Range that survives being asked to act.
Games and animation ask a voice to do the one thing most AI reads avoid: commit. Menace, panic, wonder, and a child who is not a pitched-up adult. These five take direction hard and stay intelligible while doing it.
Can AI do character voices? The useful test is whether a voice stays understandable at the extremes - a villain who whispers, a hero mid-sprint, a creature that is not quite human. Each clip below is directed to an edge deliberately.
Hero
The bridge is going! Go, go — I am right behind you! If I am not through in thirty seconds, you seal it anyway. That is an order, and I am extremely serious about it this time.
Villain
You keep saying you had no choice. I find that fascinating, because I was there for all four of them. Sit down. We are going to go through each one, and then you are going to tell me again about choice.
Mystic
You came a long way to ask a question you already answered. The river does not argue with the stone, child. It simply keeps moving, and one morning the stone is somewhere else.
Young character
You said the tower was too high and the bridge was too old and the dragon was definitely real. Well, I climbed it, I crossed it, and the dragon is a very large lizard who is scared of the bell. So.
Creature
Small one. Warm one. You walk through my forest with iron on your belt and ask why the trees lean away from you. Put it down. Put it down, and I will show you the path that does not end.