How to create a Digital Twin avatar

Want to personalise your videos like never before? With Digital Twins in HeyGen, you can create an avatar that looks and feels like you, right down to your style, expressions, and voice. It’s the most personal way to appear in your videos, without always being on camera.

Get started in the Avatars tab

Log in to your HeyGen account and open the Avatars tab from your dashboard. From here, you can select an existing Digital Twin or create a new one.

Click Create Avatar, then select Get Started. Review the recording tips to ensure the best possible quality. You will also be asked whether to enable gesture detection, which captures larger movements in your footage and saves them as reusable gestures for your videos.

Next, choose how you would like to provide your footage. You can upload a video, record directly with your webcam, or record using your phone.

Best practices for recording video footage

For the best results, upload or record a video that is around two minutes long. Keep your movements natural and avoid very dramatic gestures so that your avatar does not look overly animated.

Use a high-resolution camera or smartphone whenever possible. If you’re only testing, a 30-second clip is sufficient. You can either upload your footage or record it directly in the browser.

Upload and submit your video footage

After uploading your video, you will be able to choose additional options, such as keeping ambient sound, normalising audio volume, removing the background, and exporting your avatar in 4K resolution.

You will then be prompted to record a short webcam verification video, which you can complete after creating your avatar. HeyGen analyses your footage and highlights any areas that may need improvement.

Once everything looks fine, click Submit. HeyGen will generate your Digital Twin and add it to your asset library.

Edit your Digital Twin

Once your avatar is created, you can make changes at any time. Select your avatar and click Edit Avatar.

From here, you can remove or adjust the background, change the resolution, and select or update the voice. When you are finished, click Save Changes.

Create additional Avatar Looks

You can also create Avatar Looks to bring more variety to your videos. Looks are variations of your Digital Twin, with different outfits, poses, or backgrounds.

To create a Look, upload a one-minute video or a set of custom photos. For photo uploads, include a mix of close-up and full-body shots with different angles and expressions. After verification, your new Looks will be available for use in any project.

You now have your very own Digital Twin, ready to use in HeyGen. With custom Looks and expressive capabilities, you can create engaging, personalised videos with ease.