle down and say "no" more often because, unlike high school, things become MUCH harder in the senior year of university. I'm graduating next year, so more animations, but voice acting for online stuff sparingly.

However, I am still working hard~ I'm looking forward to an upcoming voice acting workshop I'll be attending, in which I'll be learning how to voice act for theme parks (LIKE DISNEY THEME PARKS; DIBS ON THE HAUNTED MANSION)! Just because I'm "good" doesn't mean I should let myself get stagnant or complacent, so I'm aiming to take on more challenging projects too. Challenging as in "the director won't let me over act or use anime acting" so I can sound REALLY good.

An upcoming project I'm excited for? Weeelll~~

I wanted to post my thoughts on AX Idol's Voice Acting this year much earlier (excitement, relevant timing, minimizing FRIKKIN' HUGE PAGE STRETCHING), but really wanted to give the talented folks some front page recognition! Curse this 1 FP post per 2 weeks!

Newgrounds Voice Overs Who've Made Waves @ AX Idol

2007
Winner - Rina-chan

2008
Finals - Egoraptor
Winner - Cerise Panda <--- voices for Resident Evil Pwanchi Series!

2009
Close Contender - Tomamoto
Close Contender - Princess Aurora <--- make her voice for more stuff, darn it!
Close Contender - Hnilmik
Winner - Sonicmega <--- voiced in LEFT 4 SPEED 2!

2010
Close Contender - Hnilmik
Finals - BlueSentaiHero <--- voices for Resident Evil Pwanchi Series!
Finals - Hathor Liderc <--- apparently, he doesn't get coauthored for stuff...
Finals - Darkwolf <--- voices for AWESOME stuff like H.E.L.L. and VG Exiles!

EXPLANATION on "CLOSE CONTENDERS"
Almost every year, the folks running the competition would show a "Look at the tough competition our finalists had to go up against!" clip reel video before the finalists did their thing. There can only be 5 finalists per division. Usually, beyond the more "interesting to look at" entries (screaming and funny+intense faces look cool), moments outta really good performances are in them. Here's this year's:

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Of the 2 years I've participated, I showed up in 2 of 'em in a row, even when my performance this year was a bad shot featuring a lot of head room ( [4:01]-ish)! Though, even if I didn't show up in this year's clip reel, I'm personally very proud of my performance~ While the other girls were doing namby-pamby, weepin' monologues of sadness and "lukewarm" performances from Ouran, I chose to do a monologue by a Chinese psycho lesbian ninja, Soifon from Bleach, combining both the fury I'm best known for in my roles (admit it: a LOT of my better known roles feature screaming and rage) and the intensity that more experienced voice peoples can pull off.

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(Haha, you can see Rubberninja in this shot! He's right next to Princess Aurora~)

By the way, I LOVE Princess Aurora's reaction to my performance in this video! I rarely ever, if not never, EVER get to see how my performance affects others while in the moment. It made me REALLY happy to see how I can make others happy with "whoa"-ness~ Here's to doing more awesome performances!

Before folks say stuff like "EGO AND TOMAR WERE GANKED!!", remember that this voice acting "competition" is more like an audition... An audition for a studio more known for working on anime stuff and this is at an anime convention. Anime, anime, anime. Oh, they know that there're lots of talented voice peoples out there. They just pick the "winners" based on what they're looking for (which is typically people who can easily voice for anime characters) and each year, they look for different things.

Key word, again, for emphasis: Audition. Who the heck would cast someone like me, known for bossy-angry-crazy roles, as the leading lady of the anime equivalent of Twilight?

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You can be the best voiceover in the world, but if you don't fit, it'll just be jarring.

(BTW: I only read a few volumes of Vampire Knight before getting frustrated with all the flashbacks. Yuki was supposed to be a tough girl with a person-beating stick, but I saw more "OHH GAAWWDD, THE VAMPIRE IS TOUCHING ME PROVOCATIVELYYY" than person-beating.)

I'm a bad girl.

Animating!

So, I've been taking this Photoshop/Flash class for the past... 4-ish weeks now. Next week is the end of my class. Animating is fun in an ow-my-eyes-have-been-stuck-on-this-scr een-forever kind of way. I'm tempted to say that I'll be animating more down the road~ Simple things to be more familiar with flash, but animating~

My first ever flash will be 30-60 seconds long, consist of lots of tweening, made in 1 week (or less), and feature my li'l Bioshock project. A trailer at best. I have lots of questions about how will I be able to upload it to Newgrounds without smashing my copy of Flash, but my hands are beginning to hurt from all the animating and typing.

Final Thoughts

Money, money, money. Education costs money, living costs money, staying sane costs money. Oooyyy... Been stressed, but hanging in there! Lots of prioritizing to keep everything together!

I suck at responding to emails and PM's at the moment because of the above issue. I kid you not. I apologize.

:T No voice sample reel this time. I have my reasons--If you wanna see what I can do, you can check out older newsposts and/or just watch the stuff I voiced for. Like me voicing for Ultimecia in Sanity Not Included (now on Machinima.com)!

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Is that GuitarmasterX7 I hear~?

If you read this far, I made heart-hands at you!

Thought Dump

I wanna play Grim Grimoire. I'm terrified of RTS's because of massively failing at StarCraft, but I watched a playthrough and I love the voice acting! Advocat is the most awesome character in the entire game and he totally stole the limelight for me. I also gotta play Odin Sphere and Persona 4 when I can...

I have a formspring. I always had it, but didn't feel like sharing it too much.

RE: Professional Pursuits - Internship

The last day of my internship is today. The postproduction studio I do/did marketing/research/distribution-stuffs for is Cinema Libre Studio. The films I work/ed on are South of the Border, Fuel, Youth Knows No Pain, The End of Poverty, and El Superstar. Loootttss of documentaries! My favorite one is Fuel.

I learned a lot during my April - July-ish there, mainly since I technically never worked a day in my life before then. If you thought I was nuts in finding contacts and networking, this internship taught me how to be even more insane in digging up contact information.

Since I have school in the summer (a photoshop/flash class), I'm gonna take a break from working for a while until my schedule is much more free. I was kinda suicidal to take on an internship on top of being a full-time student, so I don't plan on doing THAT again! I look forward to the next internship opportunity though~

RE: Professional Pursuits - Voice Acting

You KNOW you're ready to replace your "demo" if you're embarrassed of posting it up. Thank goodness I have more time to work on my demo once my internship ends, but that means I'll have to prioritize my demo before lines for producers if I want to have a good one that'll help me get more professional opportunities. For the past year, lines-before-demo priority happened a lot (and obviously, still no demo to this day), so I feel it's about time that I stop being a pushover and actually say "no" to more things.

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In other news, I'll be attending Anime Expo this year!

I will also be participating in AX Idol, that singing/voice acting competition that's more like an auditioning opportunity than a "chance of the lifetime". While there've been questionable finalists in the past ("How did S/HE make it into finals!?" moments), a LOT of NG members were pretty tough contenders (Tomamoto and Princess Aurora to name a few), making it into finals (Egoraptor ['08]), or even winning (Rina-chan ['07], Cerise Panda ['08], and Sonicmega ['09]), so I hope to keep up this mini-tradition of Newgrounds voiceovers being a force to be reckoned with~

My monologue for the audition round features Soifon from Bleach~ She's one of the few characters I like in that series-that-I-stopped-watching-after-R ukia-got-rescued. It just occurred to me: I think the majority of folks who know Bleach only watched/read that far.

Page stretching will be inevitable because of YouTube videos.
BLOG BLOG BLOG BLOG BLOG!!

xx; Still drowning in voice acting requests and it's taking a while to get through them because different projects require different amounts of lines, I'm currently interning at a post-production studio (in marketing), will start my summer course in multimedia tomorrow (learnin' my Photoshop and Flash like a bauss, baby!), and I'm trying to have a life so people stop giving me weird looks when my hobbies (like voice acting) sound more like jobs!

I'm currently finishing up Bioshock 2 (amazing voice acting, if it wasn't already obvious) and at the time of this post, in the 2nd case of the Miles Edgeworth game~

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(Brb, breaking Rapture.)

If I somehow forgot that I owe you lines, email me. PM's are hard to keep track of when I use 4+ different places to hunt for voice acting opportunities...

Voice Acting: Behind the Scenes! - PART 2

...Which brings me to PART 2 of this li'l thingummy! On top of hunting for voice acting opportunities (auditions), I'm pretty decent at promoting my voice acting (enough to get overwhelmed by voice acting requests and ironically, also enough to get overlooked). On the VAC, I wrote a handy-dandy guide about promoting your voice acting services online for further explanation, should you like to read further into that. After giving that a look-see, you'll quickly understand why I need to get my voice acting demo done (that I can be pleased with), so I can have an even easier time marketing myself beyond posting up a certain voice acting clip reel from my YouTube that economizes my "resume" more than showing off my real range.*

Now for the real behind the scenes stuff. Last post, you heard how I can voice act and switch between voices/characters no problem; That takes a lot of practice, by the way. Time to actually see how I perform; This takes a lot of practice too, in which I'll describe/explain.

This is a video of me recording for Matt Wilson's upcoming animation. The auditions are currently closed and he's reviewing the entrants, so I don't know if the below performance got me any roles.

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(Further proof that I'm Asian.)

I will say though, for those who may not notice these things:

1 - THIS is what energetic looks like and trust me, I can go even crazier. So if you think you're crazy enough to voice for crazy things but sound like an unenthused stoner in your Egoraptor impersonations (the phrase "METAL GEEEAAAARR" comes to mind), odds are that you forgot that voice acting is acting with the challenge of portraying it solely through your voice... It's not all voice 'cause you need to act and when you act, it has to be heard and as you can see, a lot has to be done for my acting to be heard.

=P Ego knows how to act, so try imagining how bonkers he looks when he bounces off the walls.

2 - Ego has been voice acting for, what, 10 years now? And I've been acting for 2.5 years, so in my inexperience, you can "hear my acting" (and even see it), which is... Not always good, since the point behind acting is to make people believe that you're not acting. That's why this psycho performance isn't all there is to voice acting (and creepily enough, there's such thing as even more convincing psychotic-ness).

From a critical standpoint, you can't substitute volume (like screaming) for intensity (power, influence) and judging by the several times where I voiced "serious" characters, I've always had a hard time voicing them since... Well... How can you be serious without being boring/monotone? It's "easy" to be insane, but INCREDIBLY hard to be anywhere near as bad-ass as the calm, collected bad-asses you hear in cartoons and video games (that's why it's easy to pick out the posers doing bad impressions).

Fortunately, I have friends who know how it works. When Ego was directing me for Puzzmosis in early February (if you don't think Ego can do serious roles, listen to something good he did in 2007), a producer friend broke things down for me, 2 professional voice actors/directors pushed my limits, 1 voice acting peer broke things down even further, and D-Mac decided to test a hypothesis last week, I started improving my acting on another level and this is what happened.

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Yep, it took a LOT of mental mashing until I managed to pull THIS off. If I kept your interest throughout that whole thing, I'm on to something. Heck, try and listen to that WITHOUT seeing it. If I kept your attention during THAT, I think I'm on the right track with the right train for once.

I intend to separate myself even more from the pack as a competent voice actress on the Interwebz, sooo... If you hear any unenthused stoner/monotone voice actresses out there, that's because they didn't figure these things out yet.

=P And if they're reading this, I do look forward to them figuring these things out. The world can benefit from more good voice acting and I'm sure if they know what they're doing, they'll be improving in leaps and bounds in no time.

/rambling

*This thing.

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Maybe between lines I owe, my job, and my class, I'll work on my demo with some help from my buddies (in both the directing and sound-editing fronts).

FUN FACT!!
Although I didn't voice for //Necropolis Synergy, I (more like my character) made a mini-cameo in it! I am suh-neaky!

(YungJazz drew her much prettier than I did, that's for sure.)

o_o; And apparently, I'm THAT hardcore about popping up everywhere without people noticing.

Page stretching will be inevitable because of YouTube videos. To minimize page-stretching, I shall combat it by posting more often so I won't throw an as big wall of words (+ videos) as when I usually updated in the past, which was... Like... Whenever something got released on NG.

People have been nicer about co-authoring me, so yeah!

...Also, AAAAAAUGH!! I'M DROWNING IN VOICE ACTING REQUESTS!! I deeply appreciate the interest, but I have work and I don't want to destroy my chords screaming day to day, so if I suck at responding, methinks you either oughta look for another gal to help you out or email me in a few weeks after I finish a bunch of things. I forget what I'm working on very easily when I'm PM'd instead of emailed.

Junk Drawer of Thoughts

Remember that indie, freeware, point-and-click game, Eternally Us, from the last post? It won the competition! Yay!

My favorite sushi roll is a Caterpillar Roll!
My favorite drink is a Shirley Temple!
My favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins is Rock n' Pop Swirl! It's a seasonal flavor that's only available in the summer!
My favorite flavor at Cold Stone is Cake Batter!
I like colorful food and I have a ridiculously high sugar tolerance!
Someday, life will give me diabetes!
...Eugh.

Voice Acting: Behind the Scenes! - PART 1

No, I'm not gonna tell you my "secrets". I just practiced basic stuff for years. Wanna know the basics, like where to start? I wrote a couple guides on the VAC (I moderate there too) and some good guides made by other folks. Give 'em a read. Sapphire made a great guide on NG as well!

When I used to voice act for a LOT of machinima, people couldn't believe that I could do most of the voices I did, especially after hearing my natural voice... Which is what I usually get cast for or just use when folks are vague about what kind of voice they want. I often receive PM's and comments asking "How do you do that? What do you do?" and I try to upload videos with explanations of what I go through.

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(Haha, if you have sharp ears, you'll pick up my audition for Civil War: Down to Earth!)

Dive through my YouTube or past journal entries to see Part 1 of my Rejected Audition Samples, if you really wanna hear how much my recordings/abilities improved.

...But that's just not the same as hearing/seeing my voice acting for yourself!

I think my attempt at "educating the general populace in regards to the proper articulation and expression of the vocal arts" was the first time I've ever changed my voice on the fly, mid-word/sentence. That quickly showed that yeah, the range I have is real and I learned it.

So what about while I'm actually auditioning? Like, live? Voila.

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(Directing me is D-Mac Double! He's pretty good at casting/directing on top of voice acting, by the way.)

Whenever I talk about live recording sessions, people don't know what I'm talking about and whenever I invite people to sit in on me recording for projects, I get distracted very easily and sometimes I gotta shoo people away because it's "a secret" the producer(s) told me to keep (non-disclosure agreement of sorts).

Okay, fine, this is still not a live audition (like, you only have one shot with the producer/director right in front of you), but I still recorded a live recording session, mistakes and all! And it's an audition for a flash animation (Castlevania Quack Edition) and I decided to upload it after the audition finished.

XD I got cast as Lisa Belnades, but with my redos, so ultimately, none of /these/ samples got me roles. And thaaaaaaaaaat's how auditions (recorded live, complete with mistakes, retakes, and whatnot) work!

Next time: YOU WILL SEE ME RECORDING FOR AN AUDITION. LIKE, WITH A CAMERA. YOU WILL SEE ME ACT. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAMAGES YOU INCUR UPON YOUR MONITORS IN ATTEMPT TO SMASH IN MY FACE.

OBLIGATORY CLIP REEL VIDEO UNTIL I GET TIME TO RECORD FOR MY DEMO--FARK THIS, I SHOULD JUST MAKE TIME TO WORK ON THAT MOFO, FFFFFFFFFF--

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To the ears I've destroyed through "educating the general populace in regards to the proper articulation and expression of the vocal arts", I'm sorry. Weird crap happens when studying for finals drive me up the wall (more on that later).

As an apology, hear my voice acting when I'm not trying to make you cry blood.

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Dang, it's been a looooooooooong time since I updated this! And i just noticed that I can post on the Front Page! And I don't want to give folks a wall of words to wade through, so I'm gonna try to keep things as short as I can instead of working on my final paper or studying for my last final.

=P Don't I have good priorities!

RE: Professional Pursuits - Internship

For those who've read my past journal entries about my interning goals, I secured an internship and have been working at a postproduction studio for the past few months now~ I've been getting lots of callbacks from interested studios, stations, and whatnot too, so now I can say that I have some experience out in the field!

RE: Professional Pursuits - Voice Acting

Not NG, but I GOTTA share this since it's very sweet.
I voiced for Fio (the blonde) in this indie, freeware, point-and-click game, Eternally Us.
Promoting this since it's a competition entry!

Dellaciel, Omahdon, and Lucien Dodge are in this too~

For you Mac users who are having trouble downloading the game, Omahdon uploaded a walkthrough!

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Neato Fan-Stuffs

...I just recently noticed that folks, like DJ Delinquent, are robbing me blind! Gasp!

Actually I don't mind people sampling or animating my audio stuff at all! They're there to be used anyhow; I just didn't know that they actually WOULD be used, so it looks like I gotta record/mix better stuff to share so I can stop feeling a little embarrassed every time I relisten to my old stuff!

(Oh gawd, the PEAKING. UGH.)

I gotta thank you silly bored people 'cause the gesture is awful-nice~

Now, my life will be complete when someone makes a good YTPMV of something I voiced in. I have dumb personal goals, I swear.

Art Hunt

I love my collection. I don't want to come off as narcissistic, but I absolutely love the art I commissioned! I keep getting new favorites! I'm gonna have a hard time deciding which one(s) to use to promote my voice work someday when I get time/money to commission a web designer to make my voice acting site!

...After I get my demo together. I'll work on that during the summer. When I have more time to record. And perhaps try my hand again at AX Idol at Anime Expo 2010 (if I make it to finals, I dress up as a TF2 BLU Scout for y'all 'cause I'm a dork like that).

...WAY TO STILL PAGE STRETCH, ME!