Part 3 of my AI Clone series - add visually dynamic video backgrounds to your avatar!

This automated AI Clone system creates visually stunning videos, WITHOUT having to film or edit yourself.

I combine Make, Perplexity, HeyGen, and Blotato to write, create, and distribute talking head AI clone videos, with visually stunning faceless videos looping behind my avatar.

Now, you can post multiple times per day to every social platform. 100% automated.

The best part?

Make uniquely awesome content you’re excited to share! 🦄

(samples below)

This updated tutorial shows you how to improve your AI Clone videos by generating faceless AI videos in Blotato and inserting them as the background, behind your avatar.

Full tutorial and Make blueprint available at the bottom! 👇️ 

Follow along with the Youtube version of this post:

Overview

Here are my previous newsletters, upon which this tutorial builds:

• Part 1 (foundation): https://youtu.be/to1Y42qY6jc

• Part 2 (integrate Elevenlabs voice): https://youtu.be/XMNrTbeMLC0

The high-level workflow:

• Make - workflow automation runs on daily schedule

• Perplexity - real time internet search to research topic and write video script

• ChatGPT - write SEO optimized video caption

• Heygen - create realistic AI clone/avatar

• Elevenlabs - (optional) high quality voice cloning

• Blotato - create faceless videos, upload media, and publish to social platforms

• Google Sheets - (optional) track published videos'

In this post, I’ll focus on the new additions and changes, rather than repeating how to build out the base automation. Please check my previous tutorials if you are struggling to setup the base version of the automation.

Create Faceless Videos

Whether your interests lean towards travel, fantasy, entrepreneurship, spirituality, AI, real estate, anime, or literally anything else… you can make faceless videos.

For example, faceless videos depicting scenic travel destinations or narrating fictional stories, using lively animations, dynamic camera angles, and a consistent theme to maintain audience engagement.

Here’s how:

1. Use Blotato to generate faceless videos that will loop behind your AI avatar.

2. Select a theme and disable voice-over, so that your avatar is the sole voice.

3. When testing things out, go with the cheapest option “Image with Zoom”.

4. Gradually move to more advanced options, such as “Animated Image”.

5. Finally, export your completed faceless video.

Google Sheets List

1. Create a Google Sheet to track all your faceless videos.

2. In Blotato, after exporting a video, right-click on it.

3. Click “Copy Video Address”.

4. Paste this into the “URL” field in your Google Sheet.

Incorporate a random selection mechanism in your automation workflow to choose different faceless videos automatically. This allows you to create lots of faceless videos at once, then your automation randomly selects one to use as your avatar’s background.

This should already be handled in the Make blueprint:

Create Avatar With Background Removal

Sadly, swapping out your HeyGen Avatar’s background requires the Team plan, which starts at $89/seat/month. This is in addition to HeyGen’s API plan, $99/month. However, with these 2 plans, you get:

• 100 avatar videos per month, entirely automated via API

• unlimited background swapping

• up to 30-minute long avatar videos

• unlimited avatar videos per month, when created via HeyGen’s web app

As a SaaS app business owner, the math is positive ROI for me, but you’ll need to carefully consider for your situation.

To proceed, here’s how to create your AI clone with background removal:

1. Log into HeyGen and navigate to "Avatars".

2. Upload a video of yourself speaking directly to the camera for the full 5 minutes. Ensure good quality lighting and no background noise.

3. Enable “AI Background Removal” to allow seamless background swapping in videos — a premium feature requiring an upgrade to the Team plan.

4. Once the avatar is created, open the avatar by clicking “Edit”.

5. Then select the checkbox “Background matting”.

6. Click “Save as New” and name your avatar so it’s easy to remember… for example: “Sabrina (No Background)”

7. Optionally, you can select an ElevenLabs voice and adjust the voice settings, like stability, similarity, style, and speed.

“Create Avatar” Node

In your Make automation, open the “HeyGen Create Avatar Video” node.

Review all the settings, so that you’re familiar.

The most important settings for our use case:

• Make sure you select your newly created avatar with no background

• Position and scale your avatar for the desired effect in the video. Personally, I like to scale down my avatar (scale = .8) and move it to the bottom right of the video (X offset = .2; Y offset = .2)

• The option “Matting” should be “Yes”

• In the section “Background Settings”, make sure you select:

  • Background Type: Video Background

  • Video URL: Value (variable corresponding to randomly selected faceless video URL from your Google Sheet)

  • Video Play Style: Loop (so that your video loops repeatedly behind your avatar)

Common Issues

• Make sure you’re on a paid Make plan because its free plan is limited to 5 minute execution timeout.

• Make sure you’re on the paid HeyGen API plan because its free plan is limited to 10 avatar videos per month.

• Implement longer wait times if you have longer scripts.

• Check all API keys and IDs are accurate and free from extra whitespaces.

• All variables should be colored filled in, not a transparent border. Try running the scenario once, so that you have data flowing through the system.

Make Blueprint

Import my prebuilt Make blueprint to get going 10x faster!

👇️ 👇️ 👇️