"No, get off the table before you break it."
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"No, get off the table before you break it."
CUTE! I don't even know how you pulled off that soft interior glow on them so it only affects the top of their lineart. Once again, the BG art is super cozy.
Hey, if you ever need a male voice-over, I'm down to collab! Hit me up! I'm a multi-voice talent, just lemme know, and I'd love to audition!
Hi!! Thank you so so much!!! (the interior glow was a layer effect I applied in Adobe AfterEffects lol) I figured it would also be a good time to let you know that I'm casting for two projects right now; Let me know if you are interested!
The framerate didn't take me out of it at all- as a stylistic choice, it fit with the environment and the animation style.
What did take me out of it was the muffled and echoey audio quality. At times it was difficult to understand what they were saying, especially when it was low-energy mumbling. The acoustics of your recording environment played against you in this one. It sounded claustrophobic, which was in stark contrast with the characters being outdoors, in the open, surrounded by swamp and Ogre house.
Obviously a better quality mic is over the horizon, eventual when money can justify the purchase. In the meantime, there's a lot of steps you can do to mitigate the audio quality issues.
If you have a walk-in closet, with both ends flanked with hung clothes, that acts as a budget-friendly sound booth for when you're recording lines. Lots of folks do it. In addition, to avoid reverb from the ceiling, they'll hang a thick blanket overhead (not touching the actor or microphone) to absorb further reverb. I've also seen people thumbtack egg-cartons to their walls, tiled out, as a super-cheap soundproofing measure. But, you can buy the real deal sound-proofing foam for cheap, and then you can affix it with multiple 3M double-sided adhesive strips, or (what I recommend) liquid nails from the hardware store. The tubes that look like toothpaste are easier to apply than the caulk gun, but the caulk gun liquid nails are much more long term. While they're drying, you'll still want to affix them into position with thumbtacks so they don't try to peel off while it's still wet and setting.
Audacity is also a fine recording software, as is Reaper (trial version, you never have to pay for it), however, audio-processing isn't the issue. It was the mic-quality in tandem with environmental noise.
Other than that, the short was funny. I'm not really a feet guy, but that's just what makes it more ridiculous to me. Keep up the good work, and lemme know if you need a voice actor for one of your skits, I'd be down to help.
Finally someone brought it up ðŸ˜
But yeah you're 100% right (obviously) Normally I believe I can edit audio pretty well, but this time around I think my mic broke (or is breaking [bad]) and the quality I got from the recording kinda discouraged me from trying to edit it any further. But thanks alot for the feedback tho! It's good to hear that from someone who knows their stuff.
Also I'm surprised how many ppl don't realize the foot things part of the joke 😂
I admire the feat, in bitcrunching it to such a degree, and still having the time to design your own WADS. Doom 1 and 2 are still fresh in my mind, I recently beat both titles on Ultra Violence, so I went with that in this one. Waay way different feel.
The shotgun ain't as long range as it was. The spread makes it so those shotgun guys have to go down in two shots, at least. The lack of alert sounds stands out in this- the map design early on makes it so you can loop around and sneak up on Shotgun Guys that are unaware. And they just seem to amble as they rotate around to face you, unlike the original where they just snap in your direction and start their jumble of walking towards you / attacking.
If these Shotgun Guys are facing you, as soon as they're alerted, they pop off an immaculate shot. Every time. I killed about 20 of them before I died, and I think like three of them missed? Maybe? I was taking a lot of heat. I had to be ON IT with the peakaboo shooting from around cover. And they got my health low QUICK. So it got me nervous when I'd alert a group of em and I was a shot away from death.
That's when I noticed that their movement AI is lacking. One was tucked away behind a crate, and I could see his elbow poking around the corner as he was walking into nothing, trapped by a simple obstruction.
So while these demons are crackshots, they're slow on their feet.
Ammo and health are sparse, I'd expect no less from Ultra-Violence, but this is harder than the original game. Pretty interesting spin on it, I'd like to see what you'd do with your own thing.
thanks for the thorough review!
AI can certainly be improved - not sure I’ll revisit the game soon nor if I can do anything given the limited resources of the platform!
I love everything about this, lmfaooo
Can't wait for E1M2 gallery. Hope it gets into some native america, azteca, tarascan de michoacana art.
I guess it would be much longer game if it did the chess thing, and it didn't allow your King to put itself into check.
It's a neat spin on the game, I dig it. I love the theme and style it has to it, and it'd be cool to see more variations to this. Like, it's already unique that it's a condensed space, everyone's right up on each other in this shrunken board, but I'd like to see it go further. Like a creative spread of duplicate pieces, a creative assembly of different maps that are in weird shapes so that you have bottlenecks, chokepoints.
Or hell, even unique pieces. Like in a map this small, knights would be OP, but their absence is really noticeable. Maybe if you did really large maps, you had a variation of knights that were like winged demons or something, so instead of a knight going two out and one beside, they had an extended range like three or four out, two or three in.
Kinda like how Advanced Wars had Artillery (Knights), but they also had Rockets (this new piece).
Also sometimes the pawns get hidden behind the tall royalty pieces, so it would be beneficial to have a look around function- I know that can be kinda limiting given the retro aesthetic of this pixel art, but even if it pulled a Doom and the sprites remained camera-facing, I think it's possible for a sequel.
Okay! This is a good start!
First off, never delete this. Always have this up, with the upload date and time intact, so you have a measuring stick to progress. You have a frame of reference for your own personal growth. From now on, just keep uploading, keep practicing, keep it where people can see it. Because someday YOU could inspire a hopeful voice actor, and you'd have something to show for that you've been putting in the time and experience.
Second, moving forward, keep the runtime at a crisp 60 seconds. What you have here isn't bad, 1:12 ain't breaking the bank, but typically speaking, a brisk 60 seconds is sufficient to demonstrate your range.
Speaking of range, that's what I would focus on moving forward.
0:00 to 0:06 Awesome. Believable delivery, really cool standard American action protagonist. Would fit right at home in a Michael Bay movie or Jason Bourne or the like.
0:07 to 0:12 I would drop this one, because it's a little too close to that first one. It sounds like the same character.
0:13 to 0:24 I would drop this one too, because it sounds like you got a jawbreaker in your mouth. It's really risky, also, to pitch your range with something that flies too close to racial stereotypes. This one might cost you opportunities, because some clients don't even like profanity-laced demos. Which is something I need to work on as well, I'm guilty of it too. But you don't want a bit in your demo to potentially rub a prospective client the wrong way. You want to WOW them with your abilities.
0:25 to 0:30 is the superior iteration of the last voice. You got the rhasp, you got the country drawl. I love the ambient sound design here with the bootsteps, gun-cock, and country music. I'd option this one for v2.
0:31 to 0:45 is more confusing then anything? I get that it's like a foreign captive in a warzone situation, but he sounds high? Or that he just woke up? And it's clear as day that he's speaking softly and quietly while distant or nearby gunfire is popping off. It's kinda contradictory...like he's chill and confident in, what's apparently supposed to be a loud and tense situation. That would've been a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability to PROJECT and use a high-head commanding voice.
And that would stand out with what you got here so far. "WE'RE GETTING HAMMERED DOWN HERE, SIX-FOUR-ONE BRAVO, WE NEED AIR SUPPORT!!! NOW!!!!" or, keep with what you got, "LISTEN! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO TRUST ME!!! I DON'T LIKE YOU AND YOU DON'T LIKE ME, BUT IF YOU DON'T CUT THESE GODDAMNED ZIP-TIES, WE'RE ALL DEAD! WHATS IT GONNA BE, SERGEANT!!?"
0:45 to 0:53 if it was reworked a little, you could pitch yourself to be hired for anime by making this scenario more anime. Like, this voice isn't alien to anime dub style of acting, but the "bullshit" and the subject matter don't quite lineup? Think of an anime you saw recently, and how you could fit into that world, and this voice would be gold for something like that. Just be sure to differentiate it from voice 1 because it's kinda close.
0:54 onward is just a slightly younger inflection of the previous voice.
And it also calls attention that THE ENTIRE thing had reverb on it.
Audio Effects are like spices to a soup. You want to use a splash of thyme here, a singular Bay Leaf is enough, but if you use too much of any one spice, it takes over the flavor of the whole soup and it's imbalanced.
You had a great ear for detail with most of your soundscaping. The warzone ricochets, the old west segment, those were gold. Have some of them that are clean! Like zero or few effects. Maybe even crisp clean audio, and outdoor ambience like traffic or wind blowing or a distant storm over the horizon. You exhibited wise restraint not to give every single scenario a music soundtrack; that's what I'm talking about- exhibit restraint in effects used to enhance the bit.
Secondly, think more outside of the box as to how you can broaden your range of potential roles.
There's a lot of heisters. A lot of modern gangsters, thugs, outlaws, a cowboy, cops, criminals, soldiers, detectives, it's all pretty condensed into a theme of potential roles, and you wanna WIDEN THAT SUCKER out, because what you have here quantifies an EXTREMELY thin margin of character roles if that's your primary motivation to becoming a voice actor.
Like, action, crime drama, western, action, action, action.
Where's the sci-fi, where's the romance, where's the fantasy, where's the shonen, where's the isekai, etc
Think more generally, more blocky when you brainstorm how you can diversify your reel.
Like (FAMILY ROLES)
The Teen Son isn't gonna sound like the Older Brother. That Older Brother is off to college, and he's not gonna sound like the Uncle. The Uncle might sound similar, but different to the Dad, because the Dad is taking charge and issuing commands because "He said so". The Dad isn't gonna sound like the Grandpa.
Right there you got like four tiers of age brackets.
Think about careers that are VASTLY different from one another.
You got the inner-city cop down and pat, but is that gonna sound anything like a college professor? A Scientist. A surgeon.
Is a yoga instructor, leading a meditation, gonna sound anything like a drill sergeant?
Is a pilot gonna sound like a naval fleet admiral?
And lastly, you gotta UP the accents. But only feature your strongest accents.
If you're white, don't do black. Don't do asian. But you could skim it by being a love guru with a deep and soulful voice, or a dignified and refined samurai in feudal japan. As long as you're not all like "SHIIIID BABEH" or "OH HERRO" y'know what I mean? Nobody likes a stereotype, anybody can do em, and they're old-hat and lowballin' dick moves. You know right from wrong- please use your best judgment. Like, I don't care if you can do a PERFECT Cheech Marron. You have to consider, how is that going to get you work? If you're gonna be sending this out to Burbank, you want to be memorable, but in a positive way. Stand out, without negativity.
You got sixty seconds. Only feature your best. Your range. From highest comfortable pitch, to lowest. From softest to HARDEST. From this to that, the thing that's gonna make a producer listening to it say "THAT'S THE GUY, GET HIM IN HERE." That's what you're after. That magic sauce of believability and immersion.
There's lots to train. Accents to research, online tutorials of vocal coaches for different accents, and what's gonna REALLY help diversify your reel is PROJECTING more, from your chest, not your throat, not the back of your mouth.
Hit me up when you got another reel, and I'll leave a review like this one!
This is a really fucking cool atmosphere. Like an impending storm looming toward an ancient cathedral consumed by vine and pipework alike.
She's one of the skinniest characters in fiction. What's she doing with all this meat on her?
RICHAAAAARD!!!!
Shit, that's cool.
-This is Phobotech!-
I've done animatics for Cyanide & Happiness, Purgatony, and WWE Storytime! I'm also a voice actor that's performed roles in One Piece, Gundam: Witch from Mercury, & Smite!
Check out my sci-fi novel, Umbra's Legion on Amazon Kindle!
Age 37, Male
Voice Actor/Animator
Collin College
Denver, CO
Joined on 9/22/03