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Becoming a voice over artist can be a very lucrative career or side hustle if you have a great voice.
Lending your vocal talents to projects like audiobooks, animated films or even internet ads, documentaries or video games can pay upwards of $100 for just a few minutes of finished work.
Some time ago, I published a review of a guide called VO Genesis, which promises to get you started in the lucrative business of voice acting. The guide is full of great information that is perfect for any beginner.
I did some research and found some courses on Udemy which may also be of interest to anyone who wants to get started as a voice over artist.
These are 5 great alternatives to VO Genesis because they’re in a course format and unlike Jenny Lewis’ guide, these courses are presented in video format which can be quite engaging for some.
Here are 5 great Udemy courses to help you learn the lucrative business of voice acting.
1. Voice-Over Training: Record & Edit Voice Overs Like A Pro
This course by UK voice-actor Peter Baker & Voiceover Masterclass is possibly the best voice-over course on Udemy.
With over 8000 students enrolled, the training is a Udemy bestseller in it’s category and maintains a very high rating of 4.7 out of 5 from almost 1500 reviewers. This suggests that the material is of exceptional quality, which is to be expected from experts like Voiceover Masterclass.
Voiceover Masterclass which is co-founded by Peter Baker have their own website where you can find all their courses on the subject. They also have multiple related coursed on Udemy and a popular YouTube channel.
In the Voice-Over Training course, you’ll learn how to get started in the world of voice acting and use those skills to earn an income from home.
The course features 6.5 hours of on-demand video training, 2 useful articles and some downloadable resources. Everything from getting started, equipment, setup, voice training, audio editing, script reading, marketing and finding work is thoroughly covered.
This is a lot of training and students have expressed their satisfaction through the reviews by rating the course highly and talking about the value they’ve received from taking the course.
One student said that “every aspect of voice over covered” while one beginner said that “it has been enlightening even when I’m just halfway through.”
2. Be A Voice Actor: Making a Living With Your Voice
Laci Morgan’s voice acting course is a Udemy bestseller with more than 7400 students enrolled. It also maintains a high rating of 4.4 out of 5 from over 1300 reviewers who have taken the course.
While not as extensive as the above course by Peter Baker & Voiceover Masterclass, the course does cover a lot over it’s 2.5 hours of material. Many of the videos are very short and to the point compared to the more detailed videos of the other course.
As you would expect from any quality course, everything that you need to know to get started as a voice actor is covered and Laci encourages not just people who want to get into voiceover work but says that her course is useful if you want a fun job working from home or you enjoy reading aloud.
One reviewer who praised Laci’s course has used the course in preparation to do podcasting.
And just in case you’re wondering about Laci’s experience and how exactly she is qualified to teach a course like this, she works as a voiceover in cartoons, ads, video games and audio books for companies you may recognize such as Disney, Mattel, Nintendo, Hasbro, Sephora and Universal Studios.
3. Voice Over Acting – Instruction in Commercial, Animation & More
Voice Over 101 Plus is the preferred name for this Udemy course by Michael Christopher which has 4.5 hours of useful video training on how to get started in voice over acting.
The course is a bestseller in it’s category on Udemy with over 3900 students enrolled. With that amount of students, it has managed to maintain a 4.6 star rating out of 5. This means that students are generally satisfied with the quality of training they’re getting from Voice Over 101 Plus.
Michael includes 29 downloadable resources in the training and also regularly updates the course material.
As the Udemy course title suggests, parts of the training focus on how to deal with commercial voice over copy and there is a section on how to deal with animation copy.
The course seems to focus more on vocals, reading and performance and omits stuff like home studio set-up and editing that are always included in the other courses. While there is a section that trains confidence, there isn’t any on finding work and marketing yourself.
However, the course does have a very tight focus and it’s possible that by omitting these parts from the training, the student may have a stronger foundation in actually performing voice over work and can learn the other stuff in supplementary courses.
4. Voice Over Pro: How To Perform & Record Standout Voice Overs
Voice Over Pro is the highest rated voice over course on Udemy with a 4.8 out of 5 star rating. However, this is only from less than 100 reviewers from 950 students at the time of this writing.
The course by documentary filmmaker Paul Jenkins and his company Brilliantio, isn’t placed higher on this list because it is another focused course like Voice Over 101 Plus above that omits some of the stuff mentioned in more general courses like the one by Peter Baker.
Nevertheless, it is still a great course because it focuses on performance, vocals & recording. Course material include:
- how to think about your voice
- the fundamentals of getting a great voiceover
- 6 steps to getting a better voiceover
- microphone, placement posture & acting
- getting from good to excellent
- recording your demo
The course has 3.5 hours of video and 2 articles and Paul Jenkins also does some other courses that may go well with this one.
5. Voice Over Training From a Voice America Recognizes
Learning from someone who has proven to be a success is a great way to ensure that you get the right training to achieve a similar level of success.
Mike Elmore is a national voice-over talent who boasts clients such as Proactiv, Taco Bell, Food Network, Spike TV and Fox Sports to name a few.
Mike teaches this course designed for people who are trying to figure out just how to enter the world of voice acting.
His Udemy course is 2.5 hours long and you just need to take notes. He touches on basic topics such as:
- how to get started
- how to record at home
- using your voice to get your client’s message across
- finding voice-over work online
- recording your demo
- auditioning
- and more
Mike also has three related courses that go in-depth with some of the topics he talks about in this course. For example, he has an entire course on auditioning so you can improve your chance of getting booked. However, this is the course that you’ll need to start with if you have no previous experience.
The course is highly rated among the almost 1000 students who have taken it. Of the 138 ratings at the time of this writing, the course holds a 4.6 star rating out of 5.
While voice-acting can be a very lucrative career or side hustle, there are many other applications to taking a voice-acting course.
Maybe you want to learn how to do podcasting or you’re a marketer who wants to do your own online ads or you may even want to improve your voice & public speaking skills so you can do YouTube videos. These courses can help you learn a skill that has varying applications.
These Udemy picks are also great alternatives to Jenny Lewis’ VO Genesis guide which I previously reviewed and you may also want to check out Jenny’s guide if you’re interested in that instead.