Personal Avatars from photo

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Personal Avatars from photo are available on Starter plans and up.

Personal Avatars from photo allow you to create a lifelike avatar of yourself from a single still image. These avatars can be reused across videos, customized with different appearances, and generated quickly—without filming or studio setup.

How Personal Avatars from photo work

Personal Avatars from photo are generated from a single photo and stored as a reusable avatar. The avatar can be added to videos and customized with different outfits, backgrounds, and avatar B-roll, without any video recording.

They are built using Synthesia’s Express-2 technology, the same foundation used by our latest stock avatars.

Create a Personal Avatar from photo

To create a Personal Avatar from photo:

Go to the Avatars page and click Create avatar.
Upload a photo of yourself or capture one using your webcam.
(Optional) Record or upload a voice sample to clone your voice.
If skipped, the avatar will use a Synthesia voice.
Record and submit the consent video when prompted.
Submit your request.

Avatars are typically ready within minutes after the consent step is completed.

Photo requirements

Use a clear, well-lit photo of a single person. The subject should be fully visible, with no obstructions or heavy shadows.

The photo should ideally be framed from the waist up and captured against a neutral, uncluttered background.

For best lip-sync results, choose a photo where your teeth are visible. This helps improve mouth shape estimation during speech animation.

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Photo quality directly affects how realistic the avatar looks and moves.

Avatar motion and lip-sync behavior

Personal Avatars from photo use a speech-driven animation model rather than motion learned from recorded footage.

Lip sync and facial expressions are generated from the spoken content.
Body language is neutral and designed to match the script’s pacing and emphasis.

Because movement is not learned from a real performance, the avatar’s motion will not exactly match how you move in real life. Perceived expressiveness depends on the script and scene framing.

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Lip sync performs best when the avatar is framed closer in the scene rather than positioned far from the camera.

Voice and language support

Personal Avatars from photo can be used with either:

A cloned version of your own voice (optional), or
Any supported Synthesia voice

If voice cloning is enabled:

You’ll be prompted to provide a voice sample during creation
The cloned voice can be used across multiple languages, depending on plan and availability

If voice cloning is skipped, the avatar will default to a Synthesia voice and can be changed in the editor at any time.

Using your Personal Avatar from photo

Once the avatar is ready, it can be used like any other avatar:

Open a video project.
Select Avatars from the media panel.
Choose your Personal Avatar from photo.
Add it to the scene and generate the video.

Customization and B-roll generation

Personal Avatars from photo support the same customization capabilities as Synthesia’s synthetic customizable avatars, including:

Outfit changes
Background changes
Action-based avatar B-roll

To update the avatar’s appearance or generate B-roll footage, follow the same workflow used for customizable avatars.

Avatar Customization

Reference for the outfit and space generation options available on compatible avatars.

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Plan availability
Available on all plans. Brand kit and reference image inputs require the Enterprise plan.

Overview

Avatar customization generates a new outfit and space for an avatar from a text prompt. It's available for customizable stock avatars and personal avatars created from a photo, provided the avatar is built on Express-2. The sections below describe each customization parameter and where it applies.

Compatibility

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Express-2 required
Customize Avatar is only available for customizable stock avatars and photo-based personal avatars on Express-2. It doesn't appear for older avatar versions.

Customization Options

Option	Values	Plan
Pose	Standing, Seated	All plans
Position	Left, Middle, Right	All plans
Prompt	Free text, or auto-generated from the video script	All plans
Brand kit	Applies brand colors; optional logo on outfit or space	Enterprise
Reference image	Image used as generation input	Enterprise

Outfit and background prompting

A single prompt step covers both the avatar's outfit and its space (background) — enter the desired outfit and space together as part of the same prompt, rather than as two separate fields.

Instead of writing a prompt manually, you can select the option to generate one from the video's script.

Generation

Customization requests produce multiple variations, typically within 2–4 minutes. Each variation can be reviewed and saved individually to the Library via Use in video. Generation runs in the background — closing the window or selecting Minimize doesn't cancel it.

Editing an existing customization

An existing customized avatar can be regenerated in one of two modes:

Mode	What it replaces
Replace outfit	Regenerates the outfit only, keeping the current space.
Replace Space	Regenerates the space only, keeping the current outfit.

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Color match isn't guaranteed
Regenerating an outfit can shift the avatar's color slightly from the original. If an exact match matters, generate multiple variations and select the closest.

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Learn more: How do I customize an Avatar?

Consent, ownership, and sharing

Creating a Personal Avatar from photo requires a live consent recording to verify identity and authorization.

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Consent videos must be recorded live and cannot be uploaded. The person in the consent video must be the same individual shown in the uploaded photo.

At this time:

Personal Avatars from photo can only be used by the person who created them
Sharing Personal Avatars from photo with other users is not supported

Deleting a Personal Avatar from photo

To delete a Personal Avatar from photo:

Navigate to the Avatars page from the Assets section.
Locate the avatar in My Avatars.
Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
Select Delete.
Type DELETE to confirm.

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Deletion permanently removes the avatar and all associated data. This action cannot be undone.

Privacy and security

Synthesia uses encrypted data transmission and secure storage on AWS to protect personal data and avatar assets.

We:

Require explicit consent before generating personal avatars
Give avatar owners full control over usage and deletion
Allow data removal requests at any time

Legacy Personal Avatars (to be deprecated)

Legacy Personal Avatars created from recorded video footage learn motion patterns directly from that recording. They require longer processing times and detailed filming guidelines.

Personal Avatars from photo will replace this approach by using a single image, enabling faster creation, greater flexibility, and support for customization and avatar B-roll.