Personal Avatars from photo

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We’re gradually rolling out Personal Avatars from photo. Availability may vary, and some users may still see the previous personal avatar creation workflow.

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.

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Personal Avatars from photo are available on paid plans only.

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.

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Learn more: How do I customize avatar outfits, backgrounds, and B-roll in Synthesia?

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.