Today is an exciting day for gamers, with the release of long-awaited MMoRPG Divinity: Original Sin 2. After previous denials, the developers surprised fans with an announcement in August that the game would feature voice acting. The game now includes over 74,000 lines of dialogue and hired around 80 voice actors along the way!
One of these was our Tamaryn Payne, who was asked to take on the key role of Lohse. It was no small commitment. In the process of creating Lohse, Tamaryn recorded thousands of lines, donned motion capture gear, and made a single!
To find out more we’ve interviewed Tamaryn to learn about the voice acting (and more!) that went into the game.
What can you tell us about your character, Lohse?
Don’t mess with her! Lohse is no shrinking violet, in action or attitude. She’s the person you want in a crisis. And she’s got brilliant hair.
Who inspired you when voicing Lohse?
Actually it was Sarah the writer that inspired me. Her love for Lohse inspired me to do a really good job as she seemed very emotionally connected to her. Sarah gave a really great description of who Lohse was, to the point where I didn't really need to guess anything. She gave me the confidence to know my voice was right for her, and that was the centre of my characterisation.
Did you do any other voice acting for the game?
I didn’t. To be fair, there was no time. This game is huge - by far the largest I’ve ever worked on. I had thousands of lines and a song too, so unfortunately I didn’t get to be a random squirrel or something!
The project was your first experience with Motion Capture – what was that like for you?
Mo-cap was weird, and scary, and then awesome! I had a bit of nerves once all the gear was on, and that hasn’t happened to me in a very long time.
Once I was used to the light in my eyes and little camera in my eye line, it was fun to physically bring Lohse to life. I focused on finding the balance between movement that makes sense with the words, but not too much for the sake of it.
What were the highlights of working on this project?
The biggest highlight was having a real sense of ownership over the character. Often with voice acting you feel that anyone could do what you’re doing. With Lohse, although someone else could, it really felt like it was my part. That’s special.
I got to record my first ever single, which I never thought I’d do. I also got to do my best Charles Dance impression – but you’ll have to play the game to see what I mean!
An Introduction to Lohse:
Thank you to the wonderful Tamaryn Payne for the interview. Divinity: Original Sin 2 and its accompanying soundtrack is available from today.
For more articles like this, check out The Pillars of the Earth: Game Voiceovers and In Video Game, Who Am I?