The SunRiders [update Jul 15]

[Jake]

It'll be a pity to lose the hybrid gameplay though

I'm left wondering about PyGame, now... how hard it'd be to replicate what Samu-kun had for Raidaa ...

I was going to volunteer for one of the male VA positions, but looks like you're covered for them.

The doesn't mean you shouldn't audition anyway!

Even leaving aside that you might be better than one of the existing options, I don't see anyone noted for General Nooke yet, and if I'm doing Kris it would make sense for him to have a British accent as well, no?

[monele]

Yeah, I have the feeling I'll sound too "french" to be okay anyway, so don't refrain just because people applied ^^;. The more choice we give to samu-kun, the better the final result will be

[Jake]

Yeah, I have the feeling I'll sound too "french"

Well, he did mention he was looking for a "European"-sounding Prime Minister, maybe he's seeing all the Alliance guys as European? If nothing else, Raidaa had a little bit of an Old-World-Imperialism-versus-Colonial-Independence vibe...

[monele]

It seems the problem won't be my accent as much as my inability to put two words together without stuttering ._. Can I just do robot attacks in japanese?
I'll try again tomorrow when I'm less tired but tonight's a no go ^^;...

[akemicchi]

Tadaa~ I've never voice acted before, but... oh well~

My Chigara audition: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J37F0HO6

I might do a Cosette one later~ I tried a little bit of Asaga and Ikkari, but... it was kinda hard. xD;;

[Samu-kun]

Hey everyone! I'm back from school!

Woah... First off, I have to announce a change in plans. I had no idea there would be such an enormous outpouring of interest in voice acting when I posted that yesterday, so I might have have announced your roles a bit too prematurely... >_< Sorry, so as of today, the roles that I gave you yesterday aren't set. Since it appears that there are multiple people interested for each character, it seems only fair to give everyone a fair chance at getting the character they want. So let me just get down a list of the people who are interested. After a certain deadline for the auditions (to be announced later), I'll just pick the people I feel fit the character the best. ^_^

Main Cast
Asaga: Mirielle (with audition)
Ikkari: Mirielle (with audition)
Chigara: Mirielle (with audition), akemicchi (with audition)
Ava: Mirielle (with audition)
Cosette: Mirielle (with audition)

*note: There's a limit of one main character for person, so Mirielle will only be able to play one of the above characters. So that means keep sending in those auditions! We still need alot more girls! ^_^

Supporting Cast
Kris: Jake (with auditions), Monele, Chronoluminaire
Ray: Jake (with auditions), Monele, Chronoluminaire, North Hawk
Helio: Jake (with auditions), Monele, Chronoluminaire
SunRider AI: Mirielle (with auditions)
Claud: Monele
Gen. Nooke: Jake, Chrono
Mr. Okashi: Jake, Chrono

------------------------------------------
And now, I have some responses to the people who sent me voice samples.

Jake
I think I liked Kris best out of all the people you've voiced. I also like the voice you used for Helio, but I don't think that voice quite fits him. Maybe a slightly deeper verson of that voice will fit somebody who's a more of a clear cut villan and corrupt, like Mr. Okashi. :3 I think there's a 85% match with Kris, and roughly 50% matches with Ray and Helio.

Kris is a really bold and distinguished soldier. His father has taught him the lessons of honor, discipline, and perserviance against the enemy. He's really proud of the fact that his entire family has a history of military service, and this pride sometimes makes him look arrogant. He can't tolerate enemies of the Alliance and he follows orders from his superiors without question. He also gets angry and oftentimes gets physical if things don't go his way. Try to make his voice more bold and proud. He's the leader of the FireHawke Unit and he likes to run things by the book.

Also, I noticed that your voice samples weren't as high quality as the others. This was just because it was an audition and not the real thing, I assume.

Mirielle
Oh man, where do I begin. XD This is better than some of the stuff that I hear in professional anime dubs.

I see a 95% match for Chigara, 80% for Ava, 80% for the SunRider, 75% for Cosette and Ikkari, and 60% for Asaga

Chigara - Holy crap! That's pretty much the EXACT voice I expected from her! XD Good job!

Ava - Good job on Ava too. Her lines are pretty hard to do, since they're longer and about politics. ^_^ I noticed that her lines were a bit too quiet though. Ava's a really young politican who's somehow made it to the top by being fiery and controversial. She's far more commanding than either Ikkari or Cosette and just demands to be obeyed. She knows that most of the established order hates her and want to see her disposed of, so she can't afford to show any weakness. She's also very stuck with her beliefs and has a tendancy to think that her ideas are better than everyone else's.

SunRider - Good job with her too. I'm pretty sure the SunRider's role will be yours, since it's a supporting role. In addition to the SunRider, you'll get one additional main character. I hope that's not too much work. ^_^

Cosette/Ikkari - They're both the same voices, so I'll just put them as one. Good job! But I bet they'll sound alot better with pounding orchestrial music and explosions in the background, huh? XD Hahaha. *listens to them while turning on various songs* I liked Cosette's laugh too. XD

Asaga - Mmm... I didn't quite think this voice was quite right. Asaga should sound a bit more childish and younger. Her voice sounded too teenage. I have something closer to Kirino from Bamboo Blade (example 1, example 2 or Saki from Snow Sakura (crap, I can't find any voice samples for her. -_-;) in mind. Something a bit more silly and enthousastic, while still having a simple, slightly guillible, naive, and idealistic tone. I'm sure you'll be able to make a great voice for her! There's nothing wrong with the one I have now, it's just that it doesn't fit her character.

Akemicchi
Good job! I think I get about a 80% match for Chigara! She does seem a bit lifeless though. Even though she's clumsy and kind of sleepy, she's still a very determined person and she always tries her best. Also, don't forget that she's really shy, so if she's talking with boys, she always gets nervous and tends to go on edge a bit. Make her sound a bit more nervous and unsure of herself when talking with Kaito.

Good job everyone! I really liked all your auditions! Remember, I still need lots of girls, so be sure to send those auditions in! ^_^

[North Hawk]

I'm sorry! I should have a voice sample in by now. Not to make excuses, but my dear roommate decided that it would be nice to have five people over all day, so it's a noisy madhouse today, and that's coming through on the sound clips I make. I'll get a sample to you as soon as I can. Please be patient with me. Sorry again.

[sake-bento]

Ahh...I was going to warn you that you might want to go a little slower on the whole voice acting thing. First off, is your script completely finalized? If it's not, now's not a good time to get voice actors. Usually it's best to search for voice actors near the end of production (unless you need the lines ahead of time for some animation). That way you won't have to ask them to redo lines constantly. Also, some voice actors (and this is even more true if you decide to stop by the Voice Acting Alliance) tend to disappear without a trace. It's no fun having to recast just when you think you've got everything done.

Your best bet for finding the voice you want and doing things in a fair manner is to hold auditions for a certain length of time (anywhere from 1-2 weeks is the norm).
This gives you the chance to hear many different takes, so it's good for you. This gives people who live in different timezones (or who don't check the board as often) to have a shot at getting a role (because otherwise it usually goes to whoever sees it first), so it's good for them.

Um so if you want to deal with voice actors, it's a really good idea to collect email addresses so you can send out scripts to everyone in one shot. Plus, it's a good way to contact them. Instant messaging is a little bit annoying >_> but email works just fine. Also, as this is a very large project, you're going to want to label your script very carefully. For instance, if it's scene one, your script should look something like:

scene01_01Asaga: Hey, let's go on another adventure!
scene01_02Chigara: Chii~ it sounds like fun to me.
scene01_03Ikkari: You two need to take things more seriously.
scene01_04Kaito: Hey, doesn't anyone remember that I'm still around?

And then ask the voice actors to save the filenames in the same way (so for the first scene, Kaito would send you a file named scene01_04Kaito.mp3). This is very super important, especially for a large script with branching storylines, because otherwise you will lose track of which lines go where.

Um, of course these are just my suggestions based on personal experience. I haven't had a chance to listen to all the auditions yet, but I'm pretty excited to hear all the talent on this board. ::goes to listen to them now::

Must...resist...auditioning for Ikkari...::keels over::

[Jake]

I think I liked Kris best out of all the people you've voiced.

Me too, to be honest.

Also, I noticed that your voice samples weren't as high quality as the others. This was just because it was an audition and not the real thing, I assume.

Mm; as I said in the PM, it was late at night so I didn't bother setting everything up properly or doing any adjustments; just stuck the nearest mic to hand into the front panel of the PC (hardly the best option!) and fired up Audacity. I'll record some better ones.

EDIT: Here y'go. Although I'm beginning to think I need to go dig the sound card out of my old PC...

Mirielle
...
Ava - [...] I noticed that her lines were a bit too quiet though. Ava's a really young politican who's somehow made it to the top by being fiery and controversial. She's far more commanding than either Ikkari or Cosette and just demands to be obeyed.

I was also really impressed by Mirielle's stuff; I'd add one thing to the Ava comments, though. And I guess it's not really so much an Ava-comment as a general-accents comment, since Ava's voice is whatever Samu-kun wants for Ava's voice, but still, in case it's useful: If you're aiming specifically for a British accent - which is mostly what it sounded like - then you should probably avoid an upward-tonal inflection on the end of the lines (e.g. "...prevailing opinion in the milita[ry]"), and clip the more elongated vowel-sounds slightly (e.g. "...fulfilment of our foreign objectves..."). Brits tend to move downward at the end of utterances, an upward one sounds more like an Australian accent.

[Samu-kun]

I'm sorry! I should have a voice sample in by now. Not to make excuses, but my dear roommate decided that it would be nice to have five people over all day, so it's a noisy madhouse today, and that's coming through on the sound clips I make. I'll get a sample to you as soon as I can. Please be patient with me. Sorry again.

That's perfectly fine. ^_^ There's absolutely no hurry. The deadline won't be any time soon, maybe about mid May.

Ahh...I was going to warn you that you might want to go a little slower on the whole voice acting thing. First off, is your script completely finalized? If it's not, now's not a good time to get voice actors. Usually it's best to search for voice actors near the end of production (unless you need the lines ahead of time for some animation). That way you won't have to ask them to redo lines constantly. Also, some voice actors (and this is even more true if you decide to stop by the Voice Acting Alliance) tend to disappear without a trace. It's no fun having to recast just when you think you've got everything done.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about this too. My primary concern is that if I start casting once the script is finished, then all my voice talents will be totally overwhelmed. I feel more comfortable giving everyone five chunks of the script, each about 30 000 words long, instead of one massive 150 000 word long script and letting them go at it all at once. Also, it's much easier to fix things up/adjust the lines to fit the voice actor's style at this point than at the end of the production too. There's alot more flexibility now than once everything's been finalized.

Also, to be honest my impatiance and a desire to search for new and exciting things may have prompted me to ask for voice talents now as well. XD Well, I can tell you that I am definately excited about this now that so many people have shown interest. ^_^ I honestly didn't even think there would be that much of an interest, so this caught me almost totally by surprise. XD It is quite a pleasant surprise though.
Even PyTom has told me he wants a cameo role.

Yes, I too have noticed the tendancy of team members to disappear. This being a totally volunteer operation, there's not much that can be done about it. >_< Luckily, looks like a large number of usual members here at Lemma have signed on, so I'm afraid they have nowhere to run. Fufufufufu. >:3

Thanks for all the advice though! I'll definately keep the stuff about the filenames in mind! ^_^ (This is what I mean about having more flexibility now than when the script's finished. If you would have told me that once I finished the entire script, I would have been in serious trouble. XD)

Must...resist...auditioning for Ikkari...::keels over::

You know you want to0O0o0O0o0O0o0O0o... >:3

It'll be a pity to lose the hybrid gameplay though I know I may have had one or two criticisms of it, but in general, it was a great addition to the game. (OTOH, I do appreciate the difficulty inherent in writing a game engine to embed in Ren'Py. As you know!)

I'm left wondering about PyGame, now... how hard it'd be to replicate what Samu-kun had for Raidaa ...

Mmm... I will have to reflect your hesitance in adding gameplay. It was hard enough programming the gameplay in GameMaker, much less in Python. And the unfortunate truth is that it'll just increase the work burden even more, and that's not something I particularly want to do at this point. Adding gameplay not only greatly increases the programming burden, but also the art and audio requirements as well, as I found out during Raidaa. Besides, there's more than enough stuff planned for the game already. I'm sure there'll be enough other cool stuff to more than make up for the missing gameplay. ^_^

[Counter Arts]

Alright... here is my audition.

Audition.zip

Scott and Rey Audition

(1.79 MiB) Downloaded 73 times

Just writing all day is making me tired.

Has anyone else auditioned the dictator person yet?

EDIT:And... I didn't see any lines for the dictator either.

First time I'm doing voice acting. I just had a small part in a school play once.

[Mirielle]

I was also really impressed by Mirielle's stuff; I'd add one thing to the Ava comments, though. And I guess it's not really so much an Ava-comment as a general-accents comment, since Ava's voice is whatever Samu-kun wants for Ava's voice, but still, in case it's useful: If you're aiming specifically for a British accent - which is mostly what it sounded like - then you should probably avoid an upward-tonal inflection on the end of the lines (e.g. "...prevailing opinion in the milita[ry]"), and clip the more elongated vowel-sounds slightly (e.g. "...fulfilment of our foreign objectves..."). Brits tend to move downward at the end of utterances, an upward one sounds more like an Australian accent.

I see someone picked up on my natural accent! Whenever I try and do a British accent, I always put a little too much of my natural Australian one into it, and I'm never exactly sure what I need to change! I'll definitely keep that in mind the next time I try and do one, so thank you very much for the advice!

Although I am rather happy that my American accent is convincing enough so that people automatically assume I am and don't pick up on my masked Australian nuances. Ahaha~

[akemicchi]

Ehehehe! Thanks for the feedback, Samu-kun! :D I'll put a lot more emotion into my stuff, then, and I'll do my best!

Instead of Cosette, I did Asaga. Heheh, I sound like a valley girl. :B This might be my last entry. Dunno.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UAE00IG7

[Samu-kun]

Here's an updated list! If you're in green, that means I've recieved auditions from you.

Main Cast
Asaga: Mirielle, akemicchi
Ikkari: Mirielle
Chigara: Mirielle, akemicchi
Ava: Mirielle
Cosette: Mirielle

Supporting Cast
Kris: Jake, Monele, Chronoluminaire
Ray: Jake, Counter Arts, Monele, Chronoluminaire, North Hawk
Helio: Jake, Monele, Chronoluminaire
SunRider AI: Mirielle
Claud: Monele
Gen. Nooke: Jake, Chrono
Mr. Okashi: Jake, Chrono
Leiburg: Counter Arts

Counter Arts
Good job! I liked how you slurred "understood captain." Mmm... I would prefer it if you made Ray sound a bit more cheerful and energetic, since he's pretty much a male version of Asaga. (Similar to how Kris is a male version of Ikkari and Helio is a male version of Chigara) Mmm... I have something like Shigure from Fruits Basket in mind. (example 1, example 2 (in english).

For Leiburg, it sounds pretty good. I'm probably not going to be that picky about him, since he's only a minor character. :3

[Samu-kun]

bump.

Akemicchi posted while I was typing. :3

Mm... There was a bit of an echo effect in the microphone. Since this is just an audition, it doesn't really matter, but when we're doing the real thing, we probably want to have higher technical quality. I'm assuming though that can be done with Audacity though, right?

I will have to reflect the same thing I told Mierelle. Asaga should sound younger, and she should inflect her tones kind of like a kid. Mmm... I'm going to pull a non-anime source, but I really want something like Thumper from Bambi. Something on that level of childish and silly. XD Good job though. It's just that I have very, very high standards set for Asaga, since she's pretty much the principal character. ^_^;