{"id":6113,"date":"2026-10-01T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/?p=6113"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:52:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:52:45","slug":"how-to-get-into-animation-voice-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/how-to-get-into-animation-voice-acting\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Into Animation Voice Acting: Act First, Voices Second"},"content":{"rendered":"

This guide is for anyone who’s ever watched a cartoon, laughed at a character and thought, I could do that. Maybe you’ve done impressions since school. Maybe you’ve got a home setup and a few commercial reads behind you and you want to try something louder. Either way, animation is one of the most wanted corners of voice work, and the way in looks different from what most people expect.<\/p>\n

The short version: it’s an acting job. The voices come from the acting, not the other way round. Here’s how the work runs, what directors listen for, how to train, what goes on a demo and how people actually get the auditions.<\/p>\n

Animation records the voices first, then draws to them<\/h2>\n

In most Western animation the actors go in before a single finished frame exists. Voice director Kris Zimmerman, whose credits include Cow and Chicken and Jonny Quest, put it plainly in an interview with Animation World Network: “The animation comes second. Most of the time, they animate to the dialogue track.”<\/p>\n

That changes everything about how you work. You aren’t matching a mouth on screen. You’re giving the animators something to draw. Your timing, your breaths, your laughs and the little noises between lines all become the character’s movement. A tired sigh might turn into slumped shoulders. A rushed line might become a run.<\/p>\n

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“Voice acting is just acting with your voice.”<\/p>\n

Jon Allen, voice actor, speaking to KPBS<\/span><\/div>\n

The industry calls this a pre-lay. KPBS, in a piece built around voice actor Jon Allen, set out the difference between the two ways of working: “For anime, actors often record in ADR sessions, automated dialogue replacement, where they match pre-recorded animation.” Western animation, the same article says, “usually records voices first,” and the animators build around the performance.<\/p>\n

Both are worth knowing. If you’re drawn to anime dubs, the skill set leans towards picture sync, which we’ve covered in our guide to matching the mouth in dubbing work<\/a>. Original animation leans towards pure invention: you get a script, maybe a drawing, and you build the person.<\/p>\n

Directors are hiring actors, not funny voices<\/h2>\n

This is the part that surprises people. The beginner’s picture of animation is a reel of wacky voices: a squeaky mouse, a growly monster, a posh cat. Those exist. But a voice with nothing behind it falls apart by the second line of a scene.<\/p>\n

Dee Bradley Baker, one of the busiest voices in American animation, runs a free site of advice for newcomers, and his page on acting is blunt about it: “A voice actor’s job isn’t to merely read words on a page accurately.” He goes on: “Acting involves a kind of excavation of a script,” and then you add your own imagination and feeling on top. “Without the first, your performance lacks guidance. Without the latter, your read is dead.”<\/p>\n

Jon Allen, who voices Mr. Poopybutthole on Rick and Morty, said much the same to KPBS in fewer words: “Voice acting is just acting with your voice.”<\/p>\n

So before you hunt for a sound, ask the questions an actor asks. Who is this? What do they want in this scene? What’s in their way? How do they feel about the person they’re talking to? The voice that comes out of those answers will be more specific than one you picked off a shelf. Our guide to building a character before you find the sound<\/a> walks through that process step by step.<\/p>\n

A good test: read a line in your own natural voice and make it land. If it doesn’t land in your own voice, a funny voice won’t save it.<\/p>\n

What happens in the room<\/h2>\n

Animation sessions come in two flavours. Some shows record the cast together, reading the episode through like a radio play. Others record each actor alone and cut the lines together later. Zimmerman prefers the first: “I prefer to take them through it like a radio play,” she told Animation World Network, adding, “I prefer to have the interaction between the characters, but you can do it the other way, too.”<\/p>\n

If you’re in an ensemble record, listen. Half the job is reacting to the other actors, and the best moments often come from a laugh or an interruption nobody planned. If you’re recording solo, which is more common for newcomers and for anything recorded remotely, the director or a reader will feed you the other lines. Your job is to play the scene as if the other person were standing there.<\/p>\n

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Play the scene as if the other character were standing there. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Either way, expect direction to be quick and specific. “Bigger.” “Younger.” “She’s lying here.” “Same, but she’s out of breath.” You’ll do a line three ways, then move on. The skill of hearing a note and changing exactly one thing is worth practising on its own, and we’ve written about taking direction in a live session<\/a> if you want the details.<\/p>\n

It’s a physical job, so treat it like one<\/h2>\n

Animation asks more of your body than almost any other voice work. Characters run, fall, fight, laugh till they cry and scream at the sky. All of that has to come out of you, standing at a microphone.<\/p>\n

Baker warns newcomers against shrinking the performance because the booth is small. “The presence or size of a performance should be no less in volume, emphasis or emotional fullness than if it were on-camera,” he writes. “In fact, you must often be more emphatic in your acting.”<\/p>\n

Move. Use your hands, your face, your weight. If the character is lifting something heavy, push against something. If they’re sneaking, hunch. The microphone hears the body even when it can’t see it. Just keep your mouth at a steady distance from the mic while you do it.<\/p>\n

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The mic hears the body. Use all of it. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there’s the screaming. Bryce Papenbrook, the English voice of Eren in Attack on Titan, described the cost to Anime News Network: “You can only scream so hard until your vocal cords tell you, alright, you’re done.” Preparing for that audition, he said, “I could barely talk after the audition.”<\/p>\n

Screams, fight efforts and big laughs belong at the end of a session, never the start, and you’re allowed to ask for that. Warm up properly, drink water through the day, and learn the difference between a scream that comes from breath support and one that comes from squeezing your throat. Our piece on looking after your voice<\/a> covers the warm-up and the warning signs.<\/p>\n

Stamina also builds with use. Harry Belden, who took over as the voice of Morty, told The Hollywood Reporter: “Our vocal coach likens vocal cords to muscles and something we’re training week after week.” Comparing early sessions with ones nine weeks later, he said the cast could hear their voices had “gotten a lot stronger and more comfortable in these roles.”<\/p>\n

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Save the screams for the end of the session, and drink water all day. \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Training that actually transfers<\/h2>\n

You don’t need a degree, and you don’t need to start with a voice class. Baker’s own quick list for beginners opens with stage time: “Get as much time on stage in front of a live audience as possible.” Third on his list: “Get good improv experience\/training.” Fourth: “Read out loud a lot.”<\/p>\n

That’s sound advice for a simple reason. Improv teaches you to commit instantly and to react, which is exactly what an ensemble record asks of you. Stage work teaches you to play a whole scene, not one line. Reading aloud every day builds the sight-reading you’ll lean on when a script lands an hour before the session.<\/p>\n

Drama schools have caught up too. RADA in London runs a short online course in voicing character. Its aim: “Explore the imaginative and vocal skills required to create characters for audio across five key areas: commercials, audio drama, audiobooks, animation and video games.” That spread is worth noticing. Animation sits next to the other character genres, and the same skills carry across.<\/p>\n

If you’re starting from nothing and want structured lessons you can do from home, Voice Master Academy<\/a> covers the acting and the technical basics in order, so you’re not guessing what to learn next.<\/p>\n

Practise on real material. Turn the sound off on an episode of a cartoon you don’t know, write out a scene and play every part. Then play it back with the original sound and notice what the actors did that you didn’t. Do that with a video game cutscene too. Our guide to breaking into game voice work<\/a> is useful here, because a lot of animation actors work in both.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic:

\u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Your animation demo: short, specific and acted<\/h2>\n

The animation demo is a different animal from a commercial or narration demo. It’s a run of short character moments, each one a different person in a different situation, cut tight so the listener hears range in under a minute and a half.<\/p>\n

Don’t rush it. Baker’s page on demos starts with a warning: “If you aren’t there yet, hold off on making a demo. It’ll just be a big waste of time and money.” His test of a good one: “The best demos are brief, avoid redundancy, and above all, show you can act and tell a story.”<\/p>\n

Some practical rules that follow from that:<\/p>\n