Voice Acting?

Lunais · December 30, 2006, 08:40:50 AM

You can import sound files, right? Theoretically, you could use a mic to record someone talking, import it as a sound effect, and then play it in the game parallel to its corresponding message, right? Has anyone ever tried before?

Ravenshade · December 30, 2006, 07:59:06 PM

Actually that sounds like a damn good idea.

I haven't tried yet but I was thinking about it. The problem, would be to get the sound playing at the right times.

keyblade_bearer · December 30, 2006, 10:04:10 PM

Yes I have, I forget who did it though. And I haven't a clue how :p

darkelementwars · December 30, 2006, 10:14:27 PM

I've got a few voice over going in my game, but it can be a pain in the ass with the timing to make it seem right.

If the player pressed enter too fast before the voice is done, the voice overs continue trying to catch up with the game. You need to use an advanced message system to make sure the message box lasts a certain time to do it.

feildmaster · December 30, 2006, 10:35:44 PM

or you could just store it as a background sound... and make it fade out in 0 seconds right after the message is passed...? *Just thinking it through my head... as I am not at home to test if it works... never tried...*

Ravenshade · December 30, 2006, 11:25:38 PM

Could you not try to freeze the person in place, or just have the message come up with the speech at the same time, and then when the enter key is pressed, both message and sound disappear together?

Lunais · December 31, 2006, 12:18:52 AM

Wasn't there a message script that let you pause message boxes with like...\p or something?

darkelementwars · December 31, 2006, 12:24:01 AM

Quote from: Lunais on December 31, 2006, 12:18:52 AM
Wasn't there a message script that let you pause message boxes with like...\p or something?

yeah thats the advanced message script i was talking about

Dark_Koji · December 31, 2006, 02:13:18 PM

How about just using 'stop sound-effect' after the corresponding message, so both textbox and sound/voice will end together?
Most games with voiceover are kind of like that; voices end immediately if the player choose to end the textbox..

Just a thought, but I guess it isn't that simple LoL

feildmaster · December 31, 2006, 05:10:58 PM

thats what i suggested... XD

and yes... it DOES work...

Roph · December 31, 2006, 05:20:16 PM

It's been tried before, and people have grouped together and started to record stuff, but it's never been followed through or even a demo been made using it.

feildmaster · December 31, 2006, 06:15:17 PM

i'd try making a demo but my voice sucks.. Oo

Lunais · January 01, 2007, 03:48:40 AM

I don't have a mic, so I'll have to hire people...

Ravenshade · January 02, 2007, 11:35:09 PM

How will you get the funds to hire people?

Lunais · January 04, 2007, 01:06:26 PM

I was planning on "hiring" some friends, or anyone willing to work for the amazing wage of 0 dollars an hour.

Ravenshade · January 04, 2007, 01:49:52 PM

lmao "hiring" some friends.

Well, hope that you have success with that, i'd like to hear how it turns out. Get a local drama group involved as well. It'll give them work experience (and it's normally free)

purifier · January 05, 2007, 09:31:46 PM

I've tried to do some voice acting for a few projects, but they both (I think...) cancelled or something to that effect. I'm more than willing to let anyone use my voice for anything. So, if you want to test it or ever need someone to do voice acting for just about anything, pm or e-mail me.

Yume_Nasuki · January 08, 2007, 04:12:26 PM

LMAO, so someone else did have my idea. I was wondering when people were going to start doing voiceovers. Anywase, I'd help out but I'm still trying to find a Digital Voice Morpher that works with pitch and tone. Then you wouldn't realy need anyone else's help you could just record your own voice and morph the sound. But it appears technology hasn't cought up with me yet....

- Searching for results. Please wait while we find your results.... -

oooooooo, then again mabey there is a ray of hope......

Renegade · January 10, 2007, 12:49:50 AM

Making the voices is the hard part.

Setting them in the game is easy.

Just play the voice file and have the text come up right after that.
When the player presses the button to move the text have the next thing be turn OFF sound.
Then play the next voice file followed by the text.

Reives · January 11, 2007, 02:54:00 AM

The one thing I'd think to look out for here is that often, people who do this end up focusing too much on getting the voices before the other fundamental aspects of the game are ripe. Just don't get distracted from the main course

P.S. In my personal opinion, voice-over is a double edged sword. If done nicely it's quite impressive, but if done badly it's a turn-off.

Arrow · January 11, 2007, 03:09:57 AM

I tried to do voices in my GM project, the castlevania one. I figured out how to make my voice get a real cool evil effect, it didn't even sound like me anymore. Given, it's the easiest kind, but I did it.

Knownot · January 16, 2007, 10:46:55 AM

I think quite alot of people have tried it but it would probably make the game file huge

Ravenshade · January 16, 2007, 12:22:36 PM

Depends on what you save the music file as, I here wav is really small.

ataraxy2 · January 16, 2007, 02:25:29 PM

Um... wav is huge! If I remember it all right: wav is the best format for quality due to how it doesn't compress the file and can go through many encodings without losing quality abuptly. mp3 is a compressed and small format (unless it's at 320k/bits) but with each new encoding quality drops. There is a format that can keep quality although I think it's not a "normal" everyday format and probably requires something RPG Maker won't have.

So you'd probably need to use mp3 - even then all of the voice clips added up... that's gonna be freakin' huge anyway.

Knownot · January 17, 2007, 11:07:33 AM

Yea..
Unless you only put it on climatic events instead of the whole game...
you might just get away with it.