From what I can gather the option to make your own mods along with modern graphic quality makes the possibilities for gameplay in Skyrim almost unlimited, except for one major thing....VOICES. It's no good having fantastic graphics, sound effects and the ability to design your own quests if all your home made top quality NPCs are either limited to the same lines and actors used for the original story, or worse still, you're forced to make them mute with nothing but subtitles to make up for the lack of voice dialogue! As far as I can tell the only real way around the voice limitations is having a voice synthesizer mod of some kind, where you can maybe take voice samples from people then write and synthesize dialogue for the voices in question, with the synthesizer somehow allowing you to also change the tone of the voice to show emotions. Is anything like that available as a mod? Sounds really hard to design, much more than any other type of mod I can think of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_text-to-speech_voices

Ooh, er...I've just been listening to what I think is a sample called "Anna" from that program. If I'm right and that's a "good" example of what the voices are like then I don't think Helen Mirren has anything to worry about. Robbie the Robot must be quaking in his boots though!

Well, there's no need for a voice-synthesizer if you use some voice actors.

This sounds like a lot of unnecessary work when there are plenty of voice actors that are more than willing to help with this sort of thing. I don't like the idea of contributing to already-established NPCs in the game, but I'd be happy to help you with voice acting if you'd like some new NPCs for the game. The folks with http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8429 are doing just that; adding new people to find that have amusing things to say.

As was already pointed out, computers can offer very good synthesized voices for both speaking and singing. Vocaloid is for singing, and so is Utau. There are various plain speech synthesizers.

As far as what is desired, the quality depends on the user. If you think that a sample doesn't sound like what you would want, then you need to be good enough to make the voice sound however you wish. Yes, it can be done. Yes, it takes work. So does good visuals, good sound effects, good writing, etc.

I don't think voice sythetics would sound very good at all... We aren't quite to the point where they sound completely natural, and a robotic voice would be worse than a bad actor, which would be worse than no actor, which would be worse than a good actor.

Good actors aren't hard to get. Check out the Voice Acting Alliance, Voice Actors Guild, or other places you find. I had heaploads audition for my currrent project, and I got to pick from a large pool, the fewer specific people I liked. You shouldn't have trouble doing the same.

This would be most likely the easiest to browse and the most organized VA nest TES-modding-wise: http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/28-the-archive/

You can hear the samples there too.

Natural is subjective, though. Is someone who has some sort of accent not natural? What about a lisp? What happens when an actor attempts to imitate such a character and the content, actor, director, etc receive very negative comments about stereotyping and other subjective factors? What about various races such as the Khajit, Argonians, or even the Dragons? I hope these examples make the problem is more apparent.

Hatsune Miku has become a global phenomenon because people accept her and like her. She can sing in any form, from very "human-like" to very heavily "reverberant" (what may sound "robotic" to some people, I guess).

There are various voice synthesizers for customer help lines and other uses that cannot be differentiated from humans. This has happened to various people when speaking to such a synthesizer and then asking a question or doing something else that is not recognized, and the person is shocked to discover they have not been speaking to a person.

It's all a matter of skill, as I said. I would say that many people have not heard excellent examples, that's all. The technology is available and there's no need to rely on actors. Of course, that is another choice, but it's not the only one or even the best one, depending on circumstances and what is desired.

Anyway, I was just pointing out that voices are not the obstacle many people perceive them to be, that's all. We're way beyond that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmUM-MlA8Y4

Haha. I tried to find a good voice synthesiser video, but I don't really know what exactly to look for. But everything I've heard so far in this area, has been nowhere near the quality of speech a human delivers. Yes, they can help a lot when it comes to introductory videos at companies, some speeches for coaching (though the professional ones would still use a persuasive human, because speech-manners also matter there), train announcements etc.

But can they truly convey emotions and be characteristic for a specific character? Include delicate nuances as a natural sigh here or there, an unexpected squeal, some speech mannerism that either the actor has or has made up for the given character?

I don't know, you tell me, as I said, I'm not very oriented in the contemporary speech synthetizers, but I can honestly say, that I doubt it.

As for Hatsune Miku. I played an YT video from some concert to see what it's about, and while I'm in awe for the technology used to make it, I can still hear that there is something lacking. Maybe an emotion, maybe personal touch, maybe an actual depth in voice and a more natural flow (even though, like I said, it amazingly well done). Still, I would always pick a real singer over that one. But I wonder how would she sound singing songs that I actually like Cause the music I found with her was unbearable for me. And hence could skew my judgement a bit.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. Trouble is I don't think the tech's up to conveying a real human with real emotions at the present time. What you need for a good NPC is something/someone who can act out a situation and the NPC's emotions at that point, not just "phone in" the lines with no emotions. Is the character happy, sad, fed up, angry, furious, puzzled etc.? I guess at present the only way a synthesizer would be really useful is in contorting an actor's voice, like they so obviously did with Hugo Weaving as Megatron, David Warner as the MCP, and James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, by adding an echo or extra growl to the voice in order to convey a location or added menace, or even to make the actor sound totally different like they did with David Warner!

I've been thinking. At first I thought no person would do that for free like I'm making an NPC for free. But then I thought, yeah, why not? After all, most if not all modders are doing their thing as a hobby first and also TO GET NOTICED, so why should it be any different for a budding voice actor? So yeah, you've sold me on the voice actor thing. With me the writing isn't the problem, it was more getting the sounds that was proving the sticking point. When I do start making NPCs I'd certainly note the voice actor who contributed in the credits. Anyone got a link to some sort of guild or something? Be very handy, not just for me but for all the other modders out there.

No mater what voice will always have some effect on dialogue, characters, and story length/depth as such I usually prefer unvoiced mods with tens of thousands of lines of dialogue. Granted there seem to be a lot more voice actors around for Skyrim, and there are even some mods that manage to actually have well developed characters and voice acting already; but then again....Well developed characters are the main focus of that mod to begin.

Personally If there was an option of having voice acting by subtracting say... 1 line from every character in a mod; I'd take that 1 line over voice acting any day, but I guess I'm weird like that.

Also voice acting is horrible when it comes to oversights, mistakes, and bugs in dialogue, storytelling, or character. Because often times there's no way to rewrite or add more dialogue because the voice actor already did all their lines and it's too much work to coordinate between voice actor, sound editor, modder, etc. just for one little change. Meanwhile without voice acting changes are as simple as one person opening up the Creation Kit, and rewriting.

Yes, true. But I'd say the best thing to do would be to do EVERYTHING you said first and get it working exactly as you want it, then get a voice over for the NPC as the last finishing touch, especially if the character in question is the main part in a scripted plot.

I was messing around the CK trying to create a follower and was disappointed when I saw there were only 3-4 human voices for each gender that I could choose from. We definitely need more mods adding follower voices to the game.

Like I said few posts above, lazy bum :

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/28-the-archive/

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/466144-modding-resource/page__p__3834896__fromsearch__1#entry3834896 -> also I suggest browsing through the last pages as the main post hasn't been updated with some of the offers.

Then there are non-TES oriented sites where you can post about your project for other amateur voice actors:
http://voiceacting.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general
http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?183-Fan-Visual

Have fun

Hey guys, I guess this is relevant here:

I've not got any further than basic level design yet, my worry about NPC is the lip synching. How does this work, is it automatic? Do I have to put in every single lip shape for every syllable myself or does it "detect" somehow what is being said? What if I have no sound file and it is just text?

My guess would be there's no real lip synching here. When you got mute dialogues the characters yap anyway so it's probably just some generic movements? I could wrong though.

If it's like the last games you record dialogue and the construction set generates the lipsync for you.

I spent some time a couple of months ago looking into TTS voices and software for a mod I'm working on. There are a number of voices out there that sound impressively natural; like an actual person speaking... albeit in a very even, unemotional sort of way. Some also had extra settings like 'whisper' or 'sound angry'. The issue with these high-quality voices is that they're not free - and the software they plug into may not be either. Most of them also involved licensing fees if speech produced was going to be used in a broadcast/publication/etc - including non-commercial ones.

There are free voices and programs out there, but they're surprisingly difficult to track down, slot together and get working; and they also sound less natural. Depending on what you want to use them for though, that might not be such a problem...


On lip-sync; from memory the CK can auto-generate it from audio files, and there's something in the CK wiki on it - can't remember where off the top of my head, though. I think it can also be done manually by editing a text file. (Edit: ninja-ed.)

This. When you set up your recorded dialogue, it generates a LIP file upon saving your dialogue text. Much less of a pain than it would be to force all of those lip movements manually.

Would someone with experience of recruiting VAs from any of the forums listed be kind enough to tell me how to (politely) proceed?

(Do I just join a board and PM someone who appears relevant ... Do I make a posting saying "I need X and Y ..."?)

Any help appreciated (I have never done co-op modding, and I'm struggling a bit with the etiquette involved) - thanks

Find a good place with lots of voice actors, like the http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/forumdisplay.php?96-Visual-Projects, and make a post. You'll want to read their posting guidelines and make sure to give plenty of detail.

You can view my post back from November when I opened up auditions for my current project, Falskaar, http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?71385-CLOSED-CAST-POSTED-Falskaar-Skyrim-new-lands-mod.-Need-25-VA-s!&highlight=.

The key is to be professional and polite. If you say "Yo d4wg, I neez sum voiaice actar!" you wont get many responses. But if you format it in a concise, professional manner, you'll get plenty. I got 45 audions in about 5 weeks, and I cast 31 of them from that group. Feel free to ask me more questions.

Getting voice actors really isn't too hard. Just find a place, make a detailed, well thought out post, and wait for results. You'll want to give plenty of time and make sure to be obvious about your deadlines. Though a word of warning, the VAA is a very anime-oriented board, so make it very clear that this is for Skyrim, a dark grundy game. Unless you want all your auditions to sound like little anime girls.

Actually, ONE of those would be very good

thanks for the advice, AV ... I'll start structuring a post

Haha, it is! I remember when I first started trying to voice act in anything, I went straight to Fan-Visual section and found some nice-looking anime characters in the dubs and then proceeded to audition. My, was I oblivious about who was my competition there! ;D I only landed some evil witch. I guess there the kawaii-desu-whatever factor wasn't important Then I discovered there were projects lurking there not anime oriented and shifted my attention to those. I know I'm not the only one, but some may sit in the Original Visual forums section, I'm still not sure where do game mods belong. But I rarely ever check Fan Visual anymore. Anime fandubs are not something you can put in your resume. Actually, you SHOULD NEVER do that unless you just want resume to show to more anime fandubbers.




h4vent, if you need someone like that I'm certain you will find plenty there. Many are doing anime fandubs for a LONG while and they should suit you perfectly if you need that kind of voice Experience makes master.