Create Videos with Animation or AI Avatars

Your students might enjoy a lecture about the circulation system – taught by a heart. Or perhaps a chicken can explain how to raise poultry.

How to Animate Yourself

Adobe Character Animator uses face-tracking and motion capture to make animated characters come to life.

Animated characters (puppets) mimic the person’s facial expressions while the software converts speech to lip movements. Add gestures and movements using keyboard commands. The result is an animated video. No drawing skills are required.

Free Starter mode

A computer with a camera and microphone is required. The basic version, called Starter mode, is the free version of Adobe Character Animator. It offers a limited number of puppets, backgrounds, and gestures. It’s easy to create animated cartoons and export the video to a computer.

Record the animation live or upload an audio track and then select drag-and-drop movements from a menu.

Download the Creative Cloud desktop app for Mac or PC. Install the app and create an account or sign in. Locate “Character Animator” in the “All Apps” or “Video” sections. Install and use Character Animator in Starter mode for free. For details and instructions, see Animate a Puppet in Starter Mode (adobe.com).

Paid Pro mode

Creative Cloud All App subscribers (paid version) use Pro mode, which includes advanced features but does have a steeper learning curve.

Pro mode allows multiple puppets in a scene and includes Puppet Creator, a simple way to customize puppets.

A Starter mode project can be opened and converted to a Pro mode project. However, a Pro mode project cannot be converted to a Starter mode project. 

There are many free puppets available to download and a growing collection of puppets for sale.

Puppets and background scenes can be created in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Download and Upload the Video

Free Starter mode and Pro mode can export the animation as a movie. The video can be uploaded to D2L and embedded in a course module.

Computer-Generated Narrator

Synthesia, an online text-to-speech video maker, creates life-like characters (called AI avatars) that narrate video slideshows. Choose a template, a character, and a background. Users can add video of a desktop presentation, a logo, and background music. Type the template text and words to be spoken by the digital presenter. Synthesia does the rest.

The result is an almost lifelike presentation that is computer generated.

Synthesia is a paid subscription service. The software provides more than 50 AI avatars and more than 60 languages and voices.

Videos made with Synthesia can be exported to a computer. The video can be imported into D2L and embedded in a course module.

Add an AI avatar of yourself for an additional fee. Another company, Descript Overdub, can also synthesize your voice.

See For Yourself

Watch my 16-second trial video created with Synthesia.

Try It Yourself

The test version of Synthesia allows the user to select a template style, type a very short script, and after a few minutes of processing an email link to the video is sent.

Create a Free AI Video with Synthesia. (synthesia.ai)

Even More Lifelike than an AI Avatar

Record yourself with Kaltura Capture and make your own video featuring a real human.

DETI Basics: How to Record and Upload with Kaltura Capture

Resources

Adobe Character Animator (adobe.com)

Starter and Pro mode puppets (adobe.com)

Pro mode puppets (okaysamurai.com).

Synthesia (synthesia.io)