If you have a voice director or simply want to be clear about what kind of voice you are looking for, it can help to have a casting sheet of character profiles. A voice director can choose from a large roster of contacts to help cast and assign the right talent.
In my experience, I was assigned at least four to five actors for each character, and I chose either one or two for the character. Schedules also need to line up for recording, but the entirety of Wolfskin's Curse was recorded and scheduled within a week.
Below was the rough template I gave to Maxi, my voice director. I also kept track of who sent me demo reels in case I liked their voice in my Game Jam Organizer, though your voice director may be more stringent on who they are willing to work with on a project.
[image if possible]
Name:
Age:
Voice type:
Voice range:
Character description:
Ilona
Age: 24
Voice type: Sombre, quiet. Not too feminine. She is not excessively emotive but should sound determined when in a crisis.
Voice range: mid to high
Character description: A former nun claiming to be on a pilgrimage. She’s not exactly focused on spiritual matters. Hides a tragic past, but clings onto hope and faith in living.
<aside> 🎙️ VOICE TYPE: the delivery.
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What kind of performance are you seeking? Descriptions work well here. If you have samples of a performance you like, you can link them here.
Note that the examples you provide should only be a suggestion. Don't expect a 1:1 reproduction!
<aside> 🗣 VOICE RANGE: low, mid, high.
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A range is fine to use, eg. low to mid, mid to high, etc.
For each character to sound distinct, your voice director may suggest a different range to help establish that character.
<aside> 🎞️ A note on demo reels
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I was aiming to have a more subdued and more realistic style of performance in Wolfskin's Curse than something highly animated and energetic, though most demo reels deliver a lot of high energy performances and impact.
It can be difficult to determine, but you would want to avoid a flat performance or poorly acted out deliveries. What's most important is range and emotions. A lot of the demo reels for the voice actors in Wolfskin's Curse showed a vast range and an ability to play different characters well, so do listen to how voices sound for a genre that may be vastly different to yours.
When I hand in my script, I put it in the format that I would use for Ren'Py. This is usually a Google document. That way the voice director or voice actor can ctrl + f and search their character identifier and quotations to find all their lines.
<aside> ⚙ TIP: disable smart quotes. Tools → Preferences → Uncheck 'Use smart quotes'.
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Make sure your voice director or voice actor is aware of unidentified characters as well. The dialogue lines should have gone through proofreading for any grammar mistakes, and script editing to make sure lines flow well.
If you are unfamiliar with the process of voice acting, your voice actor should ideally record their lines in a session or multiple sessions if there are a lot of lines. Each session should have some length of silence with NO BACKGROUND NOISES recorded. No vacuums, no cats, clicks, whirrs of fans etc. This is necessary to remove noise during cutting. This recording should be saved as a .wav file at 44 or 48 Hz.
Your voice actor may be self-directed or have the help of a voice director. Ideally, there should be two to five takes per line. The most common number is three takes.
Each take is working up to build up to a performance, or to evoke a different feeling if necessary. When in doubt, the last take is generally the best performance, but you may choose what take is necessary based on the character.
For some people, writing dialogue can come naturally, or it can be a struggle. If you fall into the latter category, I highly suggest a script editor or proofreader so that sentences can be reworded as needed. It may seem like old advice, but saying each line may be helpful.
In the end, your style is your own! Onto more technical advice.