Last Update: February 21, 2023
Video content draws attention and gets shared the most on all social networks. It is common to think that video production takes a lot of time and requires skills, however it is not necessarily the truth: thanks to AI-powered video creation tools, the video making process has become a lot easier.
For instance, a tool called Synthesia AI creates AI videos from a text in more than 120 languages in almost no time. This tool was already mentioned in our newsletter in June 2021 and has evolved since then.
How does it work?
Working with Synthesia basically looks like creating a presentation, but in the form of a video. Building your video is similar to creating a slide deck: you choose the style of the video, add background, animations, videos, images, text or even upload PowerPoint slides.
What is different, though, is that when creating a slide deck, you add speaker notes for yourself, but when creating a video with Synthesia, you add the text for the chosen avatar to say. You type in or paste the text you want to hear in your video and let the AI work on it. In a couple of moments, after AI has generated the audio based on your text, you get the final product in form of an AI video.
The creation of a video in Synthesia in detail:
Select an AI Presenter
To do so, you can either choose from a variety of presenters from the database or create your own. Right now, there are more than 85+ avatars to choose from.
Creating your own avatar takes more time. You have to make your own video, submit it and wait for Synthesia to process it.
Once you are done, you can type in a couple of words to choose the voice of your presenter. Synthesia will automatically recognize what the language of the text is.
Depending on the language, there may be a wide variety of different voices to choose from. This allows you to choose a video that will fit your brand.
A huge benefit here is that you can create your video in multiple languages in no time: you only need to translate what your avatar has to say and the video will be adjusted to a different language.
One of the features allows changing the voice and avatar on all slides even if you have already created the video.
Customize the look and feel of your video
After you have chosen your presenter, you can work on the look of your future video. You can decide how big and where the presenter should be, whether the presenter should be seen on the video or not, and stay with just the voice. The avatar can also only be seen in a small circle, which can be very convenient for presentation-like videos.
It is also possible to make a video in audio only format, without the presence of the avatar on the screen, this feature is called “voice only”. This is practical for the videos where the appearance of a person is not necessary or may distract from the main content.
The features are also applicable for the separate slides of the video.
Personalize your video
You can start from scratch or choose the style of your video from more than 55+ pre-designed templates. The templates are created for different types of business, aims, and settings. These are also customizable.
First, you can change the background. Here, anything is possible: plain background, a photo, or a video. Synthesia AI is connected to Unsplash and Pexels, so you can just choose from the wide variety of media provided or upload your content.
Additionally, adding images, shapes, infographics, and text for more visualization is possible. You can also upload your PowerPoint slides or a video at this step. It is easy to change the position and the size of any element of the video.
When styling your video, you can also play with the fonts: either choose one of the available fonts or upload your own one.
A very handy feature is the possibility to upload the brand assets such as your logo. The uploaded files will remain in the cloud, so you don’t have to upload them again for future projects.
Adding a video to your Synthesia project also has some useful features: you can loop the background video or match its duration to the script. This means that the uploaded video will be as long as the video you work on with Synthesia. The AI will automatically speed up or slow it down.
To do so, click on “Edit Background” and then choose “Match to script”.
You can also crop and trim the background video to use exactly the part needed. No extra programs needed.
Finally, you can add some music to your video if you like. Once again, you can choose from a database provided or upload something you like (but be careful when choosing audio and do not upload copyrighted material).
Record your screen
Alternatively, you can record your screen in Synthesia without third-party apps. To do so, go to “Select Background” and choose “Record Screen”: record what you want to have in your video, then come back to Synthesia and directly trim, reposition, and adapt the recording you have just made. Your editing is saved automatically.
From PowerPoint to a video in minutes
Another useful feature in Synthesia is converting PowerPoint presentations into a video based. All you need to do is upload your .ppt or .pptx file, choose an AI avatar, and insert text you want the avatar to tell in the field below the video. Basically, your video is done, but you can customize it and edit if you would like to.
Add your script
Simply type in or paste the text you want to hear in your video. Check the recommendations to make the audio sound more “livable”. For example, adding commas will result in shorter breaks in the audio, and periods – a longer pause, whereas adding quote marks will emphasize a specific word or part of the sentence.
Synthesia AI also supports SSML markup language, which allows you to adjust the duration of the breaks.
There is also a possibility to upload your audio if you want the avatar to speak with your voice.
Wait for Synthesia to create your video
After all steps are done, just click on “Generate video”, and AI will start processing it. In a couple of minutes, it will be ready.
Download the video
Once the video is generated, you can save and download your video or come back to the previous step and change something. The video is automatically downloaded in MP4 format and full HD resolution.
Synthesia also instantly creates a shareable link of your video for easier distribution.
And you are done and ready to share the video!
A nice bonus is that you can additionally download the subtitles in .srt format.
Pros and Cons
All in all, Synthesia is a great tool for creating short videos. The quality of the videos is quite astonishing, and the numerous possibilities to personalize your video are a huge advantage.
Bear in mind that Synthesia does not allow to use its videos with built-in avatars in ads and paid promotions.
It can be used for all kinds of videos but will be especially useful for short promos, teasers, trainings, presentations, and tutorials. It will come in handy for marketers, salespeople, or HR. You can use Synthesia to create videos any time you want to tell or share something.
However, you can still share your video on any social media platform or your website. In case you still want to promote a Synthesia-created video, you will need to purchase a Corporate plan.
Another use-case is that you can use Synthesia to create the video you would like a professional team to recreate. It can be used as a way to brief a video production company with your AI video, instead of creating a storyboard. This will show the team what type of video you would like to have, and they will implement it, but without the “AI touch”.
Synthesia Integrations
Synthesia Studio can be integrated into a different tools, such as PowerPoint, WordPress, Youtube, Vimeo, Mindstamp, Shutterstock, and more.
When working with the API, developers can use Synthesia Studio to mass-create customized videos. Imagine greeting your top 100 customers in a marketing campaign with a personal AI video. The API opens up hundreds of use-cases to stand out in your marketing communication.
But even non-developers can utilize the API by using Zapier. All you need is to connect your customer data to Synthesia Studio and create a first personalized video within minutes.
Pricing
Right now, there are two different Synthesia plans: Personal and Corporate. The Personal plan will cost you 26$ per month, whereas the price of the corporate plan is customized.
When working with the Personal plan, you will have 10 minutes of video per month, each video consisting of a maximum of six slides.
Besides being able to choose from 85+ built-in avatars, it is also possible to create a custom avatar in the Personal plan, this feature is, however, paid on.
The most important difference of the Corporate plan is branding of your videos. You can add logos and company colors not just to the video, but also to the sharing page.
You will also have access to premium built-in avatars, premium stock media, and custom services. In the Corporate plan, you can also premium services like video editing, motion graphics, synthetic video strategy and deployment, and implementation.
Conclusion
Of course, Synthesia is still an AI, and it cannot (yet) compete with a video created by professional video creators who have spent years learning how to do their job. Nevertheless, this tool still provides videos of a very good quality. It also can be used to prototype the video you want to have, and outsource the production to a professional based on what you created in Synthesia.
This service is a startup in growth mode, so the new features are constantly added and the product evolves very fast.
Summing up, Synthesia is a great tool for video creation.
Firstly, it saves a lot of time. You will not have to wait for the right time of the day, as well as look for the matching place with a nice background and no noises, and learn the script to shoot your video.
The interface of the tool is very intuitive, you will learn to use it in a couple of minutes. The creating process is easy and understandable, without a lot of complicated steps. All the edits are saved automatically.
It is a nice bonus that Synthesia is a web-based app, so you do not to install any additional software.
Secondly, it is not possible to make any mistakes connected to video shooting when using it. Especially for newbies in video production, it isn’t easy to set up the right lighting and sound. And if something goes wrong, you have to reshoot the video. With Synthesia, you make the changes in just a few clicks.
Finally, Synthesia gives an opportunity to make videos for people who do not feel comfortable in front of the camera but still want to share something.
Synthesia AI is definitely worth checking out.