Midwest Angelica
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Full Transparency on "b a b y l o n"
🕑 Added 2024-03-31 12:42:50 +0000 UTCHey folks, as some of you pointed out, the voice acting seems to be a bit off in the latest episode, "b a b y l o n." To be completely clear, that's because I (angeltempo) did all of the voice acting and then used what is essentially an AI-powered voice changer to change the voices. Now, I know AI is a VERY dirty word in creative spaces, and for good reason. I am completely against AI visual art and I think the use of stolen work for training data is at the very least morally wrong.
That being said, the AI tools we used do not use stolen content (as far as I can tell) and we basically used it in a form similar to a glorified TTS service. Analog horror, as you may know, is no stranger to TTS. The reason the voice acting maybe came off as bland is probably just because I'm not a good voice actor, or maybe something did get lost in the changing effect. I will say it did sound far better than my voice.
However, this episode would not have been possible without the use of this tool. The only other option would have been to scour for actors on fiverr, which would have costed far more and would have potentially left us with even worse results. Or we could have found actors in real life, but again, the results would have been very mediocre and searching for higher-tier actors would be far outside the budget.
We're realizing there's only so much that can be done with a small budget and it seems that viewers are starting to see the cracks as we push this project further. So I want to hear what you guys think we should do going forward. The narrative-based approach involves a lot of voice acting which as you can see is hard to get right without a good amount of money. Should we continue in this direction or revert to something more manageable? You guys let us know your thoughts. One last thing, AI will NEVER be used for any visuals, that will always and forever be done by hand with love.
Thank you all for understanding, this episode was an experiment to see what can be done in the future and your input will be welcomed.
Comments
That Blueguy
Yeah, I recommend running an audition. That way, you can connect with the industry and make a lot of overall social connections. I didn't mind the use of A.I, I just think its a missed opportunity to help support other creators and to make new friends.
Lauren Goodnight
I wasn't kidding on the community post. I really enjoyed being an anime VA and still have my rig. I'd happily contribute Female age 18-65 Midwest Standard/Southern US/South England accents, spoken English and French, sung English, French, Latin, Japanese. You don't need fiverr or AI, there are so many people who'd stand up and help! Run a quick audition if you want?
Mac
I really like it the way it is!
Jacob Rogers
I would audition
SynthGal
I would worry about what work was used to train the model, and whether or not it was gathered ethically. Even if it doesn't affect the end result as obviously as AI visual "art," it's still there. However, you are doing enough work on your own with voice acting yourself and if there's no other choice I'd still gladly follow along. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism and whatnot. There is an element of unreliability involved, but if you were to reach out to the community and see who is willing to volunteer their time and voice out of passion for the project (and maybe get themselves free access to the patreon bonus stuff) you might be able to sidestep the AI thing entirely. I'd be the first to sign up.
