Tips on voice acting a female character? So i've got a friend (He's too shy to do this so i'm figuring it out for him) and he plays a female character. How can he voice act her well we are RPing without sounding dumb?
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"I want to pull out it's tongue so Timbity can use it as a whip."- W
Scarlet is a red haired wood elf. She is wearing a semi-formal red dress and her green cloak with silver lining. She has a beat up old scimitar at her side. She has dark green eyes and a feather in her hair. Her skin is well tanned.
Don't try to do a female/feminine voice, it will always come across as silly at best. It's better to look for an interesting accent or vocal quirk to use than to try to shift your pitch uncomfortably. Great examples of this come from Matt Mercer (Critical Role) and Griffin McElroy (Adventure Zone, campaign 1) who play various female characters as the Dungeon Masters, but never stray into caricature territory. It comes across as more genuine, and has the added effect of not being as difficult to keep up, not as harsh on your vocal chords, and not as annoying for other players.
The vocabulary your character uses and the cadence with which they say them conveys a lot about them. A wizard or noble will pick different words from a farmer. Using a different accent can also help, but that's a matter of preference. Body language and gestures can go a long way.
It's fine if they can't get their voice to sound like a girl's. Raising the pitch of their voice a couple of notches is enough for everyone else at the table to understand they're speaking in-character. Or your friend could embrace their voice as part of how their character sounds. Look at Dr. Girlfriend from Venture Bros for an example of a female character that doesn't have a traditional female voice.
If they're not comfortable with voice acting, the descriptive approach to roleplaying is also a valid way to play. "Josephine mutters something under her breath and storms out of the room" evokes a lot of imagery without the player having to use the character's voice. Ability checks can help fill the gaps when playing a character that's smarter or more charismatic than yourself.
It could also be something that just evolves as he finds the voice - everyone at the table is most likely going to understand that he just wants to play his character, and no one is going to judge him or think he sounds dumb for taking, most likely, a bit time to figure it out. I frequently completely BOTCH my efforts to do the more stereotypically Scottish-like accents for dwarves in the campaigns I am in, and past a few moments of giggles as people re-settle, once you start speaking, you learn what works and what doesn't, and if he would rather do descriptive role-playing than acting it out, then that would perhaps help.
I have a slightly deeper voice and have to frequently make it lighter or more bouncy to voice feminine characters so they don't all sound like Daria - but Daria and deeper voices are definitely an option! This is maybe a weird time to reference it, but there's also the cast of Bob's Burgers - Linda and Tina Belcher both have male voice actors, and while it's kind of objectively humorous at first, it also feels largely natural after a little while, like, "Yea, that's just how these women sound."
I love to embody the NPCs I present for my players, some of my favorite moments are when my players hear me use a voice and there is a visceral response. There are a number of tricks to use when trying to use a voice that is foreign to you, and a guy emulating a female is no different.
First, stop trying to talk like a female. The biggest part about any voice, before you play with pitch, octaves, or quirks is to present the personality of the character. Are you the afluent offspring of a politician? Use condescending words, think about the rich snob in every movie ever, and toss your nose in the air with the utmost indignation. Literally, at the table, every time you speak, point your nose to the ceiling and treat everyone like they're dumb. Are you the go-getting, fast talking, charismatic bard? Speak fast, use many adjectives, use phrases that compliment people, wave your hands about to emphasize your point, bounce in your chair, and don't stop talking. Does your character only have the one friend, the one person in the party that they feel comfortable around? Have them use short, 2 or 3 word, responses to everyone in conversation. Have your arms crossed when talking to anyone but your friend. Look at your feet, or character sheet, whenever you talk to someone. Make the personality first, the rest will start to fall into place easier, if it's needed at all.
Secondly, men and women talk differently. It is an intrinsic thing that has everything to do with how we process information and present it. Women tend to jump thoughts when a conversation triggers a memory or important thought, guys will generally only say what's needed. A guy will say something along the lines of "Bob got in a wreck, wasn't too bad, he's ok." That is perfectly understandable, it gets the point across, and it is economical in linguistic effort. A woman will present it something more along the lines of: "Bob was on his way home from work and had an accident. He was t-boned by some kid coming home from college. Oh, yea, I need to buy steaks for dinner tonight. He's ok though, the cops showed up and no one was sent to the hospital. Martha's a wreck...(and so on)". It's not that the woman rambles, it's simply that those details are important to her and she will relay what she feels is important to you, and she remembered dinner because "t-bone" triggered the memory. Women speak differently than men. Women are better at enunciating than men. Men truncate words more often than women. Men are generally more about specifics and facts, whereas women are about details and descriptions.
Once all of that ground work is done, then you can start to play with your voice. Place your tongue against the back of the teeth on the top row and don't move it when you talk, you'll create a lisp, do the same thing with the tongue at the bottom, you'll create a different lisp. Try to talk with your lower jaw jutting out or pulled back, you'll hear changes. you can also focus where you talk from, Think about talking from the nose, the throat, top of the chest or belly, each one will change your voice. Round off your "A"s to where it sounds more like "ow", make your "i"s sound more like a strong "E". All of these things can give the final touches on a voice. Just remember: stop trying to talk like a female, talk like your character.
Thank you all for the help I'm currently sending this stuff to him
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I want to pull out it's tongue so Timbity can use it as a whip."- W
Scarlet is a red haired wood elf. She is wearing a semi-formal red dress and her green cloak with silver lining. She has a beat up old scimitar at her side. She has dark green eyes and a feather in her hair. Her skin is well tanned.
Tips on voice acting a female character? So i've got a friend (He's too shy to do this so i'm figuring it out for him) and he plays a female character. How can he voice act her well we are RPing without sounding dumb?
"I want to pull out it's tongue so Timbity can use it as a whip."- W
Scarlet is a red haired wood elf. She is wearing a semi-formal red dress and her green cloak with silver lining. She has a beat up old scimitar at her side. She has dark green eyes and a feather in her hair. Her skin is well tanned.
Don't try to do a female/feminine voice, it will always come across as silly at best. It's better to look for an interesting accent or vocal quirk to use than to try to shift your pitch uncomfortably. Great examples of this come from Matt Mercer (Critical Role) and Griffin McElroy (Adventure Zone, campaign 1) who play various female characters as the Dungeon Masters, but never stray into caricature territory. It comes across as more genuine, and has the added effect of not being as difficult to keep up, not as harsh on your vocal chords, and not as annoying for other players.
The vocabulary your character uses and the cadence with which they say them conveys a lot about them. A wizard or noble will pick different words from a farmer. Using a different accent can also help, but that's a matter of preference. Body language and gestures can go a long way.
It's fine if they can't get their voice to sound like a girl's. Raising the pitch of their voice a couple of notches is enough for everyone else at the table to understand they're speaking in-character. Or your friend could embrace their voice as part of how their character sounds. Look at Dr. Girlfriend from Venture Bros for an example of a female character that doesn't have a traditional female voice.
If they're not comfortable with voice acting, the descriptive approach to roleplaying is also a valid way to play. "Josephine mutters something under her breath and storms out of the room" evokes a lot of imagery without the player having to use the character's voice. Ability checks can help fill the gaps when playing a character that's smarter or more charismatic than yourself.
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It could also be something that just evolves as he finds the voice - everyone at the table is most likely going to understand that he just wants to play his character, and no one is going to judge him or think he sounds dumb for taking, most likely, a bit time to figure it out. I frequently completely BOTCH my efforts to do the more stereotypically Scottish-like accents for dwarves in the campaigns I am in, and past a few moments of giggles as people re-settle, once you start speaking, you learn what works and what doesn't, and if he would rather do descriptive role-playing than acting it out, then that would perhaps help.
I have a slightly deeper voice and have to frequently make it lighter or more bouncy to voice feminine characters so they don't all sound like Daria - but Daria and deeper voices are definitely an option! This is maybe a weird time to reference it, but there's also the cast of Bob's Burgers - Linda and Tina Belcher both have male voice actors, and while it's kind of objectively humorous at first, it also feels largely natural after a little while, like, "Yea, that's just how these women sound."
I love to embody the NPCs I present for my players, some of my favorite moments are when my players hear me use a voice and there is a visceral response. There are a number of tricks to use when trying to use a voice that is foreign to you, and a guy emulating a female is no different.
First, stop trying to talk like a female. The biggest part about any voice, before you play with pitch, octaves, or quirks is to present the personality of the character. Are you the afluent offspring of a politician? Use condescending words, think about the rich snob in every movie ever, and toss your nose in the air with the utmost indignation. Literally, at the table, every time you speak, point your nose to the ceiling and treat everyone like they're dumb. Are you the go-getting, fast talking, charismatic bard? Speak fast, use many adjectives, use phrases that compliment people, wave your hands about to emphasize your point, bounce in your chair, and don't stop talking. Does your character only have the one friend, the one person in the party that they feel comfortable around? Have them use short, 2 or 3 word, responses to everyone in conversation. Have your arms crossed when talking to anyone but your friend. Look at your feet, or character sheet, whenever you talk to someone. Make the personality first, the rest will start to fall into place easier, if it's needed at all.
Secondly, men and women talk differently. It is an intrinsic thing that has everything to do with how we process information and present it. Women tend to jump thoughts when a conversation triggers a memory or important thought, guys will generally only say what's needed. A guy will say something along the lines of "Bob got in a wreck, wasn't too bad, he's ok." That is perfectly understandable, it gets the point across, and it is economical in linguistic effort. A woman will present it something more along the lines of: "Bob was on his way home from work and had an accident. He was t-boned by some kid coming home from college. Oh, yea, I need to buy steaks for dinner tonight. He's ok though, the cops showed up and no one was sent to the hospital. Martha's a wreck...(and so on)". It's not that the woman rambles, it's simply that those details are important to her and she will relay what she feels is important to you, and she remembered dinner because "t-bone" triggered the memory. Women speak differently than men. Women are better at enunciating than men. Men truncate words more often than women. Men are generally more about specifics and facts, whereas women are about details and descriptions.
Once all of that ground work is done, then you can start to play with your voice. Place your tongue against the back of the teeth on the top row and don't move it when you talk, you'll create a lisp, do the same thing with the tongue at the bottom, you'll create a different lisp. Try to talk with your lower jaw jutting out or pulled back, you'll hear changes. you can also focus where you talk from, Think about talking from the nose, the throat, top of the chest or belly, each one will change your voice. Round off your "A"s to where it sounds more like "ow", make your "i"s sound more like a strong "E". All of these things can give the final touches on a voice. Just remember: stop trying to talk like a female, talk like your character.
Thank you all for the help I'm currently sending this stuff to him
"I want to pull out it's tongue so Timbity can use it as a whip."- W
Scarlet is a red haired wood elf. She is wearing a semi-formal red dress and her green cloak with silver lining. She has a beat up old scimitar at her side. She has dark green eyes and a feather in her hair. Her skin is well tanned.
Doesn't need to sound perfect... just needs to sound different enough to make the voice easy to identify and easy to repeat.
I found this video helpful for identifying a few new repeatable voices I didn't know I had. Might be of use in your friend case:
https://youtu.be/WJS84p8CoF4