5 Best AI Video Generators: Tested & Reviewed For You

Last Updated on January 24, 2023

Video is one of the most effective ways to market a product. With socials like Facebook and Instagram dominating the digital marketing space- it’s safe to say that video is often more engaging. In fact, 86% of businesses utilize video for their digital marketing.

However, making a video is highly time-consuming and expensive. Not to mention, it generally requires a seasoned video editor to make compelling content (or at least it did!).

Thankfully, AI video generators are taking the video creation process to the next level saving you time and money (think like AI art generators or AI writers). They accomplish this by utilizing AI avatars paired with natural language processing and editing software that allows you to easily customize a video in minutes.

But are these tools as effective and intelligent as they claim? Will you save time (and money) when scaling up content production? That will ultimately be for you to decide.

In this article, I’ll share the five best AI video generators I’ve tested in depth. After choosing one, you can be the final judge!

Table of Contents

What Are The Best AI Video Generators?

1. Synthesia

Synthesia is a powerful AI video generator that allows you to create high-quality videos in 65+ languages. It provides a user-friendly interface and realistic AI avatars to make professional videos for marketing, social media, and other usages. Synthesia’s AI avatars are digital replicas of human actors, but it also allows you to create your own. 

How Does It Work? 

Synthesia lets you create an AI-narrated video easily – without signing up. It has a free AI video generator, accessible via its home page, that turns text into professional presentations in a few clicks. The free generator imposes certain restrictions, namely five video templates and a 200 characters script limit. 

To use the AI video maker (as you can see above), choose the template, copy your script, and hit Continue. Then, Synthesia prompts you to fill in your name and email. This allows Synthesia to email you the AI-generated video when it’s ready. Once submitted, Synthesia will notify you via email that the video will be ready within 5-10 minutes.

Synthesia To The Test!

I put Synthesia to the test to determine if it’s as good as it promises. I wrote a simple script about “How to Write a Blog Post,” selected the Learning & Development template, and hit Continue. However, I can’t edit the scenes with visuals related to my script with the free version.

Note that Synthesis prohibits inappropriate content, which means it filters and blocks script that contains political, sexual, and discriminatory nuances. 

Without triggering any red flags, my content was approved. And I waited for the AI-generated video that arrived in my inbox before the 5 minutes mark.

I played the video and liked what I saw – and heard. The AI avatar enunciates the script just like a human does. Not only is the pronunciation spot on, but the avatar also shows facial expressions as it speaks. I could be easily convinced that a human was in the video in other circumstances.

But don’t take my word. Check out the video and be the judge.

Apart from the slight hint of ‘AI’ when the avatar stresses ‘One,’ ‘Two,’ and ‘Three,’ the entire video is pretty realistic as far as the avatar is concerned. Although I didn’t like how the video actually looked.

To test Synthesia further, I used the same instructional script with the ‘Compliment’ template. Again, it took less than 5 minutes to receive the video. The result is a happy-sounding AI speaker cheerfully teaching how to write a blog post.

What I Liked and Disliked About Synthesia:

  • I like that Synthesia uses digital copies of real humans as avatars instead of studio-generated ones. 
  • It makes editing easy. For example, you add background music by dragging the music track onto the video scene. Add in text, images, and figures where appropriate.
  • Switching between languages is easy. Select a new language on the script, and Synthesia will generate a new video.
  • Synthesia is fast in rendering and emailing the video.
  • It has limited pricing plans and no discount for long-term subscriptions. There is a free version to trial, but you really need to pay to create a video that’s usable.

Pricing

Synthesia costs $30 per month, which gives you 10 video credits.

Verdict

Synthesia is a state-of-the-art AI video generator that will impress marketers and business owners if you subscribe. Besides the fast rendering, it provides a good range of templates and video editing tools.

Try Out Synthesia For Yourself

2. Elai.io

Elai is an AI-powered video editor that turns text into AI videos. Like Synthesia, it provides a realistic AI avatar created by human actors. Elai also allows you to create AI avatars with your selfie or studio-grade picture. Then, these avatars narrate videos that you make from different sources.

How Does It Work? 

Elai has a minimalist dashboard that describes several ways to develop your AI video.

  1. Choose from templates, a blogpost URL, or a PDF file. The latest option, e-commerce, lets you fill in the product description and images. 
  2. Once you’ve chosen a video-creation method and provided the resources, Elai brings you to an editing-friendly interface. There, you can change the avatar, add background music, rearrange the scenes and customize the video with elements.
  3. Click “Render” to generate the AI Video

Elai To The Test

At a glance, Elai is a powerful AI video generator that fits my blogging needs. So, I attempted to turn one of my long-form articles into a video to see what happened.

The process was straightforward. Insert the URL, choose a template, and hit Create Video. It takes 2-3 minutes for Elai to create the scenes and fit the text into them.

Elai extracts key points from the scripts to fill each scene. Arranged like presentation slides, each scene bears a different layout but conforms to a similar theme. I’m impressed that Elai has the sense to position the AI avatar in varying spots for each scene, making the presentation less dull as the scene changes. 

While I’ve created ten minutes’ worth of scenes, Elai only allows one minute of rendering for the free account. So, I removed most of them and rendered a 46s-long video. It took about fifteen minutes for the final AI video to be ready.

Check out the final result.

I hit play and was amazed by the flawless AI avatar. It has perfect narration and vivid eye, facial, and body movements. 

Here’s how Elai impressed me and what it can do better:

  • Elai lets you filter video templates easily. It has a search bar and options to browse horizontal or vertical formatted templates.
  • I like how it provides tips for improving pronunciation and makes them easily accessible from the script input field.
  • There are libraries of elements to choose from, including stickers, videos, and images. 
  • I’m amazed at the time saved when creating AI videos with the special e-commerce, blog, and PDF-to-video features.
  • Elai’s performance dropped when creating multiple scenes from long-form content. It takes a while to load the digital assets. 

Pricing

Elai’s paid subscription starts from $29/month, with the Advanced plan enabling 4D AI video rendering. 

Verdict

Elai is an ideal solution for bloggers, marketers, and e-commerce owners to repurpose their content into engaging AI videos. 

Check Out elai.io Here

3. InVideo

InVideo is an AI video editor for creating professional-looking videos. It automatically chooses relevant images from the script and arranges them in visually-engaging forms. To help content creators, InVideo provides more than 5,000 beautiful templates and professional photos from Shutterstock, iStock, and Storyblocks. 

How Does It Work? 

Your InVideo journey starts with a simple onboarding. Here’s the nice platform interface:

  1. Choose among templates, text, stock media, or via a pro editor.
  2. Import your text from a blog (use the auto summarize option to split it into scenes) or enter your writing script.
  3. The AI will automatically select relevant images from free stock photos to match the scenes! It will also generate a series of slides filled with photos and overlaying short captions.
  4. Add a voice-over track if appropriate.

InVideo To The Test

My first InVideo test stretches the AI tool to the limit. I started by importing a long-form article and letting InVideo generates the scenes. The process takes 1-2 minutes as InVideo tried its best to analyze and select key phrases from the script. 

Then, I auto-summarized the raw text into parts for dozens of scenes. Each scene consists of one sentence, and InVideo has a limit of fifty sentences. After removing the additional scenes, InVideo generates the remaining ones on the storyboard. Finding the images and generating thumbnails for the scenes takes about five minutes. 

I was disappointed by the absence of an indicator, which would have allowed me to estimate the remaining time or the progress percentage. Moreover, it took several minutes for all the video assets to load on the storyboard. 

I was unable to export the video, but here’s a snippet of what the scenes look like:

InVideo Pros and Cons

  • It lets users work on the scenes in a storyboard or a timeline editor. Both are equally intuitive.
  • I’m amazed by the thousands of elements to choose from. For example, you can easily add happy, serious, or sad background music to the scenes.
  • InVideo has a workspace that makes team collaboration easy. You can mention team members in the conversation and exchange comments on the project.
  • The AI is reasonably accurate in extracting key points and choosing images, but only for shorter scripts. 
  • Rendering is slow for large scripts. Waiting several minutes during pre-editing with no progress indicator knocks off some points from InVideo. S
  • Sometimes, it would choose a photo that was irrelevant or repetitive.

Pricing

InVideo has an affordable Business plan that starts at $15 per month and an Unlimited plan for enterprises to scale their AI video production.

Verdict

Despite its simplicity, InVideo is a handy tool for marketers to create professional videos for presentations.

Check Out InVideo Here

4. Pictory

Pictory is an AI video software that automatically creates short-form videos from longer text and video content. It uses AI to capture key points in blog articles, scripts, or videos to create new, shorter video highlights. Also, Pictory automatically overlays the video with engaging captions. 

How does it work? 

On Pictory’s dashboard, you’ll see option boxes (see below) that let you decide how to create videos. Specific options, article-to-video, and visuals-to-video allow you to input the URL or upload files before moving to the next step. 

  1. Once you choose, Pictory extracts the key messages from the source into multiple scenes. It also automatically highlights the keywords and selects the visuals for the AI production.
  2. Then you can edit away. In the side-by-side comparison view, you can check if the generated scenes covered all the crucial points or add/remove scenes.
  3. Choose a template and the aspect ratio
  4. Pictory will generate the video scenes on a storyboard. Feel free to customize the scenes as you wish to create professional-looking videos.

Sam’s Pictory Test

As a marketer who blogs, I tried turning a listicle into a video. After inserting the URL, I let Pictory generates the scenes. While Pictory’s AI does well in identifying the key points, it fails to differentiate between different products in a listicle. It seems that the only way to generate a listicle AI video is to enter the script manually.

Here’s a video that was rendered in seven minutes.

Here’s the Good and the Bad with Pictory:

  • Pictory’s AI does a great job of highlighting the key points in videos and blogs (although it’s not perfect)
  • I love the auto-captioning and how we can drag the caption around. 
  • Pictory is helpful to non-tech users, showing helpful tips on almost every control. 
  • It has a wide range of elements to personalize the video. For example, you can change the caption’s fonts and add emojis to the video. 
  • Pictory’s AI voice-over lacks the realistic edge that its premium competitors do

Pricing

Pictory charges $19/month for the Standard subscription and $39/month for the Premium Plan that caters to business users.  

Verdict

Pictory is a good AI tool for summarizing content into short, engaging videos, particularly from YouTube videos. It offers a good range of customization options and is highly affordable. 

try out pictory here

5.Lumen5

Lumen5 is an AI-powered video generator that corporate professionals use to create quality videos. It’s the type of software you turn to when preparing for a presentation in thirty minutes. Lumen5 boasts notable brands like Cisco, Salesforce, and SAP as clients. The software has a user-friendly interface and hundreds of templates to choose from. And the icing on the cake is a free forever plan. 

How Does It Work?

Lumen5 has a simple workflow that’s easy to learn.

  1. Create your first video by choosing from its collection of templates. Because of its corporate positioning, Lumen5’s templates are designed with a professional appeal (think ‘manufacturing,’ ‘security,’ and ‘software development’).
  2. Choose a story’s aspect ratio, vertical, square, or horizontal. This suits businesses that are running Stories campaigns on social media.
  3. Lumen5 extracts the scenes from blogs or scripts and inserts professional-looking photos into them.

Lumen5 To The Test

My first attempt with Lumen5 was turning a long-form blog into an AI presentation. It took less than one minute to extract the blog content and create a summary from the key points. However, only ten scenes were generated, and they were not enough to encapsulate all the points in the blog.

I wanted to know if it is a limitation for a free account, and I contacted customer support. It turns out that summarizing the blog will produce seven to ten scenes, regardless of the content length. Meanwhile, producing a video with every sentence will create up to forty scenes.

Here’s a professional-looking video created by Lumen5:

Here’s why large brands are loyal customers of Lumen5:

  • Its free plan is pretty great. You can create as many videos as you wish, but with credit scenes.
  • Lumen5 has an intuitive interface with visible controls and drag-and-drop controls. It allows non-tech professionals to edit the scenes easily.
  • There’s a great choice of icons, music, and video assets. The templates are elegant and fit for business uses.
  • It offers the Stories aspect ratio and automatically renders all slides when you switch between different formats.
  • Lumen5 lacks advanced AI features, such as an AI avatar and narrator.

Pricing

Lumen5’s Community plan is free with minimum restrictions. A basic subscription starts from $29/month. 

Verdict

Lument5 is a simple, easy-to-use video editor that turns text into business and marketing videos. Despite limited AI features., it does a great job of choosing the suitable layout style and accentuating points with different fonts. 

check out lumen5 here

What is an AI Video Generator?

An AI video generator is video editing software that uses artificial intelligence technologies to simplify the video creation process. AI video generators allow users without video editing experience to create publish-worthy videos in minutes. Instead of using expensive cams and mic, some AI video software uses machine learning to mimic human speech and impression with a digital avatar. 

This is different than a video upscaler, which is used to enhance old videos.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How to create a human AI video for free?

Synthesia and Elai.io allow you to create AI videos with human avatars, and both offers free trials but with limitations. They let you experience creating a simple AI video without paying anything. 

What is better than Synthesia?

Synthesia is a well-rounded AI video software, with Elai.io being a strong rival. Like Synthesia, Elai.io has realistic AI avatars, allowing you to create custom ones. However, Elai.io provides advanced features that extract text from URLs and PDFs, further simplifying video creation. Also, its new e-commerce-to-video creation workflow is helpful for online retailers. Rather than claiming it’s ‘better,’ Elai is an excellent alternative to Synthesia. 

Why can’t I play the videos on Windows Media Player?

Most AI video generators let you download the videos in .mp4 format, which Windows Media Player doesn’t support by default. You can use alternative video players such as QuickTime or upload and play the videos from Google Drive. 

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