@ Riot: As an aspiring Voice Actor...

EbonyBladeJ88·1/8/2019, 11:42:22 PM·1 votes·2,982 views

Are there any specific factors RIot looks for when auditioning VA's for their champions, or even other things like videos, lore events, and the like?

Do you look for mainly experienced VA's? Are you willing to give greenhorns such as myself and others a chance? (I'm not saying I'm ready to voice a champ, I am VERY FAR from that level of VA skill as of yet)

It's just that, as an aspiring Voice Actor, hoping to make it my main career, I'm curious.

3 Comments

RiotRiot Pls1/10/2019, 12:31:07 AM3 votes

Speaking as a fellow actor, some general advice for building your voiceover career:

Look for classes that help you skill up and learn industry expectations
When you're ready, seek out help in recording a strong demo
Look for representation to help you book work
Seek out casting listings and indie opportunities to both sharpen your craft and get work under your belt

For Riot, WAAARGHbobo had talked a bit about casting champion voices here: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/LiEvJI9Y-how-to-get-a-job-as-a-voice-of-a-champion

ChaosReyn1/10/2019, 2:23:14 AM1 votes

As a guy who's seen more than a few anime and gaming conventions, and met more than a few accomplished VAs, I think the advice that stuck with me most came from Vic Mignogna. (For those who don't know who that is, he's the VA for Edward Elric [FMA], Broly [DBZ] and Iori [Persona 3], among many other notable roles) I'll paraphrase the three most notable things he said, but it went basically like this:

Know your voice. Know the range of your vocal ability as only you can, and try not to bite off more than you can chew. His example, funny enough, was Broly - he took that role cause it was "Freakin' Dragon Ball" and essentially, Broly royally strains his voice. When you all get to watch the new DBZ Super Broly movie, give that guy some credit - Vic has a hard time trying to perform other acts whenever he's called upon to fill that role again.

Know the character. The more you know about the role your character plays, the more everything you do, from your voice, to your tone, to the subtleties that give pure emotion to the character, will fit into place. A good voice actor should essentially be able to envision themselves as the character they're portraying. The role of Edward Elric made him physically emotional throughout the series, which only added to his already brilliant ability...but he did give a warning on that too.

Know your role. A VA's role is, obviously, to bring a voice to a character. It is not to write or make up their lines...with some very unique exceptions, the most notable of which being the writer AND the VA, which is pretty rare in larger companies. Although occasionally VAs end up improvising a line that ends up better than the original, this is not the industry standard, and hence not something you should make a habit of trying to do often. Often times, it can be taken as insulting or insubordinate to try your own lines, especially if you have a habit of attempting to do so, as it pretty much directly undermines the scriptwriter's ideas and intentions, most of which are pretty much already set long before they need your voice.

It's also not a VA's job to let their emotions ruin the script and the lines by distorting their meaning. Although Vic didn't give a direct example of any of these in relation to his own career, that's generally because a company that can't get a good VO from you will simply have someone else be their VA, and I'm sure there's been many roles even that guy's been passed over because something didn't fit right with his tone, or with his projection of emotions. He did say pretty much exactly this on the topic though: "Even though these things don't necessarily make you a bad actor, there is a time and a place for everything...and trying to start by making your own lines and throwing your emotions way over the top of what the character's idea is supposed to be is generally the quickest way to not get the job."

I know that's not what you're asking directly, but I do hope it helps. A lot of it ties into what mChao summed up as simply "sharpening your skills and learning industry expectations."

Sukishoo1/10/2019, 2:58:27 AM1 votes

They are sent out through various studios in Cali, so it just depends on who is on the roster at the studio that gets to try out for it.