Welcome to Spiritme's guide for creating an avatar that looks exactly like you! 🌟
What is a Lite Custom Avatar?
A Custom Avatar is an avatar with your appearance.
Here is an example of video with Lite Custom Avatar:
More examples here: Example of Lite Custom Avatar.
How to Create an Avatar
To create such an avatar for you, we need about 5 minutes of footage of you speaking on your iPhone’s camera in our iOS app. You can upload the app here:
You don’t need special equipment or a professional studio. However, there are several guidelines we suggest you follow for the best outcome. Please find them in the next point.
Footage requirements
The Spiritme app will give you guidelines during the shoot. However, we recommend you learn carefully the main footage requirements for a better outcome.
Here is an overview of the main aspects of the custom avatar shoot:
Preparation
Spiritme App – the shooting must be done using your iPhone's front camera through the Spiritme iPhone app. Choose portrait or landscape camera mode.
Place – find a quiet place where you will feel comfortable to speak and film.
Background – use a green screen or a plain contrast wall if you want us to cut your avatar from the background. If not, you can shoot at any background, we recommend keeping it simple and clean.
Camera position – your phone’s position should be stable and upright (perpendicular to the ground). Don’t move your phone during the shooting. The best way is to use a tripod.
Lighting – keep yourself well and evenly lit with no shadows. Some tips:
It’s good to have several light sources (two or three), but you can also use daylight if it's constant and not too bright.
Avoid shadows, particularly across the face.
Make sure your glasses do not reflect.
Wardrobe – clothes must not clash with the color of the background, avoid wearing anything green. Keep hair behind the head. You can wear eyeglasses but make sure there is no glare visible on them from your lighting.
Shooting process
Framing – position the camera at eye height and place yourself at the center of the frame. Your face should be 50-70 centimeters or 20 - 30 inches from your phone.
Performance – stay relaxed, smiling, and calm. For the best result follow these guidelines:
Look directly at the camera and not at your image on the screen
Smile while speaking. It’s essential to make your avatar friendly.
While speaking be sure to open your lips wide, but also make pauses and close the lips sometimes.
Don’t raise your hands above your shoulders. While speaking, you can gesticulate but keep your hands within your belly area and avoid specific gestures like pointing and counting. Note – it is better to be resting for longer periods of time than gesticulating.
Do not rotate your head while speaking.
Do not move away from the camera.
Speech – we don’t record the audio so you can say anything you like. Think about the topic beforehand and find something that brings you joy, so that you can easily smile while filming. The language does not matter, only the performance. Choose any topic or use these prompts:
Who was your teen/last crush?
What was your best vacation?
What is your favorite food/restaurant/movie?
Timing – we need 5 minutes of you speaking. Before submitting your video you will be able to check it and re-shoot it if you want. So be ready to have a bit more time to take another shot to make sure that you like the outcome.
Q&A
Will the avatar have my voice?
Currently, your custom avatar will not automatically have your own voice. However, you can request to have your own voice cloned as well or just use our broad selection of synthetic voices. Email us at team@spiritme.tech.
For more information, please check our Voice Cloning FAQ.
What framings are available for my custom avatar?
We currently offer medium-shot framing for custom avatars. The final framing will depend on how you position yourself in the footage shot in the Spiritme app.
Will I be able to choose different backgrounds for my avatar?
If you want to be able to change the background, you should shoot using the green-screen or plain contrast wall. It's essential as we will need to cut you from the background afterwards.
You may shoot at your background (eg. office, lecture room, home office, etc), in this case, your avatar will be at this particular background, and we will not be able to remove it. We recommend keeping the background simple and clean.
How long does it take to produce an avatar?
Currently, the process takes 5 days. Before starting we check if your footage fits the guidelines. Following this check we send you an email, with a confirmation or a request to reshoot the video in case its quality does not meet the requirements.
Please review the footage requirement above carefully for a better outcome.
Can someone generate a video with my identity?
Your custom avatar is only available in your account. However, If you like you can share it with your team.
You can also set up the two-factor authentication to improve protection of your account.