How HeyGen Avatars Help Creators Scale Without Burnout (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Do you get burnt out trying to balance life with being camera ready all the time? Do you struggle with backgrounds, lighting, and knowledge of how to put a production together? Or maybe you just have a really small recording space. If I'm this tired of seeing myself with this background, this could cost me viewers who are also tired of it. Do you wish you had another you so you could have more time to create and spend less time in production? Your wish can be granted when you create a hey-gen digital twin avatar that looks like you and sounds like you. You can place yourself anywhere, in any setting, in any clothes, and with the latest release of Avatar 5, can even use your authentic motion for realism that lets you maintain your close relationship with your audience while focusing all your creative energy on quality content. Jess is out of the office, so she sent me her digital avatar. In partnership with hey-gen, I'll show you how you can create more content, maintain your personal brand, and scale with hey-gen's digital avatar. Hey-gen requires 15 seconds of video and a brief recording of your voice. From there, you can create full-length videos using your digital self, create quick, seamless, eye-popping videos by prompt, translate your videos, and more. No more deciding the lighting is bad, my hair is bad, I had something in my teeth the whole time and didn't realize, or had to reshoot for any reason. What's more, as a trainer, I know that sometimes the technology I'm teaching could be out of date before I even publish a video. Reshoots are tough. I'd have to get the camera, lighting, outfit, everything back in place to redo an updated video. Now, my avatar can wear the same outfit I was wearing the first time, and I can add a new video or update an existing one. If it takes longer to set up the camera than it does to teach something, using a digital avatar is a game-changer. Besides, I'm a trainer, I know the subject matter of what I'm training. I'm not a production expert. What does a typical workflow look like? To get started, the first thing you need to do is create your digital avatar. On the left-hand side, click avatar, then avatars, and then on the top right-hand side, click create avatar. You can choose between creating your personal digital clone or a virtual character. We're going to create a digital clone first, and in a bit, I'll explain why you might want a virtual character. Do not worry if you don't have all the expensive professional gear to record yourself. This is the whole point. You can use your computer or laptop's webcam, or even your phone via this QR code. You can also upload existing footage that you have. You don't even need a clear background, and of course, you can change your outfit virtually, so what you're wearing doesn't matter. What you do need is a reasonable light source so the camera can see you. You need room to move your arms around so your essence in motion can be captured, and most important, you need energy and preparedness to bring your likeness to the screen. Make sure you are your you-iest. You want to be the best that you can bring in those 15 seconds to get the most realistic AI avatar. Once that's done, you can optionally record your voice likeness, which is recommended by HeyJen. You can always still record your actual voice as a script for your video, and your digital avatar will use your real voice. There's no right or wrong way to do it. You can also upload existing audio, and once it's all done, you can listen to it using different voice engines to see which one sounds the most like you. Once your avatar is created, the next step is to choose some looks. You can choose your base look, and HeyJen will use that to show you additional looks that you can swap to. Alternatively, you can describe a look that you need to suit your project. You can have up to 300 looks per avatar. 15 seconds of recording, a few prompts later, and now we are ready to put our avatar to work in an actual video project. Once your avatar is created, you can now use your voice and your likeness with all of your content, no matter where it comes from. If I want to do some of the editing myself, I'll start by selecting a look, and choose Use in Video. This is going to open up AI Studio, which lets me fine-tune exactly what I want. I'll select the engine to Avatar 5 to get that authentic motion that makes me, me. On the left-hand side, I have the option to let HeyJen do the script writing for me. I can also upload existing audio that I have. This is a great way to reuse existing content, such as a webinar you did. You can click down below to add continuous scenes, and you can change your avatars along the way. I can also type a forward slash on the keyboard, and record my own audio. When you're all done with your video, on the top right-hand side of the screen, click Generate to create it. But as a creator, you don't always have time for a full-bodied editor. For that, you can use Video Agent. Video Agent lets you create long-form video by prompt. Select Video Agent on the left, select an avatar, and you can also choose from these pre-built styles from the community to match what you're thinking for your video. Now, you can create your video just by a prompt. You can click the plus sign, and attach any additional knowledge to create your video from. You can also click Options, and choose the duration of your video, you can decide whether it's portrait or landscape, and you can make your prompt as short or as long as it needs to be. Both of these methods get the same result. It just depends on your personal preference and time. Maybe you want to create a complete video based on an agent, or if you'd rather fine-tune it, you can use the full editor instead. And what about promoting your video across social media, or if you need to get your message across in a way that will captivate and keep your audience's attention? When you need something not only fast, but also incredibly ambitious, for that, there's Avatar Shots. I'll click Avatar, and go to Avatar Shots here on the left-hand side. Avatar Shots uses CDance 2.0 to let you create highly cinematic shots, complete with scene and wardrobe changes, all with seamless transitions for an eye-popping video up to 15 seconds long. So this is amazing for trailers, promos, social media shorts, and advertisements. I used Avatar Shots to create that video you saw earlier, when I introduced that I had been using my video avatar. That whole 15-second shot was done by one very descriptive prompt that you can see here. As content creators, we may not have the camera gear and ideal recording space, and maybe we don't have the editing skills either. But we do have vision and great script-writing skills. You are still in control of that vision. You can chat your way through changes. You can even decide if it's portrait or landscape. In fact, if you have content already, you can create a video with it. You can reuse existing PDFs and PowerPoint presentations to make full-length video productions. You've created your digital self. You've created videos, shorts, and promos. Now that you've got all that free time, it's time to think bigger and concentrate on scaling your business. You may have an idea or new channel subject matter you want to try, but as a content creator, you know that your brand trust and recognition is built on consistency. Also to test out new content areas, channels, or even if you just want to dive right in with it, you can also create a virtual character avatar. This way, your explainers and knowledge can be brought to a new audience without confusing them in regards to your existing content. Finally, scale your content to other countries by translating the videos you've already created. Click Translate on the left-hand side, and you can choose a video that you already have. This can help you reach an audience that was previously completely out of your grasp. Keep brand presence without the burnout. I can now create and post my content in short bursts as a reminder that I'm here and I'm going to keep creating value for you, but I'm just one person. I'm going to get sick. I'm not going to look like this every day. My digital avatar, however, as you can see, does not have these problems. So as content creation becomes a business for you, you will realize that your digital avatar can help you grow without risking your sanity or your help. To sum up, why should creators seriously consider using a Haygen digital avatar? Using an AI version of myself lets me scale while continuing to build trust and maintain brand recognition without burnout so I can focus on content that's quality for you. Once again, this is Jess Stratton's digital avatar reminding you that if you like this video that I made in partnership with Haygen, be sure to subscribe to both this channel and newsletter so you don't miss a thing.