In anime, do the voice actors record first or is the animation made first?

Question

Always had this question, never knew the answer. Do they first animate an episode, than have the voice actors record, or do they voice act it out first, and then animate the episode to match the voices? If you guys have any other interesting details on voice acting, please share!

Answer 1

Great question!


Usually the casting begins in the stages of pre-production. During this period the crew for production, sound crew, etc, is hired. And, if the casting is finished before the set date of the beginning of production/animation (i.e. when the script and the animators are in place), and there is enough time for the voicework, then the voicework is done before animation. However, in some cases the casting takes too long and the animation team goes ahead and starts animating to make sure the toon is released in time to please the studio. Voicing begins when the casting is finished, with animation well under way. Then, the process is faster but much more difficult because the voiceover's are done at the same time as the animation.

A longer, but conventional, method (especially in the states) is voiceover first, animation later.

So yeah, first the voice, then the animation.

Answer 2

I think they animate first. At least this is how English dubbing goes. I've seen behind the scene's studio stuff for adaptations of Studio Ghibli, and the voice actors are reading with the animation playing in front of them. I'm guessing this is how the original voice tracks are laid down as well, after the animation.

Answer 3

In most cases the animations are made first then the voice acting.

Answer 4

My girlfriend colors in the "cells" used for animated features for Disney's Pixar Productions, and she says anime works the same way as they do. Which is: the narration, called a "voice over" is done 1st. All the actors get together in seperate little rooms with headphones on in a recording studio and then read their parts, as if they are doing a dialogue or a play. The animation is then done so the mouths of the characters can be formed to be in synch with the words they are supposed to be speaking.

Answer 5

In Japan, they record the voices first, then do the animation to match the mouth movements and then when it gets here they translate it and re-dub them to match the mouth flaps. (I think they should just say the lines HOW they're supposed to be said and to hell with mouth flaps (("Omae wo korosu" = "I'll destroy you"?! I think not! Who's with me?!)

They do it the same way when they anime anything here, too. They have the voice actors come in and do the lines whith artists in the recording studio making sketches of them - how they move and what expressions they make with their faces while in character - and then they animate it using the sketches they got from that as guidelines for the individual characters and to keep the voices in sync with the mouth movements.

Answer 6

It depends. A lot do voice then animation, but some do it the opposite

Answer 7

the animation is made then they do the voice acting.

Answer 8

my take, voices first, then animation... its easier to adjust to the voice then the other way around right?
of course in dub its voices second.

Answer 9

the anime made first then the dubber watch the anime and they start to speak like in the anime

Answer 10

the animation is made first, den comes the seiyuu.