Recently, Val appeared in record breaking Top Gun: Maverick (2022)<\/strong><\/a>, which is a sequel to Val\u2019s 1986 Top Gun, continuing his role as Tom the \u201cIceman\u201d. But as the news surfaced in the media, Top Gun fans appeared confused and wanted to know what would the actor do in this role with no voice of his own? <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s certainly the most memorable scene of the movie when Tom struggles to talk, dubbed in his AI generated voice. The storyline of Tom is taken from Val\u2019s real life scenario where Tom develops a cancer and communicates using typing, however at some instant in the movie, Val speaks a brief dialogue, in his own voice, crisp and clear, with the same emotions and expressions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was possible using AI. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2021, Val Kilmer had announced a partnership with <\/strong>Sonantic<\/a>– a California based tech startup that specializes in creating AI powered voices, to create his own custom, computer generated voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company makes voice for video games, Hollywood recordings, and speech therapy applications where a voice actor reads out scripts that are provided by Sonantic and are then fed into Sonantic\u2019s pre-developed voice engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of Val Kilmer, however, the actor could not record his voice, and Sonantic had to change its approach, thinking out a different, and innovative solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The team took on the challenge and started with gathering Val\u2019s voice data from his movies, including Top Gun, Batman Forever, The Doors, and Heat. Apart from Val\u2019s movies, he had hours of footage of his 40 year vlogs which were recorded in his personal cameras. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These voice scripts were meticulously cleaned to remove background noise and processed to extract the clear voice of Val. \u201cThe scripts were then transcribed and paired with voice in small intervals\u201d says Sonantic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, as Sonantic noticed, the data was 10 times less than what normally AI algorithms require to function accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team then worked on researching and developing a new algorithm that could accurately generate Val\u2019s voice with few data features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonantic remained successful in this endeavor, and Val\u2019s voice was successfully restored just like his original natural voice we get to hear in Top Gun (1986).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take a glimpse of Sonantic\u2019s AI voice engine, featuring Val Kilmer\u2019s emotional and expressive voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow it all started?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Crafting Val’s Voice was not easy!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Val](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/gfPE7BDtlnA7FioxziAHQaOSr6w-d-cswLD6afSWsDLNtLPIg7h4nnCIrPRInhDyfhRvyaJwJCCrAX1tcAMoV0hI5SrlEZ-PydM_4V7T2bCoh7ar9oowcBhxddsGAd17uQE48VR7YChYDFb6E3xxwOs\")