What comes first: the voice actors or the computer animation?

We just had an animated video done for one of our products from a reputed animation firm based out of India. The process may vary with other firms for all I know, but ours went somewhat like this: We first discussed on the idea and they gave us some options with rough sketches of characters. Once we settled on a theme and a character, we worked on the script After a few rounds of script editing, they provided us with sketches of frames. They even provided the first cut of the video with voice over done by the animators themselves, along with the sketches (just images) to get the 'first feel' of the product. Once we gave our approval, they went ahead and completed the animation.  This too went for a couple of rounds of editing. Voice over (VO) was again done by the animators, just to give a feel of how the entire timing of it would sync together. When all the elements of the Video were finalized. They provided us with voice samples of VO artists. We picked one, and the VO artist was briefed about the product, and how we wanted it to sound like - casual & witty. The VO artist then recorded the voice over and sent it to the animation studio. We went through another couple of rounds of editing based on the VO, adjusting the pitch/tempo of the voice over. This was handeld by the animation studio and the voice actor did not have to do the VO again. Then for the background score, we picked a sound artist. He provided a couple of music loops to pick, and then the entire background score was done. Then came the last part where all that was left was to adjust the volume of the background score, so that it let's the Voice Over shine. The animation studio is working on the last step, and we should be getting the final cut anytime today. :) It has been a very exciting process and everyone involved was extremely supportive and considerate over the fact, that we're a budding startup, who had not done any of this before. EDIT: We've now launched the video at http://www.cosurfin.com The animation studio that worked on it is : http://www.rocketscienceanimation.com/ They are bunch of really helpful guys. I'd highly recommend them.

It depends on the type of animation done. Some explainer videos don't really need to be synced with the voice over, except on some key scenes, and most of them doesn't involve dialogue, which probably where's most animation needs their voice talent to sync properly. However, the length of the voice dictates a lot on the actual animation duration. On some cases, explainer videos that involves a lot of screencasting, commonly using Camtasia, may have the voice talent doing lipsync with the animation done (fully or partially). On most cases though, voice over will be recorded first by reading a script, then the animation will be done to follow the animation. Some producers, like Disney, also asks the actor to actually perform the action so they can do a better voice take, and record more than just a couple of takes of it. Tom Hanks on one interview also talked about endless takes of doing Woody on Toy Story. Maybe it's fun, maybe not :) See more here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-253977.html

At Cartoon Media, once the script and written storyboard are agreed with the client, we give them to both the illustrator and voiceover artist to do their work in tandem.  This helps to save time on the project. Once the images and voice track are signed off, and a backing music track has been chosen, if required, we then work on compiling the video. You can find out more at http://www.cartoonmedia.com Here is an overview of our production process:

We, at http://thecuillincollective.com/ record the voiceover first. But, we do it a little differently. We understand that budgets are tight and additional costs are not an option. So, I (the animator) record the script myself and apply this to the video. I then show our clients the first draft of the explainer video with my voiceover. This makes is possible to make alterations to the script without incurring any additional voiceover costs. It's only when you see and hear the video that you realise that you might want changes to the script. This is one of the many things that we do that helps keep costs down.

For the actual animation it is usually the voice that comes first, once you have the voice the animator uses it as a guide to animated the character and specially to match the lips to the dialogue, BUT in the whole process of creating a film or short animated video the positions usually vary and work together. You could start by defining the actions and the kind of animation you want and then give that to he voice actor to work with it, this involves doing storyboards, animatics, animation tests, etc. or you can go the other way around, of for example you have an actor like Jonny Depp who had a very defied style, you might start by having his acting and then build the rest from that. It depends on the project and the preferences of the director and the animators, but again, when it comes to having a final performance from a character you usually do it having a prerecorded dialogue, and this is because if you try to record a dialogue on top of an animation you will get the results that foreign translations get, which is lips not matching the voice and probably off sync of the video with the audio, and in this case you would probably have to ask the animator to rework the piece to make things work together again. I hope this made sense, it's a very rough explanation but it's overall how things work in production.

At http://Gisteo.com, we normally record the voice over first before going into production. Oftentimes, the action is indeed synched to the voice over. If adjustments are needed, we do them on the voice over but we've founded that having the client approve the voice talent first (before beginning animation) is more efficient, not to mention more affordable.

99% of the time we do the voice over first, unless it's one of those "music video type explainer videos".   All of our animators prefer doing it this way, because the sound bed forms the skeleton of the video, to which they can animate everything to.

Based on my experience, it depends on how quickly you want to produce the animation. Overall, animation is a complex and very intricate process, but I'll do my best to distill what I've learned into a brief answer here:When recording the audio first, the voice actors are given plenty of freedom to bring their creativity into play, which helps to "shape" a character into an actual living being with a more complete personality and style than written script could ever give them. Once the audio is recorded, animators will be able to match not only the mouth flaps but also facial expressions and body movements to the voice actor's performance. The end product is usually nice and tight, with characters that really come alive thanks to a great performance by the actors, paired with talented animators who really understand how to express nuanced audio cues in a visual format.If you produce the animation first, then dub audio to it... well, let's just say I see this being done in China all the time. The result is a much faster project timeline, but a much less elegant finished product. This backwards process also has the benefit of eliminating the "problem" of dealing with creative people, since the voice actors are expected to be more like robots performing assembly-line work in the recording studio. I've dubbed a few projects out here, and although I'm grateful for the opportunity to do the work, it's not a fun process... and sadly, it's often difficult to feel truly proud of the finished product.

The workflow of producing an explainer video can be a little different for different companies. At http://www.wowmakers.com/, the voiceover comes first to set the tone. The structure of the animation is subsequently built around that. Check this out for a more in-depth look at the entire process: http://blog.wowmakers.com/posts/animated-video-production/.