# When doing voices for animation what are the voice actors looking at?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-doing-voices-for-animation-what-are-the-voice-actors-looking-at/242995>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 1, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-doing-voices-for-animation-what-are-the-voice-actors-looking-at/242995 "2004-05-01T15:05:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-doing-voices-for-animation-what-are-the-voice-actors-looking-at/242995/21 "2004-05-05T23:55:25Z")

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> [@rjung](#):
>
> Generally speaking, American animation (and most of the rest of the world) will do the voices first, then animate the characters to match. Japan, however, has a longstanding tradition of doing the animation and the voices separate, probably for budget and/or time reasons. There’s usually no effort made to have the lips match the words; all that’s needed is for the animators know how long a specific speaking sequence will be, so they can make the lips “flap” for that length of time.

That said, not all anime is done this way. I remember seeing a special on the making of **Akira** where they made a big deal out of the fact that they had done the voices first and then animated to them.

Of course, the fact that they made a big deal out of it proves that anime is usually done with the voices added after the animation … .

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**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-doing-voices-for-animation-what-are-the-voice-actors-looking-at/242995/22 "2004-05-06T02:17:47Z")

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Oh, I am certain that Robin has the other characters’ scripts, so he fits his improv to fit in what the others say.

Ribon wouldn’t be neck and neck with Harrison Ford as Hollywood’s biggest moneymaker without some direction of the plots of his movies.

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