Reviewed
Character work is priced differently from almost everything else in voice over. An animated series is booked by the episode. A game is usually booked by the session, sometimes by the line. The recording often runs worldwide and for good, and one performer may voice several characters in a day. This page explains how each of those facts shapes a quote, and what to ask before you agree to one.
Animation per episode
Animation is booked by the episode rather than by the hour or the word. The fee pays for your performance in one episode, however many lines the character has in it, within a normal session.
Episode length changes the booking. The calculator offers two formats for original animation: a short episode of eleven minutes or less, and a twenty-two minute episode, the standard half-hour slot once breaks are added. A longer episode means more script, more session time and usually a larger part, so it is priced as a different job, not as a longer version of the same one.
Ask whether the booking is for a pilot, a single episode or a series. A series often records several episodes in one session, and each episode is still a fee of its own. Ask too whether the role recurs. A recurring character may be recorded across many sessions over months, and your availability over that time is part of what the client is buying.
Animation also comes back for fixes. Lines are rewritten after the edit, timing changes to match the picture, and a scene is re-recorded. Agree whether short pickups after the session are included, and for how long.
Games: session blocks against per line offers
Games are usually booked by the session, in blocks of a set number of hours. The calculator prices non-union game work by the session hour, in blocks of two or four hours. A block pays for your time and your voice across however many lines fit into it.
Some clients offer a price per line or per word instead. That can suit a small job with a handful of short lines. It suits a large job badly, for three reasons. A game script is full of short barks, efforts and reactions that take as long to record as a full sentence. Many lines need several variations. And the hardest lines, the shouts, the screams and the combat efforts, count the same as the easiest. If you are offered a per line rate, work out how long the lines will take to record, and compare it with a session block for the same time.
Ask for the line count and the character list before you quote. A few hundred lines for one character is a different booking from a few thousand lines across several.
Toy and game product voices
Voices for toys, board games, apps and electronic games are a separate kind of job. The recording lives inside the product: a talking toy, a game that speaks, a learning device. The calculator treats this as its own job type, priced as one fee for a session of up to two hours.
The lines are usually short and the list is usually long: phrases, prompts and reactions, often with several variations of each. Ask for the full list before the session, and ask where the product will be sold. A product sold in many countries, or launched with an advertising campaign, may need an advertising use as well, and that is a separate line.
Holds, callbacks and recurring roles
Character work often starts with a hold. A studio asks you to keep dates free while it decides on casting, or while a schedule is confirmed. A hold costs you work you might have taken, so ask how long it lasts, and whether it is a first refusal: a promise that you will be asked before the dates go to someone else. The glossary defines the term.
A recurring role changes the arithmetic of a quote. A series that runs for several seasons, or a game with a long line of updates, may bring you back for years. Ask whether later sessions will be booked at the same terms, and how those terms will be reviewed. It is easier to agree a review at the start than to raise one halfway through a series.
Group sessions and crowd voices
Animation and games need crowds: background chatter, reactions, a stadium, a battlefield. These are usually recorded in group sessions, with several performers in the room or on the line at once, and each performer voicing many unnamed characters.
Treat a group session as its own booking. Ask how long it runs, how many performers are in it, and whether any of the crowd lines will be used as featured lines later. A crowd voice that becomes a named character with its own lines has become a role, and a role is paid as one.
Extra voices in one session
Performers who can voice several characters are valuable, and clients know it. A client may ask you to add a second or third character in the same session, sometimes on the day.
Each extra character is another role. Many agreements allow a set number of roles for one session fee and pay for each role beyond it. Whatever you agree, agree it before the session, in writing: how many characters the fee covers, and what each additional one costs. A character added on the day without that agreement is a character given away.
In-game use, trailers, sequels and DLC
In-game use is usually worldwide and permanent. The game is sold everywhere it can be sold, and it plays for as long as anyone owns it. A session fee for a game therefore buys a broad licence, and that is part of why game sessions are priced as they are.
That licence covers the game. It does not automatically cover everything made from the recordings:
- Trailers and adverts. A trailer is advertising. Its reach and its term are priced the way adverts are priced.
- Sequels and new titles. A new game is a new product and a new booking, even when the character is the same.
- Downloadable content and expansions. Content sold after launch is new work. Quote it as its own session, and agree whether existing lines may be reused in it.
- Other media. Use of your character's voice in a series, a film or merchandise is a separate use.
Write the scope on the quote in plain words. Usage and buyouts explains how to describe a licence so both sides know where it ends.
Vocal strain and session length
Shouting, screaming, creature voices, death sounds and combat efforts are hard on the voice. Recorded for hours, they can damage it. Many producers book vocally demanding work in shorter sessions for that reason, and union terms treat it as its own kind of session.
When a script has a lot of strenuous material, say so before you quote. Ask for it to be scheduled at the end of a session, or in a session of its own. Price the session length that keeps your voice safe, not the one that fits the most lines. A session that costs you a week of work afterwards was not worth its fee.
Consent for AI and digital replicas
Game and animation contracts increasingly include clauses about synthetic voices: using your recordings to train a system, to build a digital replica of your voice, or to generate lines you never recorded. Read these clauses before you sign. In general terms:
- Consent should be specific and in writing, not folded into a general rights clause.
- You should know what a replica will be used for, and for how long.
- New lines generated from your voice are new work, and should be paid as new work.
- You should be able to say no.
The union has negotiated terms on this for its members' work. On non-union work, your protection is whatever you agree in writing, so agree it before the session, not after.
Questions to ask
- Is this a pilot, a single episode or a series? For a game, how many sessions?
- How many characters will you voice, and how many lines does each have?
- How much of the script is shouting, screaming or combat?
- Is the session directed live, and who approves the performance?
- Where, and for how long, will the game or the show be available?
- Will the recordings be used in trailers, adverts or other media?
- Are sequels, expansions or downloadable content planned?
- Does the contract mention synthetic voices, digital replicas or training data?
- Is the producer a union signatory?
If the last answer is yes, the union terms decide much of the rest. Union and non-union work compared explains the difference.
Quote a character job
Quote a character job in the calculator: choose the animation format, the game session length or the toy and game type, and add a separate usage line for any trailer or advert. For the wording of the quote itself, use the quote template.