When it comes to creating marketing content for your business, nothing works like well-made videos. This format leads to higher engagement and better sales and is more likely to reach a wider audience. But there are a few caveats - you need a script, you need to record, and finally, you need to edit.
Among a plethora of AI tools available today, you must have heard of Synthesia. It is an AI video generator that may be the answer to your dilemma. Or not. In this comprehensive review, let’s find out.
Are you ready?
What is Synthesia?
Synthesia is an AI platform that quickly generates videos based on given prompts. It has a simple, intuitive UI and delivers fairly good results with next-to-nothing effort. Synthesia is used by thousands of companies worldwide to create video explainers, training videos, presentations, and more.
The platform has plenty of templates for beginners to get started, multiple language options, and hundreds of AI avatars to choose from. On top of that, it gives you customization flexibility including accents and voices. Now you must be thinking - well, that seems interesting so far, what else? Alright then.
Scripts
For your video to come to life, you need a script or some form of text for your AI avatar to say. If you can write it, perfect! If not, there are plenty of AI tools that can help you do that such as ChatGPT or Notion AI. Don’t want to use a third-party platform? Fine. Synthesia has its own built-in AI script generator.
It is quite straightforward, really. When creating a new video, simply choose ‘Generate script.’ Now type in the topic of the video and the target audience. If you want, you can add more options but if you are fine with the defaults, hit the ‘Generate your script’ button. And voila!
Videos
Your video creation journey on Synthesia starts with picking an avatar. And it may take a minute if you are a bit choosy because this platform has over 150 ethnically diverse stock avatars. If you want, you can also add a custom avatar that looks more like yourself, but this feature is only available as a paid add-on.
Next comes the text or the script you either wrote or generated with AI. Synthesia allows you to add text to videos in over 120 languages, which is perfect for creating video content for your local audience.
After you feed the algorithm the desired text, it is time to customize your video. And here are your options -
Voices - Choose a voice or clone your own.
Gestures - Give your avatar a sense of realism with micro gestures such as lifting eyebrows.
Pauses - Decide when your avatar adds pauses and for how long during narration.
Diction - Fix pronunciation issues with certain words such as acronyms.
Layout - Adjust the layout of elements in the video such as icons, logos, shapes, text, etc.
Images - Add a background or logo to your video.
Layers - Change the opacity and blur levels of elements in the video.
Animation - Animate various elements in the video. Decide how they enter or exit the frame.
Text - Add and customize a text layer in the video.
Music - Add a background score or soundtrack to the video.
Media - Add stock elements such as images and icons from stock libraries (Shutterstock or Unsplash).
Record - Add screen recordings to your videos.
Media and Integrations
To leave room for your own creativity, Synthesia gives you access to tons of integrations. For starters, you can browse and choose from a massive library of millions of royalty-free elements including images, videos, shapes, and icons - not to mention hundreds of royalty-free soundtracks.
But wait, there is more! You can upload your own fonts (perfect for on-brand content), images, videos, soundtracks, and infographics. If you have a PowerPoint presentation, bring it into Synthesia and add voiceovers to it. On top of that, you add automatic closed captions. And hey, don’t forget to bring your videos to your favorite tools including Notion, Canva, PowerPoint, Medium, WordPress, Kickstarter, HubSpot, Vimeo, Monday, and Shopify.
Sharing and Exports
Any of your finished videos on Synthesia can be quickly shared with your team. The platform has an intuitive interface for collaboration, allowing team members to leave feedback at any stage of video production. If the video requires any changes, you can simply edit it and then export it again.
For exports, Synthesia supports the full HD (1920*1080) MP4 format. But you can also share your videos with CTAs and even embed them anywhere you like.
Pricing
Synthesia has three pricing plans - Starter ($22/month), Creator ($67/month), and Enterprise. Starter is intended for beginners and gives access to only 2 hours of video content a year, with one editor and three guests. Creator, on the other hand, is designed for small teams or businesses, offering access to 6 hours of video content per year, with one editor and five guests.
The Enterprise plan is for mid to large-scale businesses with custom requirements.
Final Verdict
Synthesia is perfect for you if you only mean to create video content in specific formats such as training, educational, or explainer videos. Also, the AI avatars look and sound very human-like but they are no substitute for real human presenters. I mean, if you look closely and pay attention to speech and patterns in Synthesia-generated videos, you are very likely to spot the difference.
The pricing seems reasonable, except for the fact that you only get access to 2 hours of video content after paying $264 a year. There is no free trial but if you are interested, you can book a quick demo with the Synthesia team.