Avatar Gestures in Synthesia: A Complete Guide to Natural Body Language

Digital avatars are driving a revolution in video marketing. Over the past few years, AI has successfully democratized the entire video production process, making it accessible and efficient for smaller creators and teams with limited budgets.

Gone are the days of spending thousands of dollars on an expensive video camera or needing to hire an experienced editor to create professional-grade videos. With today’s AI tools, anyone can produce high-quality videos with captions, voiceovers, visual effects and even digital avatars to deliver their message.

There has been a huge rise in the creation of sales and marketing videos using custom AI clones – and you can see the appeal. Creating and training a lifelike digital avatar means you can produce multiple videos without having to appear on camera or do multiple retakes. It’s a great, accessible option for people who are shy about appearing in videos, and it frees up humans to work on more valuable, meaningful tasks.

As a result of this increasing demand, there is no shortage of players in the new space of avatar generation. The problem is that the quality of these avatars (and their gestures and animations) varies greatly from platform to platform.

Take market-leading tool Synthesia for example. This platform is currently used by 55,000 paying customers per year, but the quality of their avatar gestures is limited and robotic. We believe the potential of digital avatars extends beyond what these tools can offer – and we have a solution.

In this article, we’ll explore avatar gestures in Synthesia, focusing on the platform’s strengths and limitations as an AI clone generator. We’ll also showcase Argil as an alternative tool for those looking for more expressive, realistic and customizable digital avatars.

Explaining Avatar Gestures in Synthesia

Synthesia offers a range of preset generic avatars, equipped with gestures to give them personality and make them appear more realistic.

Using their platform, you can easily choose gestures and insert them into the appropriate place in your script.

Available AI Clone Gestures

Avatar gestures in Synthesia are very basic. They include:

• Nodding head
• Shaking head
• Raising eyebrows

You can watch Synthesia’s avatars using these gestures in the performance of popular movie quotes in this video.

You’ll see from this example how robotic and unnatural their avatars appear. Expressions are fixed and cannot be modified because avatar gestures in Synthesia are programmed rather than dynamic, making them seem repetitive and unnatural.

This is fine if you just want to create a quick video and you’re not overly concerned about customization or your avatars appearing realistic. But in the context of a business working to instill trust in potential buyers or a social media influencer creating personality-driven content, it’s easy to see how Synthesia could fall short of expectations.

Is HeyGen Any Better?

HeyGen is a popular avatar creation tool that lets you produce videos with AI-generated avatars and voiceovers. You can choose from a selection of custom avatars or create one with your face

Like Synthesia, HeyGen suffers in quality due to its technical limitations, which only offers basic gesticulation and body language options.

Both Synthesia and HeyGen users have expressed a need for more personalized, realistic avatar features, highlighting a demand for more sophisticated avatar movement and delivery options.

Why Gesture Control is Important for Digital Avatars

On Reddit, users report that Synthesia avatars lack nuance and are stiff and robotic. These are pain points that the platform needs to address, as reports show that engagement rates and viewer retention can decline with the use of less expressive avatars.

If you’re using a digital avatar to deliver important content to your audience, you need your viewers to actually be able to connect with your message. More customized, dynamic gestures will make an AI clone appear genuinely interactive and human-like, creating trust and increasing engagement in your videos.

We know that in marketing and sales, human connection is key. Your digital clone is the face of your brand when you create and share video content – and consumers will quickly switch off if they’re not engaged, or they can tell your avatar is poor quality. This is also true for educational and instructional videos where retention is crucial. Just like in real life, your speaker needs to be able to engage your audience, and the key to fostering this engagement is through authentic gestures and eye contact.

Argil has a solution for this. We’ve used the most sophisticated artificial intelligence to create incredibly lifelike AI clones that look and sound just like their human counterparts.

Check out this video of one of our AI avatars at work, and you’ll see the difference.

Our clones are also multilingual and can gesture in different languages – a feature largely missing from most popular AI avatar tools.

Argil’s advanced gesture control also supports A/B testing, so you can try different gesture combinations to create the most realistic and engaging avatar without additional cost.

Introducing Argil: The Superior Alternative for Lifelike AI Clones

Argil is a far more advanced and sophisticated alternative to Synthesia and HeyGen. Our tool offers advanced gesture and expression control, helping you create much more realistic digital avatars.

It’s also easy to use, unlike HeyGen which has quite a complicated user journey. All you’ll need to do is upload a two-minute video of you speaking, and you can then ‘train’ your AI clone to make it appear, move and sound more like you – adjusting natural body movements and speech nuances.

Standout features include:

Personalized Gesture Training

This feature equips your avatar with the ability to perform unique gestures, mirroring your specific body language and speech style. Synthesia and HeyGen don’t offer this function, which is one of the reasons their avatars often appear robotic or repetitive.

Dynamic Gesture Selection

Using our AI-powered platform, you can easily select gestures based on the tone of your script or emotional cues, making gestures seem more natural and less forced.

AI Editing Suite

Our editing suite includes a range of options to make your videos more appealing and engaging. As well as avatar customization options, you can add automatic B-roll and transitions, branded elements, animations and buttons to your videos.

With these features in mind, it’s easy to see how Argil outperforms other tools on the market – particularly in scenarios where high engagement is important.

If you’re creating a social media short from an existing video, for example, you won’t have long to capture your audience and make an impression. You don’t want your viewers to swipe away from your video because your avatar is stilted and robotic.

The same can be said for brands and businesses needing to instill trust and drive consumers to make a purchase. Better quality avatars lead to higher conversion rates because the delivery of your message is more dynamic, engaging and convincing.

How to Create More Natural Digital Avatars

Want to upgrade from robotic avatar gestures in Synthesia? Try these tips when using Argil’s digital avatar tool.

Use Varied Expressions for Your AI Clone

It’s important to use varied expressions and gestures to avoid that ‘robotic’ look. You can choose from Argil’s varied gesture library of dynamic movement options – spend time choosing the right gestures for your message, and make sure each video you create is unique in its delivery.

Align Digital Avatar Gestures with Script

You should also take care to align gestures with the tone of your script – for example, you can have your avatar shake its head for negative commentary, or open its hands for a welcoming statement.

Test Your AI Clone

You can also test out different avatar personalities and gestures to see which one most aligns with your audience and message, both in the editing suite and with Argil’s A/B testing function.

Fed Up With Basic Avatar Gestures in Synthesia? Try Argil Today

Synthesia and HeyGen are fine tools to play around with if you’re new to digital avatars and want to experiment. They may also suit casual users who aren’t too worried about customization.

If you want to create a personal, human connection with your audience, however, you’ll need a more advanced AI tool that can deliver more realistic, dynamic avatars.

Argil bridges this gap in the market, providing a range of avatar customization options and an AI-powered editing suite that lets you create professional-grade videos in under 10 minutes.

If you’re looking for an upgrade from Synthetis’a basic gesture controls, Try Argil for free today and see how you could enhance engagement and power up your brand growth with a realistic digital avatar.

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