The demand for videos continues to increase due in part to TikTok and other social channels.
Creating a video used to take hours. But innovative tools are emerging to make video creation faster and easier. Here are AI-driven platforms to generate videos in seconds.
AI Video Generators
Synthesia
Synthesia creates videos in over 120 languages, with human-looking avatars using AI voiceovers to read the text. It provides many examples for inspiration.
The platform offers a free test video using a provided script and type (sales pitch, compliment, learning and development, or how-to). Enter your email address to receive the video in seconds.
Synthesia starts at $22.50 per month for 90-plus avatar options and 120 annual video minutes (called “credits”).
DeepBrain
DeepBrain focuses on animated presentations with voiceovers. Choose your template, upload your text, and edit the slides. The “presenter” will read the text with your slides in the background.
Pricing for DeepBrain starts at $30 a month for 100 avatar choices, 80 languages, and 10 minutes of monthly videos.
Pictory
Pictory creates videos from text with options to edit external selections, such as Zoom webinars or meetings. Start by providing a URL to your existing article. The tool will then generate a script.
Next, choose a video template and dimensions. The resulting video will be a slideshow of text headings with editable background images auto-generated or uploaded. Then select an AI-generated voice to read your text headings.
Pictory provides impressive capabilities, but in my testing it required a good bit of time to edit the script and video. It’s a good reminder that AI tools require effort.
Pictory offers a free trial, with prices starting at $19 a month for 30 auto-generated monthly videos (up to 10 hours), three templates, 5,000 music tracks, 34 voices, and editing tools.
Pika
Pika is a Discord video generator based on inputted text. To start, sign up and follow the instructions for prompts and the list of suggested commands. In the prompt field, type a description of the video to create. I typed:
a man typing on a computer keyboard. Make it cartoon-style. -motion 4
Your description could include the length of the video and the style (e.g., cartoon). The process is similar to dialog on ChatGPT. Experiment until you reach the desired results. Download the videos in the “Mentions” panel.
Pika offers several parameters at the end of a prompt to adjust the result:
- -motion #. Make your video faster (4 is the fastest, default is 1)
- -neg xxx. Exclude any keywords from the prompt
- -ar #:#. Adjust the video’s aspect ratio (width:height).
Extend the length of videos by prompting the tool on the last frame.
Pika is free, but the resulting video has a watermark.