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Do animated TV shows record characters’ lines or animate first? Kari Wahlgren gives us the answer
Which comes first: the audio or the visual of animation? According to voice actor Kari Wahlgren, it depends on the project -- and where the show is coming from
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I think most of us have seen an animated movie or TV show at some point and became mesmerized by how well the animation synced up with the voice actor’s performance. For me, what comes to mind is Johnny Yong Bosch’s performance as Vash the Stampede in Trigun Stampede (his Vash makes the funniest little noises). Another one is Miles Morales singing the song “Sunflower” in the beginning of Into the Spider-Verse.
Since most animated projects from major studios are incomplete without their voice actors, how does the production pipeline work? Do they start with the animation first (which can take years to make), or do they start with recording the actors first? Luckily for us, voice actress Kari Wahlgren was able to explain where and when each approach is typically deployed in our latest episode of Popversations.
Wahlgren noted that for English language dubs, actors are recording lines after the TV show or movie has already been edited. “...You can see the character’s mouth moving, you can see their facial expression, you get to hear the beautiful musical score in your headphones, and you have to sync each line up to that preexisting picture,” Wahlgren began. “So you’re kind of locked into a lot of the timing of what’s already been created. If we’re doing something like Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, we record the lines first, and then they animate to us.”
It should be noted that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was an American project, so it makes sense that they would start with recording the original language voice actors first. On Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Wahlgren voices Aunt May, the iconic aunt of Peter Parker, and it wasn’t the first time that she’s stepped into the Marvel Universe. Previously, Wahlgren voiced Emma Frost on Wolverine and the X-Men.
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