Marketing videos can be a huge hurdle for any company. Finding the right voice actors is hard and needs the right mix of passion, acting skills, and raw talent.
Luckily for you, you no longer have to shoot your videos yourself. There are AI tools that can help you accomplish almost anything.
You can leverage AI video generators to help you turn your scripts into talking-head videos in a matter of minutes.
An example of such a tool is Synthesia AI; a powerful video creator that allows you to create videos that look and sound man-made, with little human involvement.
This Synthesia AI review article will take you through everything you need to know if you would like to explore the world of AI video creation. It will cover the company’s main features, services, pricing, etc.
What is Synthesia AI?
Synthesia is an AI-powered video creation platform for creating realistic headshot videos (spokesperson videos) for various use cases such as ad voice-overs, tutorial videos, explainer videos, etc.
This platform allows you to:
- Create advertising material for your company using only text.
- Generate engaging how-to and training videos for your viewers.
- Choose your own video avatar from the ones provided.
- Make your own animated avatars for your videos.
How does Synthesia AI work?
To create videos in Synthesia, you need to follow these 5 steps:
1) Select a video template
There are over 55 video templates available in Synthesia, ranging from talking head videos to explainer videos. Select one that best fits the use case for your video.
2) Select an AI avatar presenter
If you are creating videos for your businesses, chances are that you would want to pick one AI avatar and stick to it for all of your videos. Consider picking an AI avatar that has two different shots, a closeup and a distant one to allow you to create a sense of motion when creating your videos.
You can switch the two AI avatars between scenes when you want to zoom in on the presenter.
3) Fill in your video script
Once you have picked a template and an AI avatar, the next step is to fill in your video script. Synthesia allows you to enter the script in plain text. You can copy and paste your script into the text area.
Having a problem coming up with the scripts for your videos? Consider using an AI writing tool like Jasper AI. Jasper has great fined-tuned AI tools for creating video scripts and Youtube scripts and descriptions.
4) Edit your videos
Synthesia allows you to add music, images, and graphics to your video.
You can also choose from a selection of stock photos or upload your own images. Inside the Synthesia Studio is where the magic happens. You can get as creative as you want with the design elements, but remember great videos are simple and message-focused.
5) Preview and generate your video
Once you have completed all of the steps, it’s time to preview and generate the video. This is where Synthesia AI takes over and does all of the hard work for you. Synthesia AI will take your script and create a video with the AI avatar presenter.
It’s that easy!
You can then export the finished product in MP4 format, full HD 1080.
Synthesia also has an embed URL that allows you to use your videos in website builders and blogging platforms like Squarespace, WordPress, Medium, Hubspot Knowledge Base, etc.
Main Synthesia features
Synthesia has a wide range of features that you can explore to suit your unique business needs.
1) Synthesia AI avatars
Syntheisa has over 100 AI video avatars for you to choose from, covering different age groups and ethnic backgrounds.
These avatars are based on real-life people whose footage was taken with their consent and used to create digital twins through an AI system that creates videos from the text. The actors have an agreement for Synthesia to use their likenesses to create these AI avatars.
You can use these avatars to say anything (within reason) to promote your brand. Synthesia has strict content moderation for their avatars to prevent their AI tool from being used to make harmful content. Synthesia insists on users keep scripts business related.
2) Custom Avatars
You can opt out of the available avatars and create one for yourself. You can make an avatar of yourself or a colleague. You can also choose to change the voice on your avatar and pick from their selection of synthetic voices for your video.
3) PowerPoint to video converter
PowerPoints can be basic, boring, and difficult to read. Synthesia gives you the chance to take that old PowerPoint presentation and turn it into an interactive, engaging, and professional-looking video.
Here’s how you can do it in a few easy steps:
- Import your PowerPoint by clicking on ‘Import PowerPoint’ in Synthesia Studio.
- Choose your AI avatar to narrate your slides.
- Select your preferred language and type the text in your chosen language.
- Create your video and edit it to add background tunes, pictures, shapes, and slide transitions.
- Download your video.
Your video is guaranteed to be more engaging, attention-grabbing, and shareable than a PowerPoint.
4) Text to video
You can create striking videos with Synthesia by using their text-to-speech software coupled with the AI video avatar features. You can turn your vision into video in just five minutes using these simple steps.
- Select a pre-designed video template and customize it to your taste. Synthesia has over 50 video templates to choose from, so you cannot miss the one you need.
- Choose an AI avatar to be your video presenter.
- Type in your text to Synthesia or copy and paste what you want your avatar to say in the video.
- Customize your video by adding background music, images, animations, and transitions. You can change the video style using Synthesia’s inbuilt video editor.
- Generate and download your video.
5) Video Editor Studio
Synthesia also provides a simple but powerful interface for editing your videos to help finetune your messaging. You don’t need to have prior video editing knowledge to use the Synthesia Studio.
You can create and edit professional-looking videos directly in your browser, no software download required.
To use the studio, all you need to do is select a video template, choose an AI avatar, enter your video script, and start editing your clips to emphasize your messaging and make it more interesting and engaging. You can add clips, design elements, and photos, include music, use AI presenters or even add branding elements such as your logo.
6) Video templates
To make sure that you never have to start from scratch, Synthesia provides over 55 diverse templates that you can use to create your videos for different use cases.
There are templates for:
Training | Sales |
Pitching | How-to / Tutorials |
Business | HR |
Creative videos | Reports |
Professional videos | Simple videos |
This library is always growing, so you can expect to see more in the future.
These templates are designed by professional video editors and creators and are fully and easily customizable.
7) Screen Recording
There’s a built-in function that allows you to record your screen. To start recording, navigate to the menu toolbar at the top-right of your dashboard, click on the background icon, click on uploads, and select the Record screen option.
You can record your entire screen, your current window, or a given Chrome tab as you would with any screen recording software.
To start recording, click the Share button. Your screen recording will be applied as your video background but is also saved under your background uploads. This makes it easy to access later in the future if you ever want to reuse it.
You can use the Match the script feature to auto-adjust the speed of your screen recording playback so that it matches the duration of your script.
8) Other Synthesia Features
- Music / audio / voiceover support
- Branding support
- Multi-language support ( 120+ languages)
- Powerful integrations
- Free creative assets library
- Video sharing pages
- Full HD downloads
- Background music library
- Duplicate feature for easily updating videos (No need to rerecord as a result of bad or outdated info in a script)
Who can use Synthesia AI?
There is a diverse group of people who could benefit from AI-generated videos.
Examples include:
- Marketing firms,
- Online course creators,
- Digital stores,
- Saas businesses,
- Social media management companies,
- Solopreneurs,
- small businesses,
- Bloggers,
- Youtubers, and
- Any other online digital creatives.
The thing is, if you need video content but don’t want to show your face, or don’t have the means to put together a $5000 video shoot, then, AI videos can be of help. Not to mention the little time it takes to create, edit and perfect an AI video, contrasted with that of professional shoots.
Synthesia Pricing
You have two main price packages:
- Personal: This comes at a fixed price of $30 billed monthly. The personal package offers you 10 video credits per month, free stock images and videos, up to 10 slides per video, MP4 downloads, video sharing pages and embeds, and all the standard Synthesia features we have previously gone through.
- Corporate: This package allows you to customize the price based on your business needs. It includes all the standard Synthesia features, personal package features, and some additional perks – more than 25 premium built-in avatars, exclusive custom avatars, premium Shutterstock content, branded templates, priority tech support, SAML SSO support, branded video share pages, and custom text fonts.
Pros of Synthesia (Benefits)
Synthesia is an amazing tool to help you make creative videos as fast as you need. Here are some upsides to using Synthesia:
- Helps you create professional talking head videos quickly and easily without needing a crew and expensive camera gear, and complicated editing software like Camtasia
- Make it easy for anyone to create videos even without a video production background
- Dozens of customization options to help you create videos that better represent your business and your brand.
- A huge library of media and other design elements to help juice up your videos, making them more interesting, visual, and engaging.
- Diversity: Synthesia has over 100 avatars from different backgrounds and can generate content in over 120 languages and accents. This can help you create relatable content for your target audience and allow your viewers to identify with your brand.
Disadvantages of using Synthesia AI videos
- Even with a selection of 85 plus Avatars, your customers know that you are not using real staff in your videos. This can put off some customers.
- AI-generated videos rarely perform better than professional videos shot by real actors and professionally produced.
- Unlike Pictory AI, Synthesia doesn’t auto-add creative assets to your videos based on your scripts, thus more work has to be put in for you to get the desired results.
- Synthesia is not for everyone and can be expensive if you are looking to produce multiple videos.
- Even though not complicated to use, creating perfectly synchronized videos in Synthesia does have a learning curve.
Synthesia AI FAQs
Is Synthesia AI free to use?
No, Synthesia AI is not free, but you can create one video for free to help you experience the features. After that, you can sign up for a personal plan that starts at $30/month for 10 AI video credits.
How much does Synthesia AI cost?
Synthesia AI has two pricing plans: Personal ($30/month) and Corporate (custom pricing). The Personal plan gives you 10 video minutes per month, while the Corporate plan gives you 200+ video minutes per month. If you want to make your own custom avatar, then you need to purchase this addon on top of your corporate plan, at $1000/year.
Can I use Synthesia AI for business purposes?
Yes, you can use Synthesia AI to create professional-looking videos for marketing and promotional purposes.
Can I use Synthesia videos on Youtube?
Yes, you can use Synthesia videos on Youtube. You just need to follow the terms of service of Youtube and make sure that your video meets their guidelines.
Are Synthesia avatars real people?
No, Synthesia Avatars are not real people but AI-generated virtual presenters. They use artificial intelligence to generate lifelike facial expressions and movements. That said, they are based on real human actors who have an explicit agreement with the company. These actors are compensated based on the usage of their resulting avatars
What is the use of Synthesia?
Synthesia AI is a video creation platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create videos featuring virtual presenters. It can be used for marketing, promotional campaigns, educational courses, and more. With Synthesia AI, you can create videos quickly and easily without any prior experience in video creation.
Is Synthesia AI legit?
Yes, Synthesia AI is a legitimate video creation platform. It has been around for a few years now and has over 50,000 satisfied customers who are using the platform to create videos for their business and personal projects.
Is Synthesia.io worth it?
Yes, Synthesia.io is worth it if you need a simple but powerful video creation platform. It has all the features you need to create professional-looking videos quickly and easily, without any prior experience.
What is a custom avatar?
A custom AI avatar is a digital presenter created using Synthesia’s artificial intelligence technology. It combines virtual elements such as facial expressions and movements with real-life actors to create a unique, lifelike avatar.
How do I make my own avatar with Synthesia.io?
To make your own avatar with Synthesia, you need to follow these steps:
- Record a video of yourself reading a script provided by Synthesia. You need to use a smartphone camera and a tripod, and follow some guidelines for lighting and background.
- The footage needs to be 10-15 minutes long
- Upload the video to Synthesia’s platform and wait for their team to process it.
Once your avatar is ready, you can use it to create videos with any text you want.
Note that creating a custom avatar requires explicit consent from the person to be made the avatar. You also can’t use existing images or video footage.
Synthesia IO Alternatives
- Pictory AI
- Deepword
- Rephrase AI
- InVideo
- Synthesys IO
- Wisecut
- Designs.ai
Synthesia supported languages and ethnicities.
Synthesia is ethnically diverse and multilingual, with over 120 languages and ethnicities for you to choose from. Some of the main languages supported by Synthesia include(but are not limited to) the following:
Afrikaans | English | Swahili |
Arabic | Bulgarian | French |
Japanese | Portuguese | Korean |
Chinese | Croatian | Slovakian |
German | Czech | Norwegian |
Burmese | Italian | Romanian |
Dutch | Hindi | Russian |
Greek | Hungarian | Serbian |
Spanish | Irish | Latvian |
Synthesia AI reviews.
Here are some comments from previous Synthesia users:
Synthesia AI Review: Parting Shot
Synthesia is a powerful tool to help you generate fast, expert video content. It has dominated its niche as an AI tool among big shots like Jasper AI.
If you want a free AI video generator, this tool might not be for you. However, if you’re looking to make high-quality, conversational video content, Synthesia is worth a shot.