Animation Voiceover

Like most kids, I was raised on cartoons. Anime, Saturday mornings on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network etc. I adore animation voice acting because it allows an actor to bring a character to life in their own unique way! Whether it’s a friendly animal for a kids show, a more grounded, human role for an older audience, or big, over the top characters for wacky cartoons, I love and thrive in all arenas! But, if I had to give a preference, I really do love the high energy crazy characters – especially ones with accents and multiple personalities.

I’ve voiced Batman for DC Kids, lead roles in wildly successful short and feature films, brought clouds to life, given voice to snails, inanimate objects and so much more, all with one singular goal: make it believable. Make sure that I invest my own reality into each character to ground it, connect with it and make the audience believe this could be real. Fun ain’t it!?

There are so many different types of animation. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it does give you an idea of what each style is like and where you can find more of it.

Traditional animation, which is hand-drawn art that is used to create moving pictures, and with film usually being at 24 frames per second, that can mean 24 drawings PER SECOND of screen time. No wonder it takes so long!

2D animation, which would be for TV shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy.

3D animation, which utilizes technology to create 3D models, or bring characters, objects etc. to life in a virtual 3D space. You can see this a lot with Pixar in movies like Toy Story or Finding Nemo.

Claymation, which you can see in movies like Chicken Run.

Anime (a very popular style) that is hand drawn (traditionally) and hails from Japan and typically has American actors dubbing characters from the original Japanese.

Motion capture animation, which utilizes sensors and bodysuits to capture a live actor’s performance, and the re-create them in a digital space so they can modify at their will. This is used a lot in video games as well as TV/film.

Stop motion is a painstaking type of animation that uses still images that are captured in order to create the animated action. Often times it’s done to create surreal looking images that are rooted in real, tactile objects. Have a look at Fresh Guacamole by PES, a wonderful short that shows the brilliance of this style.

Whiteboard Animation, which is very popular for explainer videos due to it’s simplicity. This is more so used as an animatic in pre-production for animation, or used in the business world for simple, engaging videos to deliver content to other businesses or consumers.

I take a lot of pride in being emotionally connected to the characters I voice. nobody wants stiff performances that feel “unsure” and I can promise you, when I go for a character, I go 100%. I’ll dissect the role to get to the root of who a character is: what motivates them? How do they feel about who they’re in a scene with? All the same choices an actor on-camera would need to make, I apply to voice acting. Why? Because, well, it’s acting.