Becoming an AI Avatar with HeyGen plus a FREE AI Audio Editor!

Today we're taking a look at the HeyGen Beta, where I turn myself into an AI Avatar. We'll take a look at HeyGen as a platform, plus we'll take a look into what you'll need to do to create a custom AI Avatar of yourself.
We are also looking at Descript by Replicate. An amazing AI Audio editing tool that I think is going to really wow Podcasters and Video Editors!
We'll also take a look at some Midjourney News, plus look at a fantastic AI Short Film that utilizes Midjourney's Zoom Function!
And last, there is some channel news, in that I have been hit with the dreaded KZbin Invalid Traffic Bug. if you would like to support my work here, please do consider joining the Patreon:
/ theoreticallymedia
Links:
HeyGen: app.heygen.com/guest?sid=rewa...
Descript: www.descript.com/?lmref=6T3Bgg
Zoom Back Camera: ShahirDaud/status...
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Thanks for watching Theoretically Media! I cover a large range of topics here on the Creative AI space, Technology, Tutorials, and Reviews! Please enjoy your time here, and subscribe!
Your comments mean a LOT to me, and I read and try to respond to every one of them, so please do drop any thoughts, suggestions, questions, or topic requests!
00:00 🤖 Intro
00:41 🧞 HeyGen Website Overview
03:00 🌟 Creating a custom AI Avatar of yourself in HeyGen
05:03 🗣️ You can use pre-made voices for your custom AI avatar, and lip sync improves when using these voices.
06:05 🎙️ Regenerate from Descript helps seamless audio editing by generating new audio cells between words.
08:24 🌐 Mid-Journey's web UI is improving, and they may explore 3D and video projects, potentially competing with Gen 2.
09:04 🎥 Check out creative Zoom videos like "Zoom Back Camera" for interesting content ideas.
10:28 📅 A planned video deep dive into "Pika" is postponed for additional polishing and will be released next week.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

If you'd like to support the channel, please consider joining the Patreon! www.patreon.com/TheoreticallyMedia

[@LouisGedo]

👋

[@chfilm]

this is all sooooo sick, the speed at which all those tools are popping up and are improving is mindblowing.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

It is pretty crazy. I know the AI avatar still looks a bit stiff, but 6 months from now? Next year? I think there is a pretty big wall before we hit real acting, but AI spokespeople? That’s very close.

[@forreal7403]

Loved your content, just subscribed. You’re the only AI KZbinr who isn’t so over the top animated 😂. You always just get to the point and give us updates.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Thank you so much!! Very appreciated!!

[@thewebstylist]

This is the first time I’ve seen an actually realistic AI rep! Amazing and bit scary how fast advancing while also bit scary what nefarious peeps can do with

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

It really is pretty remarkable. Yeah, it nerf’d a bit with my first go- but when I went British, you could tell it started to nail it. I presume on the paid tier, it’s pretty amazing. A few more months and it’ll be flawless.

[@PRepublicOfChina]

That heygen clothing generator is incredible! Imagine they could make a face generator too. You type in a prompt describing a face, it could generate a new face. then that face could be swapped onto the avatar.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

To be honest, I think their face swapper is top notch. I didn’t show it in the video, but I played with a number of them, and the results were all pretty good! And yeah, the clothing is a really great idea on their part. All around, super impressed!

[@lunatom3]

Thanks for all the good stuff, Tim! I literally "ran" to my Inbox the moment I saw your video to see if I got something from them, LOL! Oh well, I another day. :)

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Ha! You signed up for the beta, right? I’m sure you’ll get it in the next few days. I’m not getting any special treatment from them, so I think they’re just rolling it out in order!

[@JoelGustafsson]

Thanks for good video. Would have loved to see the process and pricing. Is this a Avatar Lite or Avatar Pro? Is it better to record in front of a green screen? Is the price just 59 USD?

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

So the Avatar of me was the “free” version. Not the fine tuned one. It’s funny, the previous specs said it was better to film in front of a green screen, but now apparently you can just shoot. Although, my avatar is now locked to that setting. I suppose if you did shoot in front of a green screen, you could pop your AI avatar anywhere. So it might be a good idea to try that!

[@AG_before]

5:35 Please never, ever do this to us, or at least me, again! 🤣 Excellent video. Thank you as always. 👍It does seem like a very impressive platform. In case someone has an Adobe subscription (for whatever reason), the text-based editing in Premiere is extremely impressive. Hopefully, they'll soon have the sense to include it in Audition. I keenly look forward to the video about Pika Labs. I know you have a lot on your plate, but perhaps AI-music generation sometime? I played around with Suno with the tiny number of credits they provide, but it's so underrated - rarely addressed when mentioning Google and Meta's music generators amongst the slew of others. Have a good one, and I hope YT's issues work out for you soon.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

So funny story, I played with the text editing in Premiere for a few months, and the way I would signal a good take is by saying “farts” at the end. That way I could just search “farts” in the text and know the preceding line was the one I wanted. I chose Farts, because…well, it’s highly unlikely I’d actually say that in a video. You have no idea how many times I almost let a “farts” through, just by accidentally highlighting it!!

[@AG_before]

@@TheoreticallyMedia 😂

[@santicerdan]

brilliant!!! Could you tell us what price option you chose, both for making the lite avatar and making the videos?

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

So I only used the free version and didn’t fine-tune, I believe that is in the paid option. That is why I wasn’t able to get a great result from that initial AI Avatar. BUT: when using the British voice, you can clearly see the results were a lot better. I presume that would be the case for the paid fine tune model as well. Hopefully they reach out and offer a trial for me, as I’d love to dive deeper into it!

[@RocketQueen71]

You should make a blooper reel! I and maybe a few others would enjoy that. 😄

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Ha! 100K subscribers special! Something to aim for!

[@RocketQueen71]

@@TheoreticallyMedia Well, I have no doubt you will get there soon! :)

[@Xaphedo]

There's no better way to guarantee unnatural gestures than to ask someone to "just act natural". I think you did great! Personally, if I got a good take after the first 30 or so I'd count myself lucky

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Thank you!! And yeah, act natural, just be mindful of these 4 rules! It was really, really tough. I would be the worst Ted Talk ever,

[@romanochelommmiii1526]

thanks tim

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

1000%!!

[@RocketQueen71]

I tried the HeyGen Avatar. It's alright I guess. I'll do anything once . I made my avatar, not of me, because I scare myself at times lol I don't really think it wouldn't capture the real me. Nothin' beat the real thing. ;) lol I did write a script. I went over the allowed time. So, I cut it down. But, it's very pricy. I'll look for something cheaper. At least , I got my PSA done for peeople that are strugglin' with addiction and/or mental health issues. Thanks as always for making this video!!! 🤘😎

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Great to know it was used for a good cause! Yeah, it’s really weird with the AI Avatar. I thought it would be a lot more stiff than it was. Obviously, it doesn’t capture the “real” me, but it did capture a lot more character than I thought it would be capable of! I can understand the cost standpoint, but I do think they’re also “best in class” right now. I presume the cost will come down as the tech advances.

[@RocketQueen71]

@@TheoreticallyMedia Months ago, I found a site called, Synthesia . The avatars were too robotic and souless . HeyGen is a whole lot better for sure.

[@easyaitech]

Holy... That's not bad at all. I'm very impressed with heygen.. I chose d-id over heygen. Maybe time to try it again.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

I like D-Id as well! But, yeah, HeyGen just kicked the game up a notch for sure! I keep thinking there is an OP Combo of HeyGen, Midjourney, and Gen-2 that is going to be wild! Gotta figure that out!

[@michaelsbeverly]

Have you considered and/or tried taking the sound track out of the avatar's video and then using your own voice? Obviously, this wouldn't make sense for a realistic avatar of yourself, but for a cartoon one, it seems like it would work if the cadence was alinged (if not, it would just look dumb).

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

I kind of think it would end up looking like a weird dubbed movie. Might work if someone was really good at matching cadence, but I think I’d screw it up pretty bad! At that point, I’d probably just pay for the tier that allows it and save myself some sanity!

[@ToolWrangler]

Hey Tim, not sure how long this vid has been in editing, but the HeyGen video avatar (cloning yourself) is no longer in Beta as of the date you published this vid. Also, there are significant costs associated with this which wasn't mentioned in your vid (I'm assuming you were comped a clone and are unaware). Ill be releasing a video with the costs and details as well in the next few days, but i'm still waiting for them to "process" my avatar 2 days later. I think HeyGen has a really cool product but I also feel they are mis-leading with their pricing. All will be revealed on my channel.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

That’s really weird. So my avatar was free at the time I made the video (thus) and only took about 20 minutes to create. Now, I did go over in the video that using the voice clone of my voice was a “pro” feature, which is why I went with “British” me. I basically went in via the beta invite I was provided, no special treatment, but maybe they changed something in the interim. I usually don’t focus on price points (unless it’s free!) in these videos, but rather focus on the tech. But, maybe I should start throwing it in? I totally get it (esp with the stupid invalid traffic bug hitting me), these AI services are starting to rack up a good monthly amount!

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Drop me a link when you publish too!

[@ToolWrangler]

@@TheoreticallyMedia Tim, thanks for the prompt and sincere reply! I first learned about HeyGen last week. I was super excited about it and jumped in signing up for the creator plan (minimum to get the clone). I followed the same instructions as you, uploaded the vid and got hit with an unexpected paywall after I had already signed up for a monthly. I thought this was pretty greasy. I went back and confirmed no mention of it on the pricing page. It also asked for an additional $99 for the voice, again pretty shady. I've seen several videos on HeyGen now but none disclose pricing, perhaps you early adopters got in before they fully monetized but I want to make a video reviewing the service as a paying customer. Thank you for the clarification about your scenario, unfortunately things have changed in the pricing which came as a surprise to me so hoping to let people know.

[@ToolWrangler]

@@TheoreticallyMedia For sure I definitely will. I've only got about 40 people on my channel and I really would like to get the word out, at least so people aren't surprised like I was. I just hope the video clone is as good as the examples I've seen. I did think it was odd it's taking several days to process my avatar, but I submitted it exactly 48 hrs ago and it's still processing / "under review". Will keep you posted. Thanks again for your content, I'm a new sub, only found you when searching for HeyGen content.

[@chardy7071]

Wow. Is this still in the beta stage? I'm amazed and cringing at the same time.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Yup, that’s kind of exactly where I am too. And by Beta, I think this is like, final stage Beta. This will probably be wide in a few weeks. It surprised me quite a bit. I thought the AI avatar would be a LOT more stiff. Yeah, a little buggy still- but the “British” me? That was fairly flawless.

[@astralartz2478]

Video seems a lot easier than 3D right now so I would expect that first.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

For sure. I’m curious as to see how that video is going to look. Like, if it is going to have wild movement like Pika, or more of a animated GIF look, like early Gen2. The one thing I’ll say about MJ is, generally speaking, when they ship a feature, it is generally really polished and above expectations. Can’t wait to see what this will be.

[@phoenixaudas]

😮 “Face Swap” at 10:30 ❤ 😅

[@RoboMagician]

does heygen have a freetrail?

[@rockyboustani4503]

Cool and interesting. But about 10 ads for a 10 minutes video is extremely excessive. 😠

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Oh, that’s not me, that KZbin. And if you watch a few videos up, I mention that I got hit with the Invalid Traffic Bug, meaning: I’m getting barely any revenue from those ads! Ugh…

[@MrDragonsfire]

come to find out the whole video is done with the custom avatar and no Real humans appear in this video. haha just joking, awesome video. or am I ! We may never know.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Haha, that day will come! (This response was NOT written by ChatGPT!)

[@letitbeai]

Fun tool to play with but very expensive (NOT FREE!) and for most o the part kinda useless, the voices are still sounding robotic, the quality isn't really there yet tbh.

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Sorry! Didn’t mean to imply free in the title. That was referring to the Audio App “Descript”

[@letitbeai]

No offence taken, i just get itchy when people put free in the title and then you have to buy tokens ore something, I know you are one of the good guys👍@@TheoreticallyMedia

[@silentstrategist07]

why dint your ai avatar do the same weird eye rolls as you

[@TheoreticallyMedia]

Haha, because they told me not to!! Legit was thinking of your comment when I was recording it, haha. It’s tough!!

[@silentstrategist07]

hahaha glad to know you remembered me :D@@TheoreticallyMedia