To all,

We want you to donate your voice to us. Also, if you want to help fix up the screenplay... or come up with a title perhaps?

Eh?

As some of you know, and most of you can tell, I have been rather busy the past few weeks and not as active as I used to be...

There is a good reason: school.

But more specifically: I am working with a friend, Brad on a joint animation project (2d and 3d mix) for the Maya class here. It is the largest and most involved animation we have done (4th for each of us), and is as close to a full production as you can get. We managed to not only drag method3 into doing the 2d backgrounds (and I thank him much for—they are much better than anything I could do in my current sucking-at-drawing state. *no comment on the hair!*), but another friend of mine to do a full soundtrack...

The trouble is, we possibly stupidly decided to also throw in some rather sparse dialog, voice to our characters. Considering that neither of us wanted to actually record our own voices, and much less would fit the characters on the screen, we decided to go out and find people around campus to do the voices. Heh.

So here I am, abusing my power and sending out a plea to the artists of 2draw to help out.

What is needed?

Well, we have 3 characters that speak in our animation, there are very few lines, as the piece is fairly short, any relies more on the animation and art to pull it across than the voices.

Spoiler Alert! If you cannot do voice animation, don't read anymore! Possible reasons: You have a crappy voice, or are too embarrassed to actually send me your recordings, or possibly, you just have no access to a non-sucking microphone.

Quick run through of the animation:

Our (currently unnamed) animation takes place in Feudal Japan, times of warring states. Our Main Character (adolescent martial arts girl) sets off a quest determined by her sensei, "Wiseman," (old scary guy in robes) to the ends of the Earth (well, a couple miles, anyhow).

For reasons unknown, the Main Character decides to run back, and fight people attacking the village (she has really good vision, trust me). Conveniently, the very skilled Wiseman (the old scary guy in robes) who managed to suspend the animation of a couple of the attackers gets completely slaughtered by the "Boss Ninja," who comes complete with his own stabbing sword.

As with all clichéd kung fu movies, the Main Character (who we finally find out is actually an adolescent martial arts girl thanks to the convenient "knocking off of the hat that held the hair") fights the Boss Ninja bringing him to his knees (and ass, and back, etc.). Then in an ultra corny finish, decides not to kill bill him.

So, who are the characters?

Well, if you missed the hints:
1) Wiseman - and old wise guy with sensible and serious words
2) Boss Ninja - a smartass thin strong ninja guy who completely owns the wiseman
3) Main Character - a person of few words, since we cannot reveal that the main character is female until the end.

4) secondary parts: grunts/vocal noises from two ninjas the wiseman disposes of.

How can you help?

Well, if you yourself want to try at voices, or know someone who might have time, send me a memo, [email marcello@cellosoft.com]e-mail me[/url], or post here or whatever. I will give you further details on the animation.

Here is the screenplay: http://www.unm.edu/~cello/.spring2004/lines.txt

On top of that, there are grunts, kung fu noises, and other random vocal sound effects for those characters.

It is sort of unfinished. Still. (I know, I know... but it has been a really tough semester.) Feel free to give suggestions (furyofroy gave me an extra the line for the Boss Ninja, so that's cool).

Also, if you have an idea for the title, that would be nice as well.

Since we have a certain standard to keep up, we are looking for the best, so "many will enter, few will win," is best suited here. Or maybe "we hope many will enter so we can play american idol." ;-)

Deadline?
Ideally, this Sunday morning (yes, the 25th). It is not very realistic for most people here, I am sure, but our currently deadline for the beta version of the piece is the 25th.

After that we will have a week and a few days to polish everything up and get the final presentation ready, so if you are really truly good but do not have time immediately, it may still work out.

Why?

Well, you should really be helping here because you are a nice person and I am very desperate. But also, if necessary, I could say something along the lines of I do very drastic things when I am desperate, such as shutting some things down for the hell of it. ;-)

Anyone who does anything helpful to the piece will get their names in the credits. Voice actors in particular will get their names in the opening credits as "people who done do them voices."

Conclusion

So, if you have read this far, shame on you. I said not to spoil it!

Thanks,

Marcello

wow......just wow, can we see the finished product after its done?
edit: I got someone i know whod play the part of the wiseman a.k.a The all ighty WATERS
and by waters i mean !WATERS!

i wanna donate my voice for the badass ninja, or at least the grunts, i gotta tell you the ladies love my voice :)
i suppose i could trtry to wiseman, i mean im only 15 but im a good voice imprssionist

zappo: maybe, will have to consult with brad first though.

Anyone who is interested should record a sample from the screenplay (anything or any part they like), and send or upload a MP3 version (no more than 500kb if you e-mail, please).

I just talked to him on the phone....he said hed love to.....we can record is as soon as wedsday night and sed it wedsday night.
edit:um, whered u get brad from?

um, he's my classmate? we're both taking this animation class together, 4th time now...

Well, I'd just love to help you boys, but my voice is way too sexy to be an adolescent martial arts chick. (And a ninja girl with a Texas drawl.... LOL!)...HAH!!! Good luck with your venture..... :)

Hey, Marcello, wouldn't it be alot easier to bribe/blackmail/beat someone into doing your schoolwork so you can do what you want to? lol

I'll try out my voice. :) If you need it.

I would love to see the finished work. Cindy, that might be a cool twist to have a lil ninja chickie with a "sutthin TECKsus drawl" . I could do the old wise ass (scary old guy in robes..cuz thats what I am) but it sounds like you got one for that anyway, and I don't know how I could get a sample there. No mike, no equipment, and I dont know MP3 from and MGB.

For converting wav to mp3, there are a number of free programs out there, but personally I use dbpoweramp...
For a test recording you can simply use microsoft's built in sound recorder (under start > programs > accessories somewhere)...

The more people that submit, the better, so we can choose voices that best fit the characters.

I'll try it out! mos' def ^^

due to technical dificalties, we and waters cant try out. :( sorry bout that cello

shall i try again, or do you not want me anymore? XD

Okay, I'm trying later today. I hope it helps. I didn't get to do it last time. I'm sorry, marcello.

Don't worry about it, a bit late now. =P

Subtitles are better anyway.

The best thing is to do all the voices yourself. The male voices and even the female ones. This is how a friend of mine does them. >:)
|XOD|

and how many voices can you do XOD? :) I can imitate quite a few myself ;)

Ah, I can only make the silly voices! >:D My brother always had this ability to do a very scary monstrous voice, just like a demon... >:)
|XOD|

I can make silly voices too^_^and 4 a girl...I can make a voice that sounds like a boy's voice...whenever I do that to my friends they always crack up...

we already finished, wednesday.

Guess my lil soundbite wav sucketh much eh? Oh well.. I tried!

well it was a more of a matter of not having consistent vocals or the time to bother with them. We ended up using subtitles and leaving sound effects out of the piece entirely.