Oni Central Forum

Proletarian Tears

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 11/15/17

New lines for characters

I was searching for a similar project on this forum, but have not succeeded. If you know or remember something alike, let me know.

We are now able to make new characters with new animations, new weapons and items, whole LEVELS, edit the story line as we want it to be, but one thing was always standing out for me. I was always missing good old main characters, and even with new story lines for them, one thing didn't feel right - their voice. And more precisely, absence of it. Them DMSG's are nice, but to a certain degree, because they don't bring back the atmosphere of the original game.

And just like that, I have decided to make a little project. I don't have a goal right know, I just see a path and would like to know where does it lead. In my head I have two independent parts of the project ( actually I don't even want to call it a project, since the chance of even the smallest success is pathetic, but whatever )

   1. I have already extracted all of the character lines from the game, and with the help of "Quotes/Speech" section of Oni Wiki I wanted to blend some of them lines together and perhaps get something unexpected. The main problem in the way of that are filters on some of the sound files (like a slight echo of a thought, or talking through a radio set) and also the intonation, and in some cases even tones of the speech. It probably won't be easy, but I believe worth a try to diversify the game experience a bit.
   2. This is almost in the realm of fantasy, but I have though of surfing through the web to find samples of speech of actual voice actors who voiced characters in the game. I have done a bit of research and already found out that Amanda Winn-Lee (voice actress of Konoko) is dubbing anime's, so that basically means infinite amount of speech sample materials and also, Kurt Naebig ( voice actor for Muro) , who is an actor, talks almost exactly like he did when voicing Muro (judging by several interviews). As for the rest of the crew, I did not research it too deeply, so I have some work to do.

So here is my idea, I would love to hear some feedback and, perhaps, advice about the plan. Sadly, I have quite a lot of studying to do right now, so I won't be able to spend much time on the project, but I will try to keep this thread updated if I get something done. Stay true to the game, friends.

Last edited by Proletarian Tears (11/23/17 17:11)

Iritscen

Moderator

From: NC, USA

Registered: 10/22/07

Re: New lines for characters

That's an interesting idea for a project, albeit pretty ambitious as you said.  I own DVDs of several of the anime titles that have Amanda Winn-Lee in their English dub cast.  Her voice usually differs a bit for each character she plays, but she usually uses her natural voice instead of "doing voices", so in theory some of her dialogue from dubs such as R.O.D. could be re-purposed.

It might make sense to start by assembling scripts for each dub that Amanda (or whichever actor) was in.  Then we would at least have a catalog of words that could be available for use in mods (barring issues like music or SFX playing over top of the dialogue).  I don't know if such scripts are available.  I know that there is speech-to-text software used by big companies like YouTube so that they know what people are saying in videos.  I'm not sure if regular off-the-shelf dictation software can do the job.  The software would need to be run on DVDs or videos of the dubs, and maybe also interviews done with the actors.

That would at least give you a starting point.  Then you could attempt to assemble a few sample lines of new dialogue as a proof-of-concept of your idea

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Proletarian Tears

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 11/15/17

Re: New lines for characters

At the moment I am still organizing the sounds from the game recources. People who were naming them could have done a better job, to be honest, haha.
Thanks for the shown interest, Iritscen. I have also thought about searching scripts for the anime's starring Amanda, but you have a good point about using software to make them manually. This is certainly a thing to think about. Sadly, still cannot find materials to use by other actors, such as Bob O'Donnell ( Kerr ) ; this man seems to hide really well from unwanted eyes. Still searching, although at a slower pace, these physics lessons have to mercy

Iritscen

Moderator

From: NC, USA

Registered: 10/22/07

Re: New lines for characters

I believe the Bob and Mickey O'Donnell in the credits are relatives of Marty O'Donnell, the sound and music lead, so it seems that the only voice acting they've ever done was on old Bungie games.

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