Frustrated with bulky equipment and never-ending edits? HeyGen is your ticket to a streamlined video creation experience. Using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI), it generates realistic avatars that articulate your script with human-like nuance. In this post, we’ll give a comprehensive review of HeyGen AI, covering its features, pros & cons, pricing, and more. Find out if this popular text-to-video platform and AI avatar generator is right for you.
What is HeyGen AI?
HeyGen is a content creation platform focusing on AI technologies for video generation. It has come a long way and offers new features and improved quality over time.
HeyGen does multiple things related to video generation and is a leader in generative AI for video production purposes. As such, it sports a great AI Avatar generator, AI-powered Text-to-Speech, and AI voice cloner. These tools are wrapped in an easy-to-use UI that lets creators get more done. Let’s review HeyGen’s major features now.
Feature Review of HeyGen Video Generation
There is definitely more than one major feature the HeyGen brings to the table. Here’s a look at some of the best features it offers.
AI Avatar Video Creation
HeyGen is an AI video generator that uses generative AI to streamline your video creation process. It offers 120+ AI avatars, 300+ voices, and 300+ templates for various use cases, including product marketing, health care, sales outreach, and learning & development.
Crafting compelling video content is a breeze with HeyGen. It allows you to create top-quality videos with no expensive equipment required. HeyGen includes a variety of video templates that arrange various elements (text, images, music) along with your AI avatar. This creates a quick launching pad for creating new video projects.
You can also create your own templates for a fully-branded experience that keeps your videos consistent.
AI Voice Cloning
HeyGen’s voice cloning feature uses artificial intelligence to create a lifelike copy of a natural human voice. The audio quality is clear and without any background noise.
The process involves creating an AI clone of your voice using an audio recording or pre-recorded video footage. The platform supports eight languages: English, German, Polish, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Hindi. Your voice can be used on one of the Public avatars or through a custom avatar of yourself (depending on payment tier).
Find the “Voice” menu on the side and click “Clone Voice.”
The following steps are easy but mandatory. First, you must “Record Consent” by reading a simple legal paragraph aloud. After that, you’ll “Record Voice,” which gives the AI enough of a sample to generate a clone that it can use in its text-to-speech tool inside the video creation tools. HeyGen then shows you a predefined script you’ll have to read. Click “Start Recording” to give the system your voice.
Recording takes about two minutes, and you should try to read it aloud naturally but with inflection.
Talking Photo Generation
HeyGen’s TalkingPhoto feature allows you to animate any photo and give it a natural human voice in over 100 languages and accents. You can bring the script of what you want your image to say and use HeyGen to make it come alive.
This feature utilizes cutting-edge AI facial recognition to map facial expressions with your preferred voice. It works by adopting a text script and applying it to a simple image. It’s a fun and enjoyable way to bring your ideas to life, particularly for less serious projects like animating history lessons for making a business mascot come to life.
HeyGen Pricing Review
HeyGen operates on a credit-based pricing model. Each video or animation you create consumes credits. Any unused AI credits do not carry over into the next month.
Each tier offers more features than the one before it. More credits can be purchased to generate more videos with that tier’s features. HeyGen offers an annual payment option that reduces the plan’s total cost in exchange for paying early and upfront.
Here’s a breakdown of each pricing plan:
Free Trial
HeyGen offers a limited version of their AI tool for free so that users can see what it is like using the platform. Don’t expect the best quality of videos, but you’ll see what it can do and promos for extended features.
- One free credit is included
- Video duration is capped at 1 minute
- Access to 120+ public avatars is available
- URL to video for quickly turning web content into videos
Pricing: Completely free to try out the tool and see if you like it
Creator Plan
The creator plan is excellent for those needing short videos, whether they’re for help documentation or social media use. Videos on this plan can be as long as 5 minutes, making this great for those needing short projects.
- You get 15 credits each month
- Videos can be up to 5 minutes long
- Premium voices and auto-captions
- No watermarks on your videos
- Avatar Lite is available as a paid addon
Pricing: Starts at $29/mo with more credits available
Business Plan
The business plan is where HeyGen starts to be beneficial for multiple use cases. Longer video outputs and faster video rendering are among the best features.
- It comes with 30 monthly credits
- You can create videos up to 20 minutes in length
- API access is included for advanced customization
- Videos can be rendered in 4K resolution
- A brand kit, priority video processing, and three user seats are also included
Pricing: Starts at $89/mo with more credits available
Enterprise Plan
Not many will need Enterprise pricing, but they do offer it. This would be for power users requiring large amounts of videos created and large teams getting it done.
- Offers a range of usage options, up to unlimited videos
- Custom seat allocation is available
- Avatar Pro can be added as a paid feature
- SSO (SAML) for secure login
- The package includes a dedicated account manager and other exclusive benefits
Pricing: Custom pricing, work with their sales team
Pros and Cons of HeyGen
AI in video is still an emerging technology. It has come a long way but still has some to go. Here’s what we liked and found lacking about HeyGen’s AI video maker.
The Upsides of HeyGen
- Seamless Onboarding: HeyGen’s user interface has built-in onboarding videos, making it a breeze for newcomers to get acclimated.
- Avatar Customization: Whether cloning yourself or jazzing up a pre-designed avatar with clothing options, HeyGen offers many customization options.
- User-Friendly: The platform’s ease of use ensures you can focus on creating, not troubleshooting.
- Responsive Customer Support: When you hit a snag, HeyGen’s customer service doesn’t just respond; they aim to solve it.
The Downsides of HeyGen
- Credit Constraints: The platform operates on a credit system, meaning every video you produce has a price tag. These credits do not roll over.
- Room for Growth: While promising, HeyGen’s AI video and avatar tech still have a few kinks to iron out.
- Limited Emotional Palette: The platform’s avatars could use a dose of emotional intelligence with better facial expressions, text-to-speech nuance, and better hand gestures.
Who is HeyGen Built For?
HeyGen is a multi-purpose AI avatar generator. Anyone who sees themselves saving time with video creation will likely enjoy it.
The creator plan is excellent for small-time creators using this for shorter social media work. Large businesses looking to replace serious people-hours with AI-generated videos will need its pro plan with a good amount of credits. This can make help desks and knowledge bases much more interactive.
How to Use HeyGen to Create a Video
Making a video is very simple in HeyGen. We’ll demonstrate how to create a simple video in less than five minutes. Start by clicking “Create Video” in the top right-hand corner.
Depending on your HeyGen plan, you have different options for creating your new video. We’ll start with an “Instant Avatar.” We’ll use the “Leah” avatar.
We can select which “View Mode” we want our avatar to be. Seen below is the “Half-body” mode, but there are also “Close-up” and “Circle View.” Next, start by typing in your script. Line breaks create a natural pause in how the avatar speaks. You can also adjust the “Speed” and the “Pitch” of the AI text-to-speech voice. Click any “Play” button to hear how the avatar sounds. Click “Submit” when you are ready to publish your video. This will count as a credit.
The video may take several minutes to render as the voice, video, and other AI systems work away. There’s an option to share the video directly to a social platform. HeyGen also gives you a few options for video quality and AI-generated captions.
Conclusion
As we’ve explored, HeyGen is an incredible AI tool. It is up there with other top-notch AI voice, video, and avatar competitors (like Descript and Synthesia AI). We were very pleased overall, especially with its ease of use and the amount of available avatars. The pricing is pretty good, and we liked the multiple paid tiers, which helps people choose what they need. The only real negative we saw was its credit system—especially that the credits you pay for can disappear when a new billing month starts.
If you are looking for more AI tools, check out our post on the top AI video generators. Also, if you are looking for alternatives to HeyGen, we highly recommend looking at our articles reviewing Descript and Synthesia AI.
The post HeyGen AI Review 2023 (Video Avatars, AI Voices & More) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.