You’ve learned about voice-over artists, and now you’re wondering: “Can I be a voice actor, too?”. The answer to that is yes, as long as you know how to become a voice actor. It might need a lot of work, but you have to believe in yourself.
A voice actor is a professional content creator who uses their voice to act out a script for movies, commercials, animes, or other forms of media. Becoming a voice actor requires versatile voice acting skills to work on various projects and consistency to deliver the best work.
But how to do that? That’s what we want to answer now. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to get into voice acting. So, let’s jump in!
How to Become a Voice Actor
These are the steps by steps for those who want to know how to get into voice acting:
1. Understand Your Voice Potentials
The first step in how to become a voice actor is understanding who you are and what your voice potentials are. Don’t cut corners. This is the most important thing to consider before moving on to the next step.
Bear in mind that becoming a voice actor requires you to give your best in every project you work on. That will mark your expertise and credibility, which are important to jump into the voice acting industry.
So, understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. It will help you pick the best projects that suit your talent.
At first, you can try to record yourself talking, reading, screaming, whispering, or anything like that. Then, you can analyze your tone, accent, vocal range, volume, and any other unique qualities. Those things will make you stand out as a voice actor.
Or, if becoming a voice actor with versatile skills is your goal, you can prioritize what to improve with your voice acting. In short, that is how to start voice acting: assessing your innate potential and opportunities to improve yourself.
2. Stay Updated with the Voice Acting Industry Trends
The next step is always to update yourself with the voice acting industry trends. How do you become a voice actor with huge success if you have no idea what’s going on in the industry?
Stay up-to-date with the trends is crucial because it helps you adapt to the changing demands and be aware of emerging opportunities. That way, you’ll know if your skills are still relevant to the industry or need to shift gears.
Simply put, if knowing your potential is the start of the journey, then providing what the industry demands is your destination. So, how to become a voice actor professionally in this step?
There are many resources to help you stay updated with the trends. You can read magazines like The Buzz, listen to podcasts like VO Buzz Weekly, or subscribe to blogs like The Voice Shop or The Gank Blog, which give you a lot of tips and tricks on voice acting.
3. Join Vocal Training Classes
“I already know my potential and understand how to get into voice acting; why would I need to join a vocal class?” You can consider this step optional, but joining any vocal classes or workshops will help you grow as a voice actor.
You can enroll in online courses like Masterclass, Skillshare, or any other platform. This is great to make sure you know all the basics of voiceover work. As most courses come from full-time professionals, you can learn how they become successful as voice actors in many projects.
You can enroll in voice acting workshops or classes to know your unique potential.
When you have a voice coach, they can assess your voice, give you feedback on how to improve it, and suggest specific technical training with personalized goals to maintain its quality. This way, your training will be more organized and objective.
What’s more, especially if you join group workshops, you can gain experiences from others while experimenting with various voiceover techniques using different scripts.
You can even experiment with different accents if you want to. This will open your door to a wider opportunity as a voice actor in other countries.
4. Invest in Good Equipment
The next step in how to be a voice actor is investing in the proper equipment to produce high-quality recordings. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to pay for high-end products. If the recording quality is appropriate as a demo reel, then you can use what you already have.
Generally, becoming a voice actor requires you to have this voice acting setup:
- Microphone. It’s recommended to use the best microphone based on your budget. This is the key factor for your voice recordings. For starters, great mics like Audio Technica AT-2020 are a great option. But if you don’t want to buy a new one, a cheap gaming mic you own will do just fine.
- Microphone Stand or Arms. If your microphone comes with a boom arm or stand, you better use it for your recording. This will allow you to please your mic in a better position to support your posture to produce an excellent voice. It also hinders unwanted noises when you hold it all by yourself.
- Headphones. Wearing a headphone allows you to monitor your recording quality in real-time. So, when you hear any background noise, you can stop recording your voice. Depending on your setup and preference, you can use a wired or wireless headset.
- Audio Interface and Digital Audio Workstation. You’ll need these types of equipment if your mic uses an XLR connection, a type of connection that professional production use. Or, you can skip this if you use a more convenient mic with a plug-and-play USB connector.
- Soundproofing. How to start voice acting and record your voice in your room? Make sure you apply soundproofing materials in your room. This will reduce background noises and echoes that will cause low recording quality. You can use plasterboard, soundproof wallpaper, and something similar.
- Recording Softwares. When it comes to software, you can use any recording software based on your needs. Any free software like Audacity or Logic Pro X will work well for basic use. But you can invest in versatile audio software like Adobe Audition.
Read More: Best Content Creation Tools
5. Create Voice Acting Demos
You’re all set up with the right mindset, excellent vocal skills, and proper equipment now. So, the next step in how to become a voiceover artist is to start creating a demo reel.
A demo reel is a collection of brief voice recordings showcasing your best works on voice acting. Make sure you put all your effort into producing the most awesome recordings, as that will demonstrate your vocal uniqueness and voice acting skills.
Basically, you can include all different voiceover samples to highlight your versatility. It can be your recordings when you act as a narrator of documentary movies, promote products for commercials, scream like in a horror movie, or talk like in a drama scene.
The list can go on and on. But remember that you should emphasize the quality rather than the quantity of your demo reels.
6. Build Your Online Presence
How to become a voice actor in this digital age? Make sure you maintain your online presence, promoting yourself as a voice actor. That means you should showcase your voice acting samples on any platform to reach a wider audience.
You can use social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to post your voice acting in audio or video. Or you can start your livestream, acting as certain characters to entertain your audience. Plus, you can create a professional website that exclusively displays your voiceover works.
Compared to social media platforms, a website gives you more freedom to portray yourself as a professional. You can have customized pages and sell services right from there. But you need to invest in the hosting services and domain to do that.
Alternatively, you can also join an online forum where many voice actors or industry professionals meet. This allows you to share knowledge, get opportunities and stay informed about the industry trends.
7. Go Audition for Certain Roles
Going into an audition is the most important step in how to get into voice acting. This can give you a more significant opportunity to convince your client that you are the right talent.
Luckily, some many websites or platforms allow you to go into an online audition. This way, you can look for more opportunities worldwide. VoiceBooking is among those websites, or you can search for your local website offering the audition for specific roles.
While the online audition is good, the offline audition gives you a better chance of being hired as a professional. The recruiters or talent spotters can hear your voice directly and make a real-time judgment if you’re the perfect talent for the specific role.
Even if you fail on your first attempt, you can make it a valuable experience to understand how to improve on your next audition. Remember, going into auditions is a process that all voice actors will experience.
To give context, even Eddie Murphy had to go into an audition to get his role as Donkey in Shrek. Previously, it was Steve Martin who was supposed to be part of in Steven Spielberg’s initial plan.
What You Need to Becoming a Voice Actor
You’ve learned how to be a voice actor. Then, what are the voice actors skills you need to have as a professional?
1. Innate Talent
As with another skill, it would be great if you have a talent as a voice actor.
It would be something as you can easily impersonate another character or mimic certain sounds. Or, it could be like doing voice acting is an innate part of your life that you’re passionate about.
But you might ask, “How do I become a voice actor if I don’t have such talent?” You can still be a great voice actor, but you must practice harder to achieve such superb quality. This is true as voice acting is not about producing voice but about acting as it is scripted.
2. Voice Acting Basics Knowledge
Becoming a voice actor ask for you to understand the basics of voice acting. It includes understanding vocal techniques, identifying your vocal identity, creating distinct characters’ voices, and improving your script-reading skill.
Mastering the basics of voice acting is an integral part of how to be a voice actor. It will help you build the right mindset and open your mind to many opportunities to explore the voice-acting world.
Not only that, you need to learn the basics of voice acting as a professional, too. It includes how to respond to audition rejection and how to work on a contract in the long term.
3. Growth Mindset
What else do you need to be a voice actor? It’s the right mindset. This is essential to explore the opportunity of a voice-acting job. This makes you eager to try something different and experiment with distinct voices for more characters.
Without having a growth mindset, you will be stuck as a mediocre voice actor. Or, even worse, you can’t catch up with the industry trends ever evolving as you can do only specific roles.
4. Recording Equipment
Especially if you are involved in certain products as a solo voice actor, you need to make sure that your home equipment is ready for the project. This includes the ability to detect some technical issues that should be solved before the deadline for production.
Adding to that, your technical recording skills should be improved over time. This applies to the ability to produce a great sound and to choose the right hardware or software for production.
Let’s say, you need to know when to upgrade your equipment. For example, you can switch to a better mic that effectively supports better recording for certain characters. This allows you to work on more of that project with great results that will satisfy your clients.
Read : Best Microphone for Streaming in 2023
5. Awesome Networking
How do you become a voice actor if you have limited networking among the voice acting community? Building a great network that opens the door for a voice acting job offer is recommended unless you have become a well-known actor.
A good start for this is showing that you’re passionate about voice acting and aspire to be a great voiceover actor. You can do this using your social media accounts, portfolio website, or blog.
In addition, you can also go into a voice acting audition to get to know more people in the industry. Or, you can attend workshops, classes, or events to meet like-minded people or someone who might have a project which needs a talent like you.
6. Resilience
Your voice-acting success will not happen overnight. It would help if you were resilient with what will happen while pursuing voice-acting jobs.
Sometimes, it will mean that you will go into an audition after an audition with rejections. Another time, you will get only a tiny role with a low fee while it is, in fact, a very big project. The voice acting industry is indeed challenging but rewarding as well.
Until you find the right role that can set your success as a voice actor, you need to keep developing your skills and being motivated. This way, it will be easier to overcome obstacles and open your door to more opportunities.
Tips on How to be A Voice Actor
You have all you need to become a voice actor. So, you can start your voice acting work right away. But before that, here are tips on becoming a voice actor:
- Make yourself versatile. It’s great if you want to focus on certain voiceover characters. But in this ever-changing voice acting industry, becoming a voice actor with versatile skills is recommended. It means you need to train yourself to utilize your vocal range, acting skills, and accents to play roles as more diverse characters.
- Continuously seek feedback. Constructive feedbacks allow you to grow as a voice actor. So, keep looking for the ones who can give you feedback. I could be your vocal coach, recruiter, friend, or workmate.
- Hold strong a work ethic. Unless you have a strong work ethic, it will be hard for you to succeed as a voice actor in the long term. How to get into voice acting as a professional? Practice your vocals regularly, arrive early in the studio appointed to work, delivering high-quality work on time.
- Stay organized. Managing time and projects as a voice actor can be hard. However, as this defines your professional quality, ensure you stay organized with your tasks. Don’t let your project be postponed due to going for an audition on another project.
- Maintain your health. As a content creator, it is easy for you to immerse yourself in the project you’re working on. And so, you forget to rest, especially when it is time to deliver the work. That is not a healthy way to produce great work. If your vocal quality is impacted, it would be a great loss.
Read : 11 Tips on How to Make Money as A Content Creator
How to Get into Voice Acting: Conclusion
It’s nice to see you so excited to learn how to become a voice actor. After this, you can start diving into the fantastic world of voice acting as a professional.
In this article, you’ve learned the seven steps in how to become a voiceover actor. Here is the wrap-up:
- know your voice potential
- get updated with the latest industry trends
- enrol in vocal training classes
- invest in home recording equipment
- produce demo reels
- build your online portfolio
- go into auditions
Remember that having a voice acting talent is a gift, but you must have a proper mindset and great skill at recording. That’s all for now; we hope this article will help you become a great voice actor and find voice-acting jobs easier. Good luck!
