What is a Talking Avatar?

Talking avatar, also called virtual human, is a computer-generated character that can generate speech and act in accordance with user input. It can mimic facial expressions and speak in your voice to convey a variety of emotions. It can be used as a talking photo for your website, an animated character in videos and presentations, a virtual guider or presenter for personal or commercial websites and even a funny avatar for computer games.

Talking Avatars can be a useful tool for enhancing e-commerce consumer perceptions of social presence, information credibility, and website trust. However, these effects are moderated by consumer gender. It is possible that females have a greater tendency to rely on heuristic information processing when evaluating the monologue of a non-interactive talking avatar, leading to a more critical impression of the avatar.

There are many different software options for creating a talking avatar or virtual human. Some are free and others have a subscription fee. These include speechify, Voki, SitePal, and Adobe Character Animator (formerly CrazyTalk).

To create a talking avatar video, first select an avatar from a variety of templates or make your own custom avatar. Next, add a voiceover to the avatar by recording your own voice or using text-to-speech technology. Some platforms have lip-syncing capabilities to create a more realistic effect. Lastly, animate the avatar by adding movements and expressions. Then export your video. Talking avatars can be a great way to create engaging content without having to appear on camera and are ideal for training, explainer, and marketing videos.