Audiobook narrators don’t “read”. They act. They vocally act the entire book. The ones who don’t generally get returned, unread, to either your audiobook platform choice or the library.
Voice actors in games also don’t just read. They act. They vocally act their entire role.
Jennifer Hale vs AI, who would win? Would any human other than Kate Mulgrew as Flemeth have made the character as compelling?
Technology will of course change, but I did complete an (unreleased) experiment where I made an animation with AI, using AI to provide voices. This was a few months ago.
All of the models used to generate vocal lines out of nothing are very basic and robotic. But I had a lot of success recording the lines (and songs) myself and then using an AI tool to convert it into someone else’s voice. I blended two or three voices per character and for voices where the character was a different gender or age from me, it sounded like a real actor of that demographic giving the same performance I gave.
So, context matters here. Is the tech ready to replace actors completely? Not at all. But could you have an actor record all the lines in different styles and then use licensed voice models to have it sound like a given voice actor? Absolutely. Actors should think very hard before agreeing to any licensing agreements using their voices. Because it might just result in a lot of the acting removed from their job role. And potentially worse quality dialogue in the end depending on who they hire to record lines in bulk. Not to mention that it’s only a matter of time before the fully AI models advance far enough to do the job completely.
Hence, why I never released my animation. People wouldn’t be able to tell whose voices I used. But I would know. And I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.
I only
readheard him read the last 3 books+ novellas after watching the show, and he REALLY did the accents well*Except Bobbie, not enough southern hemisphere OZ/NZ twang
Audiobook narrators don’t “read”. They act. They vocally act the entire book. The ones who don’t generally get returned, unread, to either your audiobook platform choice or the library.
Voice actors in games also don’t just read. They act. They vocally act their entire role.
Jennifer Hale vs AI, who would win? Would any human other than Kate Mulgrew as Flemeth have made the character as compelling?
Technology will of course change, but I did complete an (unreleased) experiment where I made an animation with AI, using AI to provide voices. This was a few months ago.
All of the models used to generate vocal lines out of nothing are very basic and robotic. But I had a lot of success recording the lines (and songs) myself and then using an AI tool to convert it into someone else’s voice. I blended two or three voices per character and for voices where the character was a different gender or age from me, it sounded like a real actor of that demographic giving the same performance I gave.
So, context matters here. Is the tech ready to replace actors completely? Not at all. But could you have an actor record all the lines in different styles and then use licensed voice models to have it sound like a given voice actor? Absolutely. Actors should think very hard before agreeing to any licensing agreements using their voices. Because it might just result in a lot of the acting removed from their job role. And potentially worse quality dialogue in the end depending on who they hire to record lines in bulk. Not to mention that it’s only a matter of time before the fully AI models advance far enough to do the job completely.
Hence, why I never released my animation. People wouldn’t be able to tell whose voices I used. But I would know. And I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.