如何更有效地為你的游戲配音

作者：James Batchelor

需要閱讀大量文本去了解故事和角色的相關信息的時代已經不復存在了。沉默的主角也早已消失。如今，電子游戲中的所有人都有了自己的聲音能夠開口說話了。

而這也大大提高了開發者的工作量。就像《Morrowind》只有少量的臺詞，但是《天際》卻擁有超過6萬句臺詞，《輻射4》更是擁有超過11萬句臺詞。Bethesda更是表示《輻射4》的錄音花費了他們好幾年的時間。

或許這樣的工作量看起來很嚇人，但配音卻成為了讓你的游戲變得更加生動的重要貢獻者，并且開發者也力圖通過這方面去提高游戲的整體質量。

OMUK的總經理Mark Estdale說道：“當游戲被制作出來并且游戲角色和配音得到認可時，這便是個值得慶祝的好消息。但這同時也是一記警鐘。”

BAFTA(英國電影電視藝術學院）在最近于洛杉磯的活動中為Amy Hennig作為一名有遠見的編劇和導演而頒獎便是一個典型的例子。因為Amy便寫過這方面的內容。而甚至是像《她的故事》和《Firewatch》等獨立游戲也向我們證實了該怎么做。

Side的業務開發經理Ben Ryalls也表示認同：“在過去幾年里，性能質量變得越來越重要。開發者越來越傾向于那些能夠對整體游戲體驗帶去影響的低成本但卻有益的做法。”

“如果有更多游戲獲得高質量性能的認可，那么其它游戲的糟糕性能便越容易被發現。”

所以為你的游戲去招募配音演員就變得刻不容緩了，即使是一些AAA級工作室也開始向OMUK和Side等公司求助。就像這些公司所說的：他們能夠將真正的專業帶到開發過程中并且無需開發者的任何重復勞作。

Ryalls說道：“在錄音過程中，專業負責人對于性能標準的貢獻是巨大的。在整個錄音過程中如果擁有專業負責人，你便能夠保證所有人都會專注于保持質量和性能的一致性。”

“而專業演員也能夠帶來更好的表現，因為他們往往擁有更好的經驗和專業性，所以更能夠賦予你的角色生命力。”

配音演員Posy Brewer補充道：“一定要使用合適的配音工作室。有些人會選擇使用同樣的資源并最終導致玩家反復都在聽著同個聲音，這會導致游戲缺少多樣性。同樣也一定要使用經過專業培訓且能夠有效使用麥克風的配音演員。如果你是直接和配音演員共事，請確保他們能在一個擁有有效音響效果的辦公室工作。“

找到一家合適的工作室非常重要，因為這將影響著你的游戲最終的錄音質量，并最終避免你的游戲讓人失望。

Soundcuts的總監Adele Cutting說道：“沒有什么比因為在音響效果不加的房間錄音而徹底破壞了游戲性能的情況更糟糕了。小公司可能會認為錄音太費錢，但這卻是不該忽視的一環。”

“糟糕的音響效果只會破壞游戲的可信度并導致玩家分分鐘脫戲。”

開始配音吧

可能這一過程所需要的時間遠遠多于開發者的想象，但這并非配音公司要求開發者盡早錄音的唯一原因。實際上在一開始便確定配音演員也能夠進一步塑造游戲本身。

Estdale說道：“開發者可能犯的最大錯誤便是在腳本準備好時再外包配音工作。但是到那時候那些可能有利于最終成本的關鍵元素便已經不復存在了。”

“所以最好在角色一成形時便開始選擇配音演員。如果角色的聲音定下來了，開發者對于該角色的想法便會更加明確。明確的聲音也能夠幫助開發者專注于設計，文本和動畫，并最終創造出一個更加強大且完整的角色。”

Cutting表示，一旦開發者開始接觸這些服務提供者，他們便不能只是思考希望聽到怎樣的配音了。

她解釋道：“你們將討論各種各樣的內容，不只是關于腳本和演員，同樣還包括你希望如何配音，你想要什么風格的配音，臺詞在游戲中的作用是什么，游戲中使用了怎樣的語音系統，對話是如何進行的等等。”

Brewer還補充道，讓演員試著去說說臺詞也能夠幫助開發者明確自己想要的效果：“讓配音演員嘗試著以不同方式說幾句臺詞去達到你想要的效果。有時候即興表演也有助于創造出一個優秀的角色。”

將配音演員聚集在一起去了解彼此的表現也能夠更好地完善游戲中的對話。除了讓他們同時配音外，你也可以通過動作捕捉技術去幫助他們真正融入角色中。

Brewer說道：“隨著技術的發展，大多數人會使用動作捕捉方法，這也能夠有效實現配音與角色的同步。許多工作室會在動作捕捉和配音中使用同一個演員。通常這都能夠創造出最佳配音質量并且能讓配音演員真正實行配音的專業技術。“

而盡管動作捕捉技術在過去幾年里取得了巨大的發展，能夠呈現出非常強大的逼真感，但是仍存在一些需要去完善的工具與方法。

Cutting說道：“就像配音工具和數據庫連接都是最需要做出完善的內容。通常情況下游戲腳本都不是鎖定的。它們是不固定的，而當對話展開時它們可能就不能有效運行了，所以便會出現臺詞發生改變的情況。所以擁有一個能夠清楚呈現已經配好音，修改過或已經刪除的臺詞的數據庫是非常重要的。”

在腳本中

雇傭專業配音演員和制作公司固然很好，但這主要也是取決于開發者以及他們所提供的材料。

Estdale說道：“毫無疑問最重要的便是故事內容。其它都是次要的。如果開發者的故事非常糟糕，那么不管你的配音多色或配音演員都優秀也都不重要了。”

“配音質量固然重要，但是文本和作家的質量更加重要。”

當然不只有腳本很重要。配音演員還必須了解角色的背景故事，個性和動機等等。就和許多開發元素一樣，語境總是最重要的。

Ryalls呼吁開發者：“最好在配音前把資料發給我們。可以是角色的基本資料，情感腳本試演，視頻和故事綜述。如果我們團隊能夠更全面地進行準備并了解你的游戲故事，我們最終所交出的考卷便會更完美。“

“對于配音演員來說也是如此。如果他們能夠擁有更多時間去瀏覽你所提供的資料，他們便能夠更投入于角色中并擁有更完美的表現。”

配音公司通常都會竭盡全力確保團隊成員能夠完全投入到開發者想要傳達的故事中。就像Side便為了保持一致而讓同一個制作經理和配音總監去負責《巫師2》，《巫師3》以及最近的《血與酒》擴展。

Estdale總結道：“不管你是否擁有世界上最出色的配音演員其實根本就不重要，如果語境錯了，表現得再好都是扯談。”

“錄音過程中的視覺和聲音線索或者導演的口頭表達總是比腳本中的書面提示更有效，因為這能讓演員更好地融入進去。”

配音正在快速發展著。它也將進一步推動游戲媒體的發展—-但前提是其中的對話是合理的。就像Cutting所說的：如果沒有配音，《孤獨的托馬斯》將便會變成一款完全不同的游戲。

（ 本文為游戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉發，如需轉載請聯系：游戲邦 ）

Voices of reason: Improving vocal performances in your game

By James Batchelor

Gone are the days of reading reams of text to gather information about story and characters. Gone are the days of the silent protagonist. Now everyone in video games has a voice and something to say.

This has dramatically increased the workload for developers. While Morrowind only had a handful of spoken lines, Skyrim has over 60,000 and Fallout 4 features more than 110,000. Bethesda claimed recording for the latter took several years.

As daunting as this might seem, voice acting has become an integral part of bringing your title to life and devs striving for the best possible performances are raising the quality of games in general.

“When games are produced and recognised for great character and voice work, it’s good news,” says OMUK MD Mark Estdale (pictured). “It sets the bar as a wake-up call to everyone.“

BAFTA’s recent special event in Los Angeles recognising and awarding Amy Hennig for her achievement as a visionary writer and director is a sublime example. Amy has written large what can be done. Even indie games like Her Story and Firewatch help set the bar by demonstrating what can be done.”

Ben Ryalls, Side’s business development manager, agrees: “Quality of performance has become increasingly important over the last few years. Developers are appreciating the relatively low-cost, positive impact this can have on the overall game experience.

“The more titles where high-quality performances are recognised and commented upon, the more noticeable the poor performances in other titles become.”

Casting, directing and recording actors for your game can been a colossal task, with even the biggest triple-A studios turning to the likes of Side and OMUK for help. With good reason, these firms say: they can bring a level of professionalism to the process that almost no developer would be able to recreate.

“A professional director will make a huge difference to the level of performance you can achieve in a voice recording session,” explains Ryalls. “By having a director involved from casting right through to final pickup recordings, you ensure you have someone focusing on continuity of quality and performance throughout.

“Professional actors will also bring a better performance – the more experienced and the better trained they are, the more equipped they are to bring a character to life.”

Voice actress Posy Brewer adds: “Use proper audio recording studios. Some people rely on using the same resources and end up using the same people that you hear again and again, and it doesn’t bring variation to the game. Always use voice actors who have had training and also have a good microphone technique. If you’re working directly with an actor, make sure they are have a broadcast-quality studio.”

The need for a decent studio is vital, as this will have a major impact on the quality of your recordings – something that can detract from an otherwise impressive game.

“Nothing is worse than a great performance that has been completely spoilt by recording in a room with bad acoustics,” says Soundcuts director Adele Cutting. “Smaller companies may think recording in a studio is cost-prohibitive, but that is certainly not the case.

“Bad acoustics completely break the illusion of believability and bring you out of the game world. And don’t get me started on bad microphones and mic technique.”

TIME TO TALK

The process can take longer than developers might think, but that’s not the only reason why voice production firms urge studios to reach out as early as possible. In fact, getting voice actors on board at the start can help shape the game itself.

“The biggest mistake a developer can make is to outsource casting and recording when the script is ready,” says Estdale. “By that time key factors that contribute massively to the quality of the final results are already lost.

“Cast as early as soon as ideas for your characters are forming. If a character’s voice is in place, it empowers a unified clarity of vision for the character. Voice in place helps focus the design, the writing and animation and, ultimately, fleshes out much stronger characters.”

As soon as they’re in discussions with these service providers, developers need to think about more than just how they want the voice acting to sound, says Cutting.

“There’s a lot of stuff you can talk about – not just script and actor, but how you want to record, what the style of recording is, how the lines are working in game, what speech systems are in game, what is the dialogue doing, and so on,” she explains.

Brewer adds that experimenting with how actors perform their lines can also help find unexpected levels of quality: “Push them and ask them to try as many ways recording the lines to achieve what you want. Sometimes improvising can help develop a character.”

Finding ways to get the actors together in order to feed off each other’s performance can go some way to improving your game’s dialogue. In addition to having them record at the same time, opting for motion or performance capture can help put them in the shoes of your characters.

“With technology evolving and more people using motion capture, it is becoming more important on the voice element being spot on and syncing with characters,” says Brewer. “Many studios like to use the same actor for both motion capture and voicing. It’s always right to get the best quality for any production and use true voice actors practised in the specialist technique of voice acting.”

Although motion capture tech has advanced significantly over the last few years, delivering realistic performances and celebrity likenesses, there are still tools and pipelines that need refining.

“The biggest improvement could be the toolset to record the actor and link the takes with a database,” suggests Cutting. “Scripts for games are not always locked. They can be very fluid, as when speech is implemented it might not work, so lines are changed or re-written. A database that clearly shows recorded, revised and deleted lines is super important.”

IT’S IN THE SCRIPT

Hiring professional voice actors and production firms is all well and good, but they entirely depend on developers – and the material provided.

“Without doubt the most important thing is the writing,” says Estdale. “Everything else is secondary. If it’s a turd it doesn’t matter how you record and what actors you hire.

“The quality of voice acting is improving but it’s always down to the quality of the writing and great writers have always been around.”

It’s not just the script that matters. Actors need to know the words beyond the words: lore, backstory, personality, motivations. As with so many aspects of development, context is king.

“Get assets to us for prep before the recording session,” Ryalls urges. “It can be character bios for casting, dramatic and emotional scripts for auditions, videos and story overviews. The more our team can prepare and be invested in your story, the better job we’re all going to do.

“The same goes for the actors – the more time they have to read through their materials, the more committed to their character and performance they’re going to be.”

Voice production firms will often go to great lengths to ensure their teams are fully invested in the stories developers are trying to tell. Side, for example, assigned the same production manager and lead voice director to The Witcher 2, III and the recent Blood amp; Wine expansion in order to guarantee consistency.

Estdale concludes: “It doesn’t matter whether you have the best actor in the world – if the context is wrong, the performance is wrong.

“Visual and sonic cues during recording are much stronger than written notes in a script or the spoken word of the director, as they enable the actor to live in the moment. And the moment will be right for the game.”

Voice acting has come on in leaps and bounds. It furthers our medium – but only if the dialogue is right. As Cutting points out: without voice acting, Thomas Was Alone is just another puzzle game.（ source：develop-online )