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eLearning authoring tools have become an indispensable part of content creation. It doesn’t matter if you have the best instructional designers on staff – without access to these tools, workplace training ideas will remain just that: ideas.

If you want to create engaging workplace training that your employees will benefit from, you’ll need to know which tools make the most sense for you and your organization’s needs. 

In this article, we’ll show you four kinds of authoring tools to help you develop your training content.

The 4 kinds of authoring tools to know about

Whether you plan to create written content, video training, or quizzes, authoring tools make the process easy with multimedia elements, assessments, animations, and more.

We won’t waste any time – here’s our list of the four best types of eLearning authoring tools on the market today:

1. Written content authoring tools

Written content authoring tools help writers and authors craft and curate text-based materials. These tools provide features to assist with writing, editing, formatting, and publishing written works. Some of the most well-known examples include word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, as well as specialty writing tools like Scrivener.

While almost anyone with an internet connection can efficiently use these tools, new advances in generative AI have significantly expanded the capabilities of these solutions. Additionally, recent studies show that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we learn and teach. 

For instance, grammar-checking tools like Grammarly leverage AI to provide context-based suggestions that improve writing style and catch difficult grammatical errors. Similarly, you can find AI content assistants within ChatGPT that help you generate and refine written workplace training materials and learning courses.

When to use written content authoring tools

These tools are a great option for creating workplace training content for almost every industry, vertical, and company. 

For starters, written content is the most customizable. If at any point you need to make changes to your internal training or help desk documentation, all you have to do is edit the text with your tool of choice. Additionally, you can view written text from both mobile devices and desktops.

Regardless of your use case, you should use written tools in some capacity.

2. Video authoring tools

Need to create training that’s more visually engaging? Video authoring tools provide features for capturing, editing, and publishing video content. 

These tools empower your company’s content creators to produce compelling videos and tap into features like screen recording, voice-overs, and interactive elements so they can create more engaging digital learning experiences.

A few popular options for video editing include Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. Both are great choices for enhancing your existing video footage. However, they also both require technical expertise and extensive manual work from a dedicated video editor.

For those looking to create video content from scratch more efficiently – and for a fraction of the cost – you’ll want to look into an AI video generator. Tools like Colossyan leverage AI avatars and text-to-speech narration to streamline the video creation process, allowing you to create high-quality eLearning content at scale. 

Here’s an example of a sales training video created using Colossyan: 

When to use video authoring tools

You won’t always be able to communicate complex ideas through written text alone. Sometimes your material is just much less engaging when presented as text, which is when it’s useful to turn to video. 

3. Quiz and survey authoring tools

Quiz and survey eLearning software provides an easy way for your instructional designers to create questionnaires, assessments, and polls and collect structured feedback. Some of the more well-known examples include SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and Google Forms.

Your teams can use these tools to create quizzes, tests, and other assessments to evaluate your employees’ knowledge and progress across various subjects, including sales training, compliance training, employee onboarding, and cybersecurity training.

When to use quiz and survey authoring tools

While you can use many types of authoring tools to present information, there’s no guarantee that the information will stick. If you want to perform knowledge checks or ensure that your employees retain information from your training content, you should use quiz and survey tools.

4. Cloud-based authoring tools

Compared to the other authoring tools on this list, cloud-based authoring tools have several unique advantages that make them an ideal choice for certain use cases. 

Most notably, cloud tools give users universal access to content from any device and location with an internet connection. Not only does this make remote collaboration during the authoring process possible, but it centrally stores all your hard work on the cloud as well.

Cloud infrastructure also provides flexible scalability to support any growing storage needs you may have as your usage scales.

When to use cloud-based authoring tools

You should consider cloud authoring when universal access, collaboration, large content volumes, automated updates, or deep learning management system (LMS) integration becomes a major priority for your team. 

A closer look at cloud-based authoring tools

All of the above types of tools are great resources for creating your workplace training. But if you need a robust cloud-based content authoring solution, take a look at these authoring tools:

Colossyan

Not only is Colossyan a strong eLearning video authoring tool, but it’s also a cloud-based solution since users can create videos directly from their web browser without additional software. 

Colossyan’s AI-powered technology offers an effective alternative to traditional workplace training videos. Instead of spending your time writing scripts, you can convert your existing documents, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations into customizable scenes with AI avatars. 

This means you won’t need on-screen actors to produce your content. Instead, Colossyan comes with a library of over 150 lifelike avatar models that represent diverse ages, genders, ethnicities, and professional roles. Plus, you can easily localize your content by automatically translating it into over 70 languages. 

Not only does this mean you can create more content at scale, but it also makes it easy to embed interactive elements into your videos to boost viewer engagement with multiple choice quizzes (and additional features like branching scenarios and analytics are coming soon). 

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is a robust eLearning authoring tool. With it, users can record software simulations, interactive walkthroughs, and demos. They can also add a wide variety of customizable slides, quizzes, drag-and-drops, and other interactive elements to engage learners. Additionally, you can publish courses as responsive HTML5 output, which is optimized for any device.

In terms of integrations, Adobe Captivate connects seamlessly with major LMSs using SCORM and AICC standards to track learner progress.

Easygenerator

Easygenerator makes it easy for non-technical users to collaboratively create online courses. Its simple drag-and-drop editor and range of templates speed up course creation. Additionally, the tool’s built-in feedback cycles and reviewer annotation tools help you gather input from subject matter experts and stakeholders during the authoring process.

Easygenerator also offers robust analytics on learner performance and engagement, and it supports SCORM-compliant integrations with LMSs for tracking completion rates.

Elucidat

Elucidat specializes in highly interactive scenario-based eLearning – you can use the platform to immerse your learners in real-world situations and branched conversations. You can even introduce new variables and conditions into your scenarios to allow for adaptive learning experiences. 

Elucidat’s courses integrate 3D environments, videos, simulations, and other elements to make your training as engaging as possible. You can also export training in HTML5- and xAPI-compatible outputs for integration with modern LMSs.

Lectora

Lectora provides an easy course authoring experience by providing your instructional designers with templates and drag-and-drop interactions. You don’t need any coding experience to create simulations, quizzes, and scenarios that are tailored to your employees’ learning objectives. Additionally, the platform’s HTML5 outputs ensure accessibility across all devices.

Lectora also offers broad LMS support by publishing to SCORM 1.2 and 2004 and xAPI standards.

Articulate Storyline 360

Don’t have an instructional designer on your payroll? Don’t worry – Articulate Storyline 360 makes it easy for beginners to author interactive content. 

Its user-friendly editor offers point-and-click features to build courses that use videos, audio, quizzes, and more. You can also tailor the platform’s output for desktops or mobile devices and integrate it with LMSs via xAPI or legacy SCORM standards.

GoMo

Last but not least, GoMo gives your instructional designers a straightforward way to create and share their online training videos. 

GoMo users can supplement high-quality videos with quizzes, surveys, and discussions, and they can also review the platform’s native analytics to gain insight into course engagement and completion metrics. This platform exports SCORM 1.2–compliant video content for tracking in most LMS ecosystems.

Authoring tool features to look out for

Depending on your use case, you may not need extensive features or expensive add-ons to start creating your workplace training. Here are some baseline authoring tool features you should look out for instead:

Scalability

Since the demand for eLearning content is growing, your authoring tool of choice must be scalable so you can handle any unexpected spikes in usage.

For example, in a worst-case scenario where your company experiences a cybersecurity breach, you’ll want to be able to quickly create and distribute localized cybersecurity training for all your employees. Ultimately, this scalability will allow you to speed up your content development without sacrificing quality.

Scalability is an especially important feature for teams looking to implement structured content authoring. 

Related: The Ultimate Strategy for Scaling Content Authoring Using AI

Collaboration features

Since instructional designers, editors, subject matter experts, and approvers are all involved in the process, content authoring is rarely an isolated task. Because of this, your tools must enable seamless teamwork and content sharing.

Fortunately, even the most basic platforms, like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, integrate intelligent features like version history, real-time document co-authoring, and automatic notifications to facilitate coordination across remote teams. However, it’s ultimately up to your users to take advantage of these collaboration features and turn your content authoring activities into a team sport.

For example, your subject matter experts can use these features to advise your instructional designers and ensure that training courses cover any necessary nuances. Additionally, your employees can also benefit from the online learning opportunities and peer feedback on these collaborative authoring platforms.

Ease of use

An intuitive, easy-to-use interface is a key consideration when selecting your authoring tools. Even the most powerful tools are going to be ineffective if your users struggle to navigate them.

Similarly, you may opt for an authoring tool that has a smaller learning curve than one that’s meant for an experienced instructional designer. For example, tools like Google Docs and SurveyMonkey minimize the learning curve with simple, responsive controls, and others like iSpring cater to non-technical users with a drag-and-drop interface.

Real-world examples of when to use authoring tools 

At this point, you should have all the information you need to choose the right eLearning authoring tool for your organization. But when exactly does it make sense to invest in one? Here are a few examples of how real organizations leverage these tools:

Example 1: A startup uses video authoring software like Colossyan to create streamlined employee onboarding for new hires. The company even adds interactive video elements like quizzes to ensure that these new hires retain information as they integrate into the growing company.

Example 2: A corporate training department uses quiz and survey tools like SurveyMonkey and Typeform to create assessments for new employee development and training programs. These tools allow the department to easily align quizzes with the company’s LMS standards to track employee progress and compliance.

Example 3: An enterprise-sized company produces compliance training videos for its regional departments using Adobe Captivate. The platform’s all-in-one content authoring features give the company all the tools it needs to create these assets, and the platform’s integration with SCORM standards ensures that the resulting interactive videos work across various LMSs. This allows client training managers to effectively monitor employee completion and comprehension.

How to get the most out of your authoring tools

Before you go to lengths to identify the right content authoring tool for your needs, you need to know how to get the most out of these tools. In particular, what do you need? What’s your price point? What features can you live without?

Here are a few things to consider before beginning your search for the right tool:

Select the right tool for your needs

With such a wide range of authoring tools available, it's important that you align your tools with your content goals, team needs, and budget. 

You can start this process by outlining the types of content you need to create, the features that will be most valuable (such as collaboration, interactivity, and reporting), and any technical requirements you may have (like compatibility with your tech stack). 

From there, you can compare pricing tiers and free trial options to find tools that align with your budget. 

Evaluate advanced features and AI capabilities

If you care about efficiency, look for authoring tools that allow you to take advantage of AI and other advanced features to maximize your efficiency. 

Additionally, if your company has a rapidly growing organizational chart and needs scalable workplace training, you should opt for enterprise solutions that come equipped with user management, data insights, and content reuse capabilities. These enterprise-grade features may not be suitable for a smaller company, but they are non-negotiable for a larger company that wants to produce workplace training content at scale.

Focus on high-value features first

Rather than feeling overwhelmed by all the features your authoring tools offer, identify and focus on capabilities that provide the most value for your current goals. Prioritize basic features like collaboration, premade course templates, and an intuitive user interface. You can gradually explore more advanced functionality over time as needed.

Start creating high-quality workplace training with Colossyan

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to creating effective workplace training. But if you want a tool that will allow you and your teams to generate video-based training in minutes, Colossyan should be your first choice.

With over 150 customizable AI avatars, more than 70 languages, and dozens of premade video templates available, Colossyan has everything you need to produce, manage, and publish your eLearning content right away. 

Get started on the right foot – generate your first video today.

Your script is the foundation of your video – without it, not only will producing your video be considerably more difficult, but your content may lack the focused messaging to resonate with your audience. 

A solid script guarantees that your content is well-organized, coherent, and compelling, making it a key piece of the puzzle when creating engaging material. 

In this blog, we’ll walk you through a 7-step framework for writing excellent video scripts, as well as introduce you to a few ways you can streamline and simplify your script writing using AI tools. 

Why is it important to have a strong video script writing process? 

There’s no way around it – script writing can be very time consuming. 

This can lead many people to wonder: why is a 7-step script writing process worth my time when I could just skip the brainstorming and jump right into writing? 

Here’s an overview of some of the main advantages of adopting a strong script writing process:

• Greater clarity: Putting thought into your script guarantees that viewers will leave with a clear understanding of your main message.  
• Improved audience engagement: A script with compelling dialogue can do wonders for capturing your audience’s attention and maintaining interest throughout. 
• Efficient production: Creating video can be time consuming, so creating a script that organizes a clear roadmap for your production team is essential in boosting efficiency. 

7 steps for an improved video script writing process 

Now that we’ve established the importance of good script writing, you might be wondering how you can improve your own process. Keep reading for 7 script writing steps to consider. 

1. Define your objective and audience

First things first – you need to define who your video is for and what you hope to accomplish. 

Is your goal to educate your viewers on a specific problem, or sell them on a new product? 

The answer to this question will dictate the appropriate length for your video, how you’ll distribute it, and the visuals you’ll feature within the content itself. 

2. Choose the right video type 

Your approach to writing a video script will depend on the type of video you’re looking to create. 

Some videos are more educational, whereas others are focused on showing viewers how to complete a very specific task. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the most common types of videos:  

Explainer video 

An explainer video is a short video that typically explains how a product, service, or process works. It’s crucial for explainer videos to be visually engaging, so the best explainer videos usually feature a combination of graphics, text, and narration. 

But when scripting an explainer video, one of the most important things is to keep it short and catchy to keep your audience's attention without sounding sales-y.

How-to video

Whereas an explainer video might explain an overview of a concept, a how-to video typically provides step-by-step instructions to accomplish a specific task. 

One of the best examples of how-to videos are knowledge base videos, which are used to replace or add to long knowledge base articles. Some other examples are customer onboarding videos and product training videos, which are perfect for helping users get started with your product.

Training video 

Training videos require a different scripting approach than explainer or how-to videos since their goal is not to sell, but to educate. Training videos are typically centered around an instructor who’s educating the audience on a specific knowledge area. 

Here’s an example training video created in Colossyan: 

YouTube video 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to scripting YouTube videos since YouTube is home to such a diverse range of content. Writing a script for a recipe video is a lot different from scripting a vlog, for instance. 

But regardless of your video topic, it’s important to have a clear structure and message that will engage your viewers, keeping in mind your target audience’s interests and demographics. 

3. Craft a video brief 

The best way to ensure that your video features consistent messaging from start to finish is by narrowing down the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your video into a very short video brief. 

That way, if there’s any debate on the creative direction of your video later on, you can always refer back to your video brief for guidance. 

4. Decide on your visual direction

Before you get into the nitty gritty of actually writing your script, you’ll want to first consider the visuals you plan on including. 

For example, do you plan to only feature one main character, or will your material require conversations between characters? 

If you plan on using AI avatars to speed up production and cut acting costs, what do you want those AI actors to look like? You might want to feature more of their clothing for scenario-based content, or maybe a talking head style is more suitable for your material. 

Putting some thought into these visuals before you get into the writing process can give you a better sense of what’s needed within your script. 

5. Write the script 

Now that we’ve decided on the visual direction, video type, and target audience, it’s time to start writing. 

Some find it easier to start the writing process with an outline, which is especially helpful when creating longer-form content or for material that covers a lot of different topics in depth. 

Even if you forgo the outline process, the most important thing is to make your script as thorough as possible and script every single word. Leaving some parts of your script up to chance will guarantee longer recording timelines when things don’t sound the way you want them to. 

And despite common perception, script writing isn’t just your dialogue or narration. A good script will also include details on the shots or scenes involved too, that way there’s no question how a scene should look or sound when it comes time to shoot it. 

The AAAA framework for script writing 

To make sure that your script includes all of the necessary elements, you may want to consider the AAAA framework: 

1. Attention: Does your script capture audience attention right from the very beginning? 
2. Agitation: Does your script agitate the pain point that your customer is facing to create a sense of urgency in solving it? 
3. Activity: Does your script provide a clear solution or demonstrate how your product or idea can address the problem? 
4. Action: Does your script conclude with a clear call to action that your audience can act on? 

Also read: How to Get the Most Out of an AI Script Generator

6. Develop your dialogue 

Adding dialogue is a great way to make your content visually engaging. However, in order for dialogue to be useful, it needs to move your storyline along. 

Ask yourself, is my dialogue helping readers better understand my message? Or is it adding unnecessary distractions? 

7. Revise as necessary 

Just like with any good piece of writing, editing and revising is critical for success. Your first draft might not sound the way you want right off the bat – and that’s okay. 

Setting your first draft aside and revisiting it later with fresh eyes is a great way to identify weaknesses or gaps in your script. 

Don’t forget the power of peer review either. Going through the script writing process all on your own can give you tunnel vision, preventing you from creating the best possible script. Including others’ perspectives is always helpful. 

8. Produce your video! 

When the writing’s done, all that’s left to do is bring your script to life. 

You may choose to do this in house, or maybe you’ll contract with a production company to take some of the work off your plate. 

Regardless of the route you take, it’s important to consider that when working with traditional video production, your script will be set in stone once your content has been filmed. Changing your script after the fact will require you to reshoot a portion of your content (which is undoubtedly costly). 

That’s why some companies whose content rapidly changes – such as teams creating training and compliance videos – opt for a text-to-video tool to bring their content to life instead. 

With an AI text-to-video platform, you can continuously edit your script as you work, since there’s no need to manually film video content or record voiceovers. 

3 ways to write video scripts faster using AI 

We’ve already touched on the ways that AI text-to-video technology allows you to continuously iterate on your script as you work on your video, but that isn’t all that this technology can do. 

For starters, tools like Colossyan can revolutionize your video production process by transforming your script into a visually engaging video starring AI avatars. This means you can create professional-grade content without ever having to pick up a camera. 

And when it comes to script writing, there are many different features tools like Colossyan offer to help get your projects off the ground in significantly less time than traditional video. Here’s an overview of those features: 

AI script assistant 

Script writing can eat up a lot of time. Fortunately, AI can help. 

But instead of turning to external tools like ChatGPT, it’s more convenient to get AI assistance within your video editing platform. That’s why Colossyan offers a GPT-3-powered AI script assistant that can help brainstorm ideas, edit your tone of voice, or even correct your grammar. 

So if you’re looking to put together a video draft as fast as possible, select a video template and let Colossyan take care of your script editing – and you’ll have a draft ready in minutes. 

Turn a document into a video

Let’s face it, there are times when deadlines are so tight that you don’t have time to write a script at all. However, you might have a document of information ready to go.

This is where Colossyan’s document-to-video workflow can help. Simply upload your document as a PDF, PPT, DOC and TXT file, specify a few details – such as your intended audience, tone, and what the video’s about – and select a template to serve as your video’s visual foundation. 

In less than 60 seconds, Colossyan will transform your document into a video draft, complete with scripts and scenes created from your document’s contents. 

This way, all you’ll need to do is make a few edits to your script and update a few images before your video is good to go. Just imagine all of the ways you can scale your production processes and save time on script writing using this feature. 

Start with a prompt

All script writing starts with an idea. But what if we told you that you could skip the writing and instead jump from idea to end result? 

That’s the idea behind Colossyan’s prompt-to-video feature. Instead of requiring a document upload, all prompt-to-video requires is a simple prompt input. 

Once you’ve added your prompt, you’ll add a few additional details, select a template, and seconds later you’ll have a fully developed video draft complete with AI avatars, scripts, and multiple scenes. 

Takeaway

There you have it – we hope this guide on how to write a video script is useful for you and your team. 

And don’t forget to explore ways that AI can make your script writing process easier. Not only do AI video generation platforms allow you to iterate on your script throughout the entire video editing process, but they’re often a more cost effective solution to traditional production. 

After all, there’s a reason why big-name companies like Paramount and Novartis use Colossyan to create their video content. 

Still unsure? Come see for yourself and try Colossyan for free today.

When it comes to creating engaging and entertaining videos, today’s problem isn’t a lack of tools.

It’s that many of the video creation tools available are too complex for the average user, have a steep learning curve, and generally require some kind of technical knowledge or previous experience to get the most out of them.

At least, that’s been the case until now. 

But thanks to powerful AI video generation tools, creating a video from scratch no longer requires a team of script writers, film cameras, and fancy video editing tools.

In fact, you can create a realistic and engaging AI video in just a few steps.

We’ll explain how to make an AI video in five quick steps and will even provide a pro tip on how you can produce a full video with just a few prompts and a powerful AI video tool.

5 steps to make an AI video

Never created an AI video before? We’ve got your back.

First, you’ll have to choose an AI video generator. Then, follow the steps below:

1. Write your script 

Step one is to create your video script. There are a few ways you can go about this.

The classic process here is to write the script yourself or hire a professional script writer from a freelancing platform like Upwork.

But since you’re already using AI to create the video, why not use an AI script assistant to draft your video dialogue? All you need to do is provide your AI script writer with a few prompts and let it do its thing. You can always jump in and edit from there.

But to further automate your script writing process, you may want to opt for an AI video tool that offers a document-to-video workflow. In Colossyan, for example, this feature allows you to get your video drafts off the ground more quickly by transforming your already existing content into a video draft in under 60 seconds. 

Document-to-video allows you to skip the script writing process all together. Here’s how it works: 

2. Select or custom-make your AI avatar 

Now that you’ve got your script ready, it’s time to choose your presenter.

In this case, look for an AI avatar, a representation of a human who will act as the narrator, host, or actor in your video.

Some AI video content creation tools let you add more than one AI avatar to a scene, using side-view avatars to create conversations between different characters. 

Spend some time finding the right avatar for your project and customizing it for your needs. You’ll want to think about your audience and what kind of avatar will connect and resonate. Many tools offer dozens of stock AI avatars with all different clothing styles, ethnicities, ages, and professions to help you do just that. 

If you’re creating a workplace training video for the health care sector, for instance, someone dressed in a nurse’s uniform or semi-formal attire is probably a better fit than someone wearing a T-shirt and hoodie or set of mechanic’s overalls.

Some AI video creation platforms even provide support for you to create your own custom avatar, allowing you to add your face and voice to your AI-generated videos.

3. Choose your language, voice, and accent 

Now it’s time to take a look at how your AI avatar sounds. How much you can customize this aspect will depend on the artificial intelligence video production tool you’re using.

Colossyan, for example, lets you choose between hundreds of different voices and offers some local languages for enhanced localization based on your audience. Videos for a UK audience can be outfitted with a British accent, for instance. 

You can even translate your video into over 70 different languages, helping you serve a variety of different audiences without hiring a team of translation experts. Plus, the translation process is fully automated, meaning you just need to click a button. No need to refilm scenes in a different language. 

4. Edit your video 

At this point, you’re almost ready to use your AI video generation tool to render the first version of your video.

But first, you’ll probably want to do some video editing here to polish up transitions, smooth out any audio issues, and edit dialogue to make the story flow better. You can also add additional on-screen text and images to further jazz up your video. 

Editing video is an art in and of itself, so if you’re new to editing, we’d recommend you check out our dedicated guide on how to use an AI video editor.

5. Generate your finished AI video 

Step five isn’t much work at all. 

Simply hit “Generate” in your AI video creation tool, save your video with a memorable file name (not “new_video_finalversion_#426”), and get ready to share, upload, or embed it!

Pro tip: How to make an AI video in one step 

Let’s be honest, creating a full video from scratch in just five quick steps is pretty impressive – especially when compared with the traditional process of storyboarding, filming, editing, sound design, and so on.

But there’s an even easier way.

We’ve already discussed how Colossyan’s document-to-video feature can further speed up this process, but the tool’s prompt-to-video feature is another way to create that same AI avatar video with just a few simple text prompts.

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For instance, if you enter “Five-minute introductory tutorial on how to use Slack,” Colossyan will automatically generate the corresponding video, complete with realistic AI avatars and background imagery.

You can use Colossyan to create the final video or as a scratch pad for working out ideas, which you can then flesh out using our AI script writer and customizable video creation suite.

Use a premade template to make an AI video

Another easy way to get off the ground quickly when crafting AI video is to start with a premade template.

Colossyan comes with dozens of professional video templates with diverse use cases like these:

• Data privacy
• Harassment prevention
• Sales training
• Strategic planning

Check out our wide range of video templates.

Making an AI video: FAQs 

Still got a few burning questions about how to make a video using AI? 

Let’s answer them right here.

How long does it take to make an AI video? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. 

You can create an AI video using Colossyan’s document-to-video feature in as little as 60 seconds. However, a good ballpark for most AI video creation is anywhere between 30 minutes and 8 hours, depending on your content. 

This is significantly faster than traditional video production, which can take five days of planning, scripting, storyboarding, scene design, editing, and audio engineering for just a few minutes of content.

Can I make an AI video for free? 

Yes, there are plenty of free AI tools available. 

When it comes to creating AI video, most professional, high-quality video generation solutions require a paid subscription. But many of them also offer a free version or trial option.

Take Colossyan, for example. Our most affordable paid plan comes at $19 per month, but you can try it for free to make sure you’re happy with aspects like video quality and customization.

What kinds of videos can you make with AI? 

You can use modern AI video creation tools to create many different types of videos.

Here are just a few of the most common AI video types and use cases:

• Synthetic AI video
• AI avatar and talking head videos
• Animated videos
• AI-edited videos, such as using AI to cut short video clips from long videos
• Educational, eLearning, and workplace training videos
• Employee onboarding content
• Sales and marketing collateral
• Product explainer videos 
• Music videos
• Internal communications and corporate memos 
• News and information 

Can I make an ethical AI video? 

That depends on what you consider to be ethical. In the context of AI-powered video, one major ethical concern is using a real person’s likeness.

For example, if you create a deepfake video using a celebrity’s face and voice, this could be considered unethical if you haven’t received their explicit consent to do so.

But that doesn’t mean that all AI videos are unethical.

Take Colossyan, our AI video maker. Every AI avatar in Colossyan is based on a real-life person. We pay real actors to create AI avatars (with their explicit consent, of course). We don’t generate AI humans from scratch.

You can even create a custom AI avatar using your own face and voice, eliminating ethics concerns altogether.

What is the best software for making AI videos? 

There are a number of great software solutions for making AI videos.

Some of our favorites include Animaker (for animations), Opus Clip (for repurposing long-form videos into short, shareable visuals), and Colossyan (for generating videos using AI avatars).

How do you convert text into videos using AI? 

There are a number of powerful AI tools that can help you quickly and easily turn text into videos.

Here’s what the step-by-step video creation process looks like in Colossyan, our AI text-to-video platform:

1. Draft your script (or have our AI script writer help you out).
2. Choose your AI avatars or create your own.
3. Select your language for the voiceover.
4. Incorporate design elements like brand colors and fonts.
5. Generate your AI video.

Make your first AI video for free with Colossyan 

Creating and publishing AI videos isn’t as hard as you might think.

With a powerful, user-friendly, and intuitive text-to-video generator like Colossyan, you can get off the ground quickly with a professional template, draft a great script with AI, and publish your first engaging video to your YouTube channel or company intranet within minutes.

Try out Colossyan yourself for free.

Creating talking head videos used to be a time-consuming and costly activity. You had to have some notion of how to use professional video recording and editing tools, and it took dozens of takes to get your dialogue perfect.

Now, thanks to powerful AI video creation tools, you can make these informative videos in a matter of seconds using a talking avatar. Some solutions even allow you to clone your own face and voice to create talking avatar videos with a digital twin of yourself.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the world of talking avatars and explore what they look like, when and where to use them, and how to create your own custom avatar for talking head videos.

But first, let's take a quick step back and look at what talking avatars are.

What is a talking avatar, and how does it work? 

A talking avatar is typically an AI-generated character or digital representation that generates speech from text input. They often display facial movements and hand gestures as well.

A talking avatar may be entirely a computer algorithm generation, or it may use a combination of photo and video to portray a realistic digital representation of a living human being. The best talking avatars tend to be the latter.

AI video generators use this powerful modern technology – including  AI protocols like natural language processing – to interpret and understand text, convert it to speech, and add natural inflections and expressions based on its interpretation.

What does an AI talking avatar look like?

AI talking avatars look just like real people. Well, the good ones do.

Here’s an example of one of Colossyan’s AI avatars, to give you an idea:

An AI avatar can show a full body, an upper body (as in the above screenshot), or just a head and shoulders. The presentation entirely depends on the software solution you’re using and your own preferences.

Your avatar presentation options will depend on the AI video tool you use. For example, Colossyan allows you to create scenario-based videos with avatars in conversation mode. Additional features like gesturing and customizable clothing allow your talking avatars to feel extra humanlike.

Why might you need a custom talking avatar? 

Many platforms offer pre-designed talking avatars you can choose from to help get your projects off the ground quickly. However, even with tools that offer plenty of options (Colossyan has over 150 AI avatars, for example), you may want a talking avatar that is even more personalized. 

If you’re in need of a custom talking avatar that looks a certain way, you may want to create a custom avatar of your own. This can be a great option for those creating corporate videos, as a custom avatar of a recognizable brand representative will allow you to scale your content creation efforts while still ensuring your videos feel personalized. 

There are a few uses cases where this may come in handy:

• Internal announcements from the CEO
• Customized sales messages
• Scalable YouTube video creation

With Colossyan, you have two options for creating a custom avatar. If you have access to a film studio with a green screen, you can create your own professional-quality AI avatar that can be used with any background. If not, our Instant Avatar feature allows you to create a dynamic custom avatar quickly using just seconds of footage.

Additionally, many tools – including Colossyan – support voice cloning, meaning your custom avatars will not only look like the real-life version of the person, but sound like them too. And, even if you clone your voice in English, you’ll still be able to translate it into 29 different languages. 

Where to use AI talking avatars 

The benefits of using AI avatars are far-reaching and extend to a number of different workplace settings. Here’s an overview of some of the top use cases. 

Employee training and onboarding 

Studies show that great employee onboarding programs boost long-term retention by as much as 82%.

The problem? Most onboarding processes are clunky, poorly documented, or non-existent.

Employee training videos using AI avatars are a good solution for this problem since they’re fast and easy to produce. They’re also easy to update when processes or reporting lines change. In other words, you won’t suffer the common problem of out-of-date training materials.

Marketing content 

Video is a powerful format to use as part of a content marketing strategy, and talking avatars enable you to produce these videos at scale.

Here are a few examples where AI avatars are useful in marketing videos:

• Product demo videos
• Scenario videos that discuss customer problems and solutions
• Side-by-side comparisons of your product and a competitor’s 

Sales enablement 

Sales enablement is another great use case for AI talking avatars.

You can use AI to create custom outreach messages for target prospects or support sales with product explainer videos.

Additionally, talking avatar videos are an engaging way to deliver sales training content because they move beyond the written word to provide contextual examples that help your salespeople develop skills.

Check out this sales training created using Colossyan: 

Customer education and support 

AI-powered video content can simplify complex concepts, encourage feature adoption, and boost user satisfaction.

You can use AI avatars to create a variety of customer education content, such as:

• A video-based onboarding sequence that introduces new users to your product
• A series of use case-specific videos to help customers in particular industries get the most out of your product
• Personalized customer support videos for better ticket resolution, especially when communicating with customers in a language that your support team doesn’t speak

Internal communications 

Finally, a talking AI avatar can be an effective way to distribute internal communications to your team.

You can use these communications to announce business updates, develop upskilling and training videos, or distribute messages in multiple languages.

If your talking avatar app allows you to build your own custom avatar, you can create videos for internal distribution that use your own voice and face for a more personal touch.

How to create a talking avatar with Colossyan 

With Colossyan, you don’t have to create video avatars from scratch. We have over 150 high-quality AI-generated avatars ready to help you craft engaging content.

Since we’ve based our avatars on real actors, you can’t customize aspects like facial features, but you can change their voice, language, and accent. Some avatars come in multiple versions, allowing you to use them in different contexts. 

Take our avatars Lisa and Ryan, for example. They both have multiple outfit variations – including more casual and formal options – available so you can use whichever option suits your use case best. 

But if you’d like to create an avatar based on yourself or one of our brand spokespeople, you can use our new instant avatar feature. Here’s how it works:

1. Record a 20-second video clip of yourself 
2. Clone your voice, or select the stock voice you’d like your instant avatar to have  
3. Preview your avatar and add it to your video scenes
4. Generate your final video product

Use your AI talking avatar to make your first video 

Now that you’ve chosen and personalized your AI avatar (or created a custom avatar), it's time to generate your first AI video.

Here are the general steps to follow to put your avatar to use:

1. Pick a template: The best AI video creators come with pre-built templates to help you get off the ground quickly.
2. Write a video script: You can either draft a script from scratch or use an AI script assistant to write one based on prompts. Some tools also offer prompt-to-video and document-to-video workflows to help automate this process as well. 
3. Generate a voice over: Your AI video generator’s text-to-speech function will allow you to generate a realistic voice over without having to touch a mic. 
4. Edit as required: You can review your video and make edits to the script, voice and accent, and AI prompts until you’re happy with the result.
5. Generate: Once you’ve successfully generated your new AI video, it’s time to share it with your audience. 

11 top features to prioritize in an AI talking avatar platform 

To effectively use talking avatars to create compelling training, sales, and marketing videos, you’ll need a quality AI video creation platform.

There are a few great ones out there, but they don’t all provide the same features and functions. Some offer basic functionality and quality, while others are incredibly realistic and offer many helpful features beyond simple video generation.

Here are 11 of the top features we’d recommend prioritizing when searching for an AI talking avatar platform:

1. Multiple avatars, voices, and accents: The most effective platforms provide dozens of different characters to choose from, as well as the ability to customize their voices and accents.
2. Languages and translation features: Instantly translating your video into multiple languages is a huge benefit for creating sales and marketing collateral that targets several regions.
3. Pre-built templates: More is better here. Templates help you avoid starting from scratch each time you want to produce a new video.
4. Support for multiple documents: You should be able to import a PDF or PowerPoint file to use as the background for your video. 
5. AI script assistant: You should look for features that allow you to answer a few simple prompts for a generative AI engine to create a full script.
6. AI prompt-to-video: Some solutions take prompts a step further and allow you to craft the whole video by answering a few questions about what you want it to look and feel like. This can save you a lot of time when creating a video draft from scratch. 
7. Side-view avatars: Most talking avatars are front-on only, but some tools like Colossyan have side-view avatars available, which allows you to create a realistic conversation between characters. This is crucial when creating scenario-based videos. 
8. Screen recording: Being able to record your own screen and overlay it with an avatar is invaluable for creating product demo videos.
9. Collaboration features: You should keep an eye out for platforms that offer shared workspaces, custom permissions, and commenting and tagging features.
10. Custom avatars: The ability to create your own AI avatar is a great way to align with branding.
11. Subtitles: Adding subtitles to your talking avatar videos improves accessibility.

Colossyan: Your source for AI avatars for training and onboarding

Talking avatars are a powerful modern way to create videos at scale. A good talking avatar looks and sounds fairly realistic but doesn’t come with the costs and time investment that traditional video shoots and edits entail.

Colossyan, our AI video generation platform, supercharges workplace learning content creation processes by helping learning leaders boost engagement while ditching the cumbersome old-school video production methods. 

Try it out for yourself today.

Structured content authoring is an important digital marketing tactic that any budding content creator should understand. With the recent rise of personalized, data-driven marketing, strategically structuring your copy during the authoring stage has become a crucial best practice.

In this blog article, we’ll explore what exactly structured content authoring is, why it matters for modern marketing efforts, and how beginners can incorporate more structure into their content to improve clarity and cohesion.

What is structured content authoring?

Structured content authoring is the practice of creating, managing, and publishing content in predefined structures or templates using XML and other markup languages. 

Unlike traditional, unstructured content creation, structured content is modular, so you can easily reuse, repurpose, and distribute it across different channels and formats.

Why having structure is crucial for scalable content creation

Enhancing your content presentations’ consistency and coherence can give you a serious leg up when producing content at scale – whether you’re a technical writer, subject matter expert, or marketing manager. By organizing information into standardized, reusable components, your teams can ensure that your technical documentation and other content maintains a reliable structure for readers.

Structured content also allows for more effective content management and scalability, especially for large organizations in life sciences and regulatory industries that need to ensure that their content is both accurate and easy to find. 

With structured content authoring, you can quickly search for and assemble individual components like product specs, safety warnings, and compliance information into new documentation.

The benefits of structured content for businesses

Investing in structured content won’t directly improve your content’s quality, but it will make your content easier to find, organize, and produce – and those are just the internal benefits. Here’s a closer look at how building structured content can benefit your business:

Greater content reusability and repurposing

One of the largest advantages using structured content is the ability to reuse and repurpose content components much more efficiently via single-sourcing.

For example, you can extract and reuse a product feature’s technical description in various pieces of downstream content like user manuals, support articles, product brochures, and even customer-facing blogs and social media posts.

You can also apply this to content localization. Your teams can quickly create localized document types to support your technical writing and ensure that users across the globe have access to the same level of support.

That’s one of the major pros of investing in structured authoring tools. Instead of having your writers create new copies from scratch across these formats, you can simply have them reuse structured content modules saved in a central component content management system (CCMS). 

This can save you a massive amount of time, effort, and resources while preventing duplication and inconsistencies across your content library.

Enhanced SEO and discoverability

Structured content also lends itself more to search engine optimization (SEO) due to its standardized format and built-in metadata. The ability to consistently apply keywords, descriptions, titles, alt text, and schema markup to reusable content modules enhances website and asset visibility to search engines and improves their crawlability and search rankings.

This content also helps automation and optimization scripts execute more reliably across site pages that share unified content structures. By analyzing the data on these pages, you can find high-performing content pieces that are ideal for repurposing using the templates your teams have already created. 

This also helps your authors see which key phrases and messages resonate with your audience, making it easier to create new content based on what’s already been successful in your business.

Streamlined workflow and collaboration

Now, let’s talk about time savings – or more specifically, how you can speed up your time to market with new content. The structured authoring process simplifies the processes of writing, reviewing, and approving new content by standardizing formats, components, terminology, and models across your teams.

Modern CCMS platforms also include intuitive collaboration features that can help you manage content versions, permissions, comments, workflows, and even translations to assist with content localization. By taking advantage of these tools, you can enable even large global teams to repurpose approved modules at scale instead of engaging in redundant review processes for every new piece of content.

Improved user experience and engagement

Since structured content separates format and structure from content using templates and modular components, it inherently creates a more adaptable and user-friendly experience. Your content will display clearly across devices and platforms with consistent presentation layers that use the same validated content source.

You can also improve your content personalization by mixing and matching content blocks that are tailored to different user segments’ needs and interests. By creating more targeted, relevant content instead of relying on generic one-size-fits-all copy across your pages, you’ll be able to more effectively engage your users.  

Tools to help you get started with structured content authoring

Ultimately, structured content authoring isn’t possible without the right authoring tools. And we don’t mean basic word processing software like Microsoft Word. There are several different authoring platforms that are available on the market today.

Here are some platforms we recommend you check out to start taking advantage of the authoring process:

Content management systems

Popular content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla offer built-in structured content capabilities to support creators who want to make their content easy to find, publish, and index across search engine result pages. 

With common features such as custom fields, taxonomies, reusable content blocks, and templates, these platforms can help you quickly publish and organize your content in one place. 

The best CMS for your business will ultimately depend on your budget and personal preferences. However, we recommend that you find one that offers the features above for the most effective experience.

Metadata management tools

Tools like Schema.org, Yoast SEO, and Semrush make it easier to incorporate metadata into your structured content elements. Adding metadata to each new content page enhances its SEO and ensures that its components are more discoverable online, which supports the overall content lifecycle. You can automatically apply this metadata using the templates in your CMS of choice to speed up the publishing process.

Content authoring tools and platforms

Here’s where the tools start getting a little more hands-on. If you’re serious about structured content authoring, you’ll need dedicated content authoring tools that help you execute your content strategy.

For example, tools like Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, and Kentico provide advanced features like automation and XML-based modular structures. These platforms also give content teams access to reusable content blocks, intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, and integrations with other CCMSs. In other words, they’ll have everything your teams need so they can spend their time creating content rather than wasting hours on technical work.

In addition to these established platforms, another noteworthy tool that significantly aids in structured content authoring is our very own Colossyan. 

With Colossyan’s document-to-video feature, you can simply upload a document with the information for your video, and in less than 60 seconds, Colossyan will generate a video draft complete with a realistic AI avatar, images, and animations to get your first draft off the ground.

Whether you create videos from scratch, a template, or document-to-video, using Colossyan will ensure that your video content follows a clear and easy-to-understand structure. This modular approach to producing video content with AI is similar to using templates in written content and promotes both consistency and easy content reuse.

From there, you can export video content to your learning management system and quickly build your company’s content library for learning and development. It’s really that easy. Plus, Colossyan even offers an AI assistant that can help you write and edit your script.

How to ensure that your structured content is useful and high-quality

Even if you’re able to get started with structured content authoring and produce content at scale, it won’t matter if your content is ineffective. Fortunately, the same set of rules that apply to normal content creation also apply to structured content.

You can ensure that your content is both high-quality and scalable by following these tips:

Conduct thorough audience research

Understanding your target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors with thorough research will directly inform not only your content’s quality but also how you structure your content across your site. Research-based insights help you ensure that your modular content elements align with your users’ expectations and preferences.

Develop clear content guidelines and templates

Developing comprehensive style guidelines and content templates are essential for maintaining consistency and high quality across your structured content pieces, especially for technical documentation that needs to maintain a high level of accuracy at scale. Within these templates and guidelines, you can lay out specifications for tone, formatting, terminology, and metadata schema for your content teams to follow.

Implement consistent content audits and reviews

Now that you have guidelines in place, you can stop worrying about content quality, right?

Not quite. Even after applying these guidelines, your content teams should still conduct periodic audits to assess your structured content’s effectiveness. Does it provide actionable insights? And does it require continuous optimization on a quarterly or yearly basis?

Along with user feedback, reference quantitative analytics to help you identify poorly performing content that you need to refresh or rewrite. These insights will equip you with the information you need to ensure that your content is never subpar.

Start creating structured content with Colossyan

With the right tools, you can start producing structured content in no time. And if you want to start leveraging video content in your business, there’s no better tool for it than Colossyan.

Colossyan’s video platform gives busy teams everything they need to produce high-quality AI-generated videos at scale. With its prebuilt templates, interactive video features, and customizable AI avatars and voiceovers, you’ll have everything you need to get started with structured content authoring.

Now, think about the challenge of maintaining this kind of consistency across different languages and regions. Fortunately, Colossyan allows you to to automatically translate your video content into over 70 languages – all while ensuring that the content itself stays the same.

Want to unlock the full potential of AI video creation and create scalable, fast videos for your business? Get started by creating your first video today.

If you’re curious what the future of video production looks like, look no further than AI-generated video. 

With advancements in generative AI, AI video generation has emerged as a more cost effective and efficient way to create video content at scale. No need for long filming schedules or costly editing processes – AI video generators allow you to create professional-quality videos in minutes. 

In this blog, we’ll walk you through what an AI video generator is, how it works, the benefits, use cases, and finally, introduce you to an industry-leading AI video generation tool you can get started with for free. 

What is an AI video generator?

An AI video generator uses artificial intelligence to automatically create video content without requiring human actors, filming equipment, or video editing skills. 

The inputs required to successfully use an AI video generator depend on the tool you’re using, but you may need text, image, or audio inputs in order for the tool to generate a comprehensive video output. 

However, some tools allow you to create polished video content by only inputting a prompt or uploading a document with the information you want the video to include. Adding an input is all you need in order to use an AI video generator successfully – the tool will add AI avatars, voiceovers, and subtitles for you. 

Understanding how AI video generation works

Generative AI is a relatively new technology, so it makes sense there’s some confusion and curiosity on how AI video tools actually work. 

When using an AI video generator, you might add your own script and have AI avatars serve as your narrators rather than using human actors. When you generate your final video product, artificial intelligence is what syncs your avatar’s lip movements to the words in your script. 

But on a deeper level, there are many different technologies at play in an AI-generated video. Here’s a high-level overview of a few of the key tech components: 

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

AI video generators use machine learning models that are trained on large amounts of data in order to understand textual inputs and pair them with visual concepts. 

Natural language processing is an important field of study within AI that focuses on the interactions between human language and computers. NLP allows AI video generators to produce natural sounding scripts and narrative structures that match the intended storyline. 

Text-to-speech (TTS) is an important subset of NLP, as TTS technologies allow for text to be transformed into natural-sounding speech that is used in voice overs and narration. 

Neural networks 

A neural network is a computational model that is designed to identify patterns and solve complex problems. Neural networks are a critical part of many different AI applications – including AI video platforms – due to their image recognition, NLP, and prediction capabilities. 

Some types of neural network architectures, such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), are particularly effective in producing high-fidelity images and videos, making them essential for video generation. 

3D modeling

3D modeling plays a vital role in AI video generators because it allows for the creation of realistic content featuring lifelike characters, such as AI avatars. 3D modeling is also what paves the way for interactive video content, enabling viewers to interact with objects in the video environment. 

Benefits of AI video content 

Not quite convinced to give AI video a try yet? Here’s an overview of three of the top benefits that come with implementing this new generative AI technology. 

More efficient and cost effective

Traditional video production is typically associated with long production timelines and high costs – two pain points that AI-generated video eliminates. 

Prompt-to-video script writing tools not only help make the process of coming up with material for your videos faster and more streamlined, but using additional features like AI avatars to serve as the talent in your content eliminates the need to hire actors and manually record them reading your script. 

In other words, AI video generators allow you to create professional-quality video content without even picking up a camera. Leveraging this technology is far more cost effective than traditional video creation, and also gives you the added ability to update your content in a matter of minutes without having to refilm anything. 

Allows for a high volume of video production

Planning, shooting, and editing video content can take weeks, which makes it incredibly difficult for organizations to scale their training video efforts. 

But by eliminating the need to manually film actors, AI video enables corporations and individual creators alike to rapidly produce high-quality content at scale. And because most AI video platforms have an incredibly user-friendly editing interface, your team can rapidly produce video internally without having to outsource video editing tasks. 

This way, instead of taking weeks to produce a video, AI video generators can produce a video of the same length in a matter of minutes. 

Highly customizable and personalized

When creating video content featuring live actors, there are natural limitations to the customizability of your content. 

For example, to create a video in five different languages, you’ll need five different actors who speak those languages to shoot your footage. And even if you have a multilingual actor, you’ll still need to record the footage in each language five different times. 

This challenge can pose huge cost barriers that hinder your ability to localize and personalize content to your audience. Instead, with AI video, your content can be automatically translated into nearly a hundred languages with the simple click of a button. Plus, you can further tailor your audio by adding different dialects and accents, or even consider AI dubbing. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for the ways you can personalize your AI video. Custom avatars, branding elements, and interactivity are just a few other ways people around the world are already using AI to customize their video content.  

Top use cases for AI video

While you might see AI-generated video on TikTok or other platforms, its use cases extend far beyond entertainment. In fact, there are numerous corporate applications for this technology that companies around the globe have already begun implementing to boost outcomes. 

Workplace training and development 

Too often, workplace learning and development consists of lackluster PowerPoints or outdated videos that haven’t been updated in years. But in order for training to be useful, it needs to be engaging and updated with the most relevant information. 

This makes workplace learning an excellent use case for AI video, and some tools – such as Colossyan – were built with this specific use case in mind. By taking advantage of Colossyan’s document-to-video feature, for example, thousands of enterprise-sized corporations have already started transforming their dull written content into impressive training videos that employees will actually want to watch all the way through. 

And best of all, updating this learning content when material changes no longer requires a large time investment. Simply click regenerate and you’re done. 

Employee onboarding 

New hires are often inundated with information during the employee onboarding process, which is why video is an excellent medium to relay material in an engaging way so that they’ll actually retain what’s important. 

Not to mention, AI video enables companies to routinely update and refine content as company policies or best practices evolve, ensuring onboarding materials are always current. Sleek, professional videos are one of the best ways to guarantee a top-tier onboarding experience for your new joiners. 

Here's an sample employee onboarding video created using Colossyan:

Sales enablement 

Sales enablement can be a large undertaking, although it’s one that can significantly boost your sales results – making it a worthwhile use case for AI video. 

For example, scenario-based training videos can be an excellent way to show sales representatives how to properly respond and make decisions in high pressure situations, but manually creating this content requires multiple actors and set designs. Instead, AI video tools allow you to create this type of content in a matter of minutes. 

AI can help you scale your sales enablement efforts, and incorporating screen recordings into your AI videos can also be helpful in keeping salespeople up to speed on the product they’re selling. 

Challenges and limitations of AI-generated videos 

Because generative AI is largely uncharted territory, there are a couple of ethical and technical challenges to keep in mind as you move to implement this new technology. 

Technology misuse 

Because AI can create video content around any input, there’s a large potential for misleading content. This includes deep fakes – which are often created maliciously to make it seem like an individual said things they never actually did. 

This can contribute to the spread of misinformation, which is why it’s crucial that AI-generated content is created responsibly. 

Video quality

On a more technical level, AI-generated content can sometimes feel overly artificial, sometimes sparking an “uncanny valley” feeling in viewers. 

Fortunately, many AI video solutions offer realistic AI avatars with highly synchronized lip movements to mimic actual human speech. This helps the content feel more human-like and less robotic. 

The future of AI video generation

While we can’t predict the future of AI video generation, there’s no doubt that it will be bright. 

New capabilities – such as interactive features like branching – will soon allow viewers to interact with their AI media as they watch, and allow the content to adapt in real-time to better suit audience preferences. This “choose your own adventure” structure will make it easier for anyone to create realistic scenario-based videos that used to be limited to video games. 

Simply put, the possibilities are endless and the potential for innovation is enormous. AI video generation is changing the way millions of people around the world are creating content, while also opening up new forms of storytelling. 

Get started with an AI video generator using Colossyan

Now that you’ve read up on all that an AI video generator can do, the next step is trying one out for yourself. Fortunately, you can try Colossyan completely free. 

Colossyan is an AI video generator that utilizes AI avatars as narrators, allowing you to simply input your script and allow a digital human to do the talking. Plus, Colossyan allows you to automatically translate your videos into over 70 languages and accents for better content localization.  

Our tool was specifically designed with workplace learning in mind, making it an excellent fit for employee onboarding, training, sales enablement, or communications. With over 150 avatars of all different ages, ethnicities, and professions, Colossyan supports endless use cases. 

Don’t just take our word for it – give Colossyan a try today. Or, if you’re looking for more information, schedule a time with our team of experts to learn more.

So you’ve decided it’s time to spruce up your online learning material. You want to ramp up content production, but you might not have the internal tools or expertise to do so efficiently.

That’s where authoring tools come in. This specialized software helps those in charge of eLearning and corporate training produce high-quality training materials at scale.

There’s no shortage of great tools out there, though, which makes choosing the right solution a major task in its own right.

In this article, we’ll help you find the right tool for your needs. First, we’ll explore the different types of authoring tools, help you determine whether you need one in the first place, and guide you through the selection process. Then, we’ll look at the 10 best authoring tools for workplace eLearning content production.

What are eLearning authoring tools? 

eLearning authoring tools are a specialized type of software designed to help you produce digital educational content. This content can be an animated or AI video, long-form written material, interactive visual content, or simple image-based content like a PowerPoint presentation.

Authoring tools come equipped with features that support learning content creation, such as the ability to create interactive content, integrations with learning management systems (LMSs), responsive design elements, templates, and compliance with content standards like SCORM.

Authoring tools, LMSs, and eLearning software 

Many people confuse these three kinds of tools for one another. While they all support digital learning and, in many cases, work together seamlessly, they aren’t the same.

Here are the main differences:

• An authoring tool is a software solution for designing and developing learning content.
• eLearning software is where educators deliver learning content and learners access it.
• An LMS is like an eLearning platform but with more comprehensive features, such as engagement analytics, advanced course management, and compliance and certification support. 

However, there is some overlap between these categories. For example, some of the best LMS platforms also offer built-in content authoring functionality, which may remove the need for a separate authoring tool.

Do you need an authoring tool? 

Before you start looking at the various options available to you, it’s worth asking whether an authoring tool is actually right for your needs.

Here are a few signs that you might need to invest in content authoring software:

• You have an eLearning tool or LMS that doesn’t have authoring capabilities.
• You are struggling to deliver training content on time or keep training content up-to-date.
• You don’t have an in-house content developer or instructional designer (and either don’t have the budget for one or aren’t interested in hiring one).
• Your team is growing quickly, and you need to deliver more training quickly. 
• You’d like to create more interactive, complex training content.

Do some of those apply to you? If so, eLearning authoring software may be right for you. Let’s take a look at how you can benefit from investing in one of these tools.

Also read: What Is Structured Content Authoring? A Guide for Success

The benefits of an authoring tool 

The biggest benefit that an authoring tool provides is the ability to deliver high-quality online learning experiences quickly and at scale. With specialized tools to streamline the learning course creation process and custom templates to kickstart content development, you’ll be publishing more online courses than ever.

Authoring tools also make iterating and editing existing content easier – which means you don’t have to start from scratch when you have a small update to publish.

The best eLearning authoring tools integrate with the world’s most popular LMS platforms and adhere to SCORM and other technical standards, making it fast and easy to publish new learning content.

Types of authoring tools and their uses 

One of the tricky things about finding the right authoring tool for your needs is that no two software solutions are equal.

We can, however, break them up into a few different categories:

Cloud-based vs. on-site tools

Most of today’s solutions are cloud-based authoring tools, meaning you can access them from any web browser.

There are, however, a few offline solutions out there, which means you’d need to install them on your device and ensure compatibility with your operating system (such as Microsoft Windows or Mac OS).

Stand-alone vs. built-in authoring tools

Stand-alone authoring tools are software solutions that specifically help with eLearning course creation. They might integrate with other platforms, but they don’t offer other features like a learner-facing portal.

Built-in authoring tools are the opposite of stand-alone tools – they are authoring suites built into an existing software solution with a broader feature set. Typically, you’ll find these in LMSs, which are a natural fit for built-in content authoring tools.

HTML5 vs. Flash authoring tools 

HTML5 and Flash are two different “languages,” or technologies, for creating content.

Flash was common in the past, but HTML5 is more effective today. It’s easier to use, offers better support for multimedia formats, works better on mobile devices, and provides greater security and accessibility.

You shouldn’t need to know how to code in either of these languages because the best content authoring tools provide intuitive user interfaces and often use drag-and-drop elements to reduce the learning curve.

What you should do, though, is opt for an HTML5-enabled tool.

AI authoring tools

AI is steadily integrating into learning content authoring software. While some legacy tools are beginning to use AI to speed up workflows, others use AI as their foundation for content creation.

Colossyan, for instance, is an AI video generation platform specifically designed for workplace learning use cases, such as employee onboarding. Colossyan uses realistic AI avatars to generate interactive videos across many different workplace scenarios, which makes it an incredibly useful AI authoring tool. 

Interactive content authoring tools 

Interactive content authoring tools allow you to produce learning content that learners can engage with directly. Rather than passively consuming content, such as watching a video, interactive content users can complete quizzes, engage in simulations and assessments, or navigate branching scenarios (sort of like a “choose your own adventure” story).

Gamified content authoring tools 

Some content authoring tools offer gamification features to improve learner engagement, such as quizzes and challenges.

However, you’ll need to implement other gamification features – like points, scoring, and leaderboards – in your LMS to make this strategy effective.

How to choose the right authoring tool 

Ready to look for your first authoring tool? Start by following these six simple steps:

1. Determine your content creation needs

Your first step is to clarify what you’re looking for from an authoring tool. Do you need to create interactive videos, infographics, or gamified training? Does your content need to be SCORM compliant, and does it need to support mobile learning? Does the authoring tool need to integrate with any existing software tools?

Create a checklist of key requirements and features to reference as you consider your options.

2. Prioritize key features

Next, comb through your list and highlight any nonnegotiable features. You can cross off any authoring tools that fall short of offering these features. 

3. Consider compatibility and integrations

As you start shortening your list of potential solutions, look at their compatibility with other tools.

For example, do you need your authoring tool to integrate natively with your LMS? Or are you fine with exporting content from your authoring tool and manually importing it into your LMS? 

4. Look into collaboration features

You’ll next want to consider how each authoring tool supports collaboration, especially if multiple members of your team will need to create content within the tool. 

Take Colossyan, for example. Our AI video authoring tool provides a number of powerful collaboration features like custom shared workspaces, adjustable user permissions, and commenting capabilities. 

5. Assess pricing

Now, it’s time to start looking at pricing. Most authoring tools require a monthly subscription, but you should pay attention to content creation limitations and choose a plan that fits your needs.

Pricing for Colossyan, for instance, changes based on how many minutes of video you wish to generate each month.

6. Test and trial

At this point, you’ve probably either chosen an authoring tool or created a shortlist of two or three potential options.

Many software providers will offer a free trial (check out ours here). A trial is a great way to see what value the tool provides and make sure you’re happy with aspects like usability and user-friendliness.

Once you’ve finished your trial, all that’s left to do is sign up for a paid plan and set your training content production into full swing.

10 eLearning authoring tools to consider 

Now that we’ve covered what you need to consider when evaluating a new authoring tool, it’s time to better understand the options out there. 

Without further ado, here are the 10 best eLearning authoring tools you’ll want to consider. 

1. Colossyan

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Colossyan is our generative AI video authoring solution. It's the perfect tool for content creators looking to create learning materials with AI avatars.

With a user-friendly interface, dozens of premade templates, and over 100 different voices and accents for customized voiceovers, Colossyan can help you produce realistic video content at scale. 

This allows learning and development teams to not only create content quickly, but to create better content. Plus, using AI avatars means you won’t need to rerecord your videos when material changes. Instead, simply update your script and regenerate your video.

Here are just a few of the advanced features on offer for content authoring:

• Over 150 high-quality AI avatars, plus the ability to create your own custom avatar
• Hand gestures to add context to video tutorials
• A built-in screen recording tool
• Text-to-speech, text-to-video, and document-to-video workflows
• Automatic subtitles and captions
• Translation into 100+ languages and dialects 
• Interactive features like multiple choice quizzes
• Side-view avatars for more realistic conversational scenarios 
• A collaborative digital workspace for content production
• SCORM export 

All of this starts at just $19 per month.

2. Articulate Storyline 360

Storyline 360 is a simplified tool from Articulate, an eLearning and content creation platform. It's well-known for its ease of use, customizable templates, and interactive content elements like quizzes and clickable hotspots.

3. iSpring Suite 

iSpring Suite is an eLearning authoring tool with a Microsoft PowerPoint-inspired interface. If you’re accustomed to PowerPoint, you’ll be able to use iSpring Suite without issue since its layout is almost exactly the same.

An LMS called iSpring Learn is also available, so if you buy both, you can benefit from a single monthly bill and seamless integration between the two.

4. Vyond 

If you’re looking to use animations as your main learning content format, Vyond is the authoring tool for you. You don’t need to have any technical animation experience to use it since it’s specifically for non-designers. Vyond also offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, as well as a vast library of predesigned assets.

5. BranchTrack 

BranchTrack excels in its ability to create interactive learning content, especially for branching scenarios where the learner’s experience depends on how they interact with the content. This tool supports SCORM and xAPI standards and also integrates with a number of popular LMS tools, which makes content delivery easy.

6. Kotobee Author 

Kotobee Author is an authoring tool for creating interactive ebooks and EPUBs. You can import existing written content, such as a PDF or Word document, and start editing, formatting, and adding interactive elements such as questions, widgets, video and audio, and clickable images. 

7. Classcraft

Classcraft is an authoring tool for the educator that focuses specifically on classroom learning. It’s known for offering engaging gamification features and integrating with a wide variety of education-centric software tools. It also provides behavioral management functionality and support for parent engagement.

8. Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is a leader in virtual reality learning content. It allows you to create immersive, 360-degree content that adds a unique experience to your learning materials.

9. Chameleon Creator 

Chameleon Creator offers both content authoring and hosting on a single platform, which makes it a great all-in-one solution for ease of use. It’s also SCORM compliant and offers reporting functionality to help you understand how students are progressing and how you can deliver more engaging, effective learning content. 

10. CourseLab 

CourseLab is one of the few free authoring tools out there. Its functionality is a bit more limited than other options on this list, but its “what you see is what you get” editor makes authoring learning content fairly easy. It’s also compliant with both SCORM and Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee standards.

Colossyan: The video content authoring tool for all your needs

Authoring tools are critical to have in your learning management toolkit, whether you use them to produce animated videos, interactive infographics, or multimedia content.

If you’re planning on using video content, consider Colossyan for your needs. It’s one of the most accessible and affordable platforms around for creating realistic, interactive, and engaging AI-powered videos.

Don’t just take our word for it – check it out for yourself today.

Video is a fantastic medium for delivering employee training, whether it’s for onboarding or continuing development. 

However, creating training videos can be time-consuming, costly, and just plain difficult to manage in-house. For that reason, many businesses turn to dedicated training video production companies to plan, film, and edit workplace training materials.

But where should you turn? And if you don’t have the budget to employ a full scale training video production company, what are your options? 

In this article, we’ll help you answer both of those questions. We’ll discuss 10 of the best training video production companies around, dive into the common alternatives to a video production partner, and explore how AI video production can be a game-changer for creating employee training content.

The top 10 training video production companies 

Each of these 10 training video production companies offers a unique spin on the concept. Some produce animated videos, some focus on film production, and some can even support wider video marketing efforts like product demo video creation.

1. Colossyan 

Unlike the other training video production companies on this list, Colossyan utilizes generative AI to help corporate teams create top-notch training content using AI avatars and voiceovers. 

This makes Colossyan an extremely cost efficient option, as you won’t need to hire actors, editors, and directors to produce your video content. You can also say goodbye to long timelines typically associated with video production, as all you need to do is select a template, add your script, and you’ll have a professional-quality video generated in just a few minutes. 

The benefits of leveraging AI for your training videos doesn’t end there. Need to create video content in more than one language? With Colossyan, you can translate your videos to over 70 languages in just a click. 

Other key features include: 

• Document to video: Upload any training document to transform it into a visually engaging video. 
• Interactivity: Check that your trainings are effective by adding knowledge checks to your content.
• Conversation mode: Add multiple AI avatars to conversational scenes for realistic scenario-based training. 
• Avatar hand gestures: Highlight important parts of your training and increase engagement with gestures. 

Big-name brands like Novartis, Paramount, and Continental are already using Colossyan to create corporate video content. Interested in learning more? Schedule a demo today. 

2. Venture 

Venture offers training video production services specifically for SaaS companies and fintech companies.

Beyond professional training video production, the agency also creates animated explainer videos and videos for social media ads.

Venture’s client list includes international brands like Box, Eurostar, and Amazon. The company can support a wide range of tasks beyond shooting, including scripting and storyboarding.

3. OneDay

OneDay is a personalized video automation platform that helps businesses create videos for marketing, sales, customer support, and internal training.

The platform offers some helpful back-end analytics for understanding how employees are engaging with your training content, which opens up the opportunity to provide additional personalized training to those who might be struggling with the material.

OneDay also includes a number of thoughtful features that aid video creation, such as:

• A live teleprompter
• A script generator 
• Customizable themes and music tracks 

4. NextThought 

NextThought is a corporate training video production company that can assist with video content production across various use cases, such as safety training, new employee onboarding, and corporate communications.

What makes NextThought a unique option for creating effective corporate training videos is that it provides access to subject matter experts in various industries who can star in your videos and lend a trusted face and voice to your workplace learning content.

NextThought primarily serves customers in the following industries:

• Healthcare
• Logistics and trucking
• Non-profit
• Telecommunications
• Consumer goods and retail
• Manufacturing and construction 

5. Demo Duck

Demo Duck is a corporate video production company with a diverse range of services. 

Demo Duck specializes in training videos, assisting with both corporate learning content – such as retail training videos – and e-learning platform content. Demo Duck also offers both live-action and animated videos, as well as a unique twist that blends the two formats into one.

For example, Demo Duck helped Newsela, an e-learning content and assessment platform, create a hybrid animated live-action video:

6. Vidico

Vidico is a popular video production company that has helped enterprise companies like Square, Spotify, and Airtable create training videos, crowdfunding videos, social media content, product walkthrough videos, and more.

What makes Vidico a unique option is its breadth of available video types. Yes, Vidico can serve your immediate need to create employee training videos, but it can also be a suitable option for other content types, such as customer case studies or testimonial videos, down the line.

One interesting service that Vidico offers is a free video marketing plan. After you provide a few pieces of information, you can take a simple quiz to help you determine what video marketing tactics would work best for you.

7. Inrehearsal

Inrehearsal takes a very different approach to video content. Rather than solely providing video production services, the platform instead helps companies manage workplace learning. Think of it as a Masterclass or Netflix for crowdsourced internal training videos.

Inrehearsal itself also heavily invests in content development, from video training to podcasts to curated events, and partners with industry experts and thought leaders to do so.

8. Blue Carrot 

Blue Carrot is a media production agency that creates marketing and ad videos, animated explainer videos, and e-learning and training videos. The company’s offering appears to focus more on animation, though it also offers live-action video filming and editing.

This agency uses a waterfall project management methodology that supports you in early-stage activities, such as instructional design and storyboarding, and owns video production and voice recording.

To run this process, Blue Carrot provides all its clients with a team of experts, including a creative producer, a sound designer, and a storyboard artist.

9. Archipelago Productions 

Archipelago Productions is a Canadian video production studio with a wide variety of specialties, including:

• E-learning video production
• Case studies
• Product ads
• Social media campaigns 
• Corporate communications 

A major e-learning campaign that Archipelago Productions has supported is the Shopify Plus Academy. The studio designed this video series to help Shopify Plus merchants expand their knowledge of ecommerce and online sales.

Beyond video production, Archipelago Productions can also support pre-production tasks like concept development and wardrobe design, as well as post-production activities like sound design and color grading.

10. Yum Yum Videos

Yum Yum Videos is an animated explainer video production agency. One of the benefits of working with animated video is that it's easy to edit and update as internal policies or processes change.

While its main focus is on creating customer-facing explainer videos that help potential buyers get a feel for how your product or service works, the agency can also support internal training videos.

Yum Yum Videos has over 12 years of experience in the video production game and a solid international portfolio of enterprise-grade companies, including American Express, Google, and RedBull.

Alternatives to a training video production company 

Not convinced that outsourcing to a training video production company is the right move for you? Here are four alternative options that many organizations find success with:

1. Build an in-house team 

Putting together an in-house video production team will give you much more control over the video creation process.

At high production volumes, creating videos in-house can be more cost-effective than outsourcing to an agency, especially if you rent equipment. However, most organizations don’t produce training videos often enough to justify the time and financial investment required to set up a team with sufficient expertise and experience.

It’s a double-edged sword. Assembling an in-house team requires a large investment in terms of both equipment and employee development. The upside, though, is that you end up with better-equipped staff, which leads to a more engaged and capable workforce.

2. Work with freelancers and contractors 

If you’re confident in planning and orchestrating the video production process, then you might be able to create effective, high-quality videos using contract workers and freelancers.

These contractors are likely to be highly specialized in a given role, such as manning the camera or editing your footage into a final clip. As such, you’ll need to manage several heads and be confident in overseeing the process from ideation to final approval.

3. Try your hand with students 

Film students present a more affordable option that can produce decent results – depending, of course, on your goals and the students’ experience level. Plus, you can help film students gain valuable hands-on experience in the process. 

Again, you’ll need to be confident in managing the whole process and will likely need to bring some of your own video production experience to the table since film students are still learning.

However, this can be a great option if your budget is limited or if you’re looking to create some demo videos to use as inspiration for a more professional production down the line.

4. Leverage AI video production tools 

Perhaps the best alternative to working with a training video production company is to leverage modern AI video generation tools. 

For instance, with Colossyan, our AI video creator for workplace training, you can:

• Generate a full video from only a few prompts
• Choose from over 150 diverse avatars to align with your audience demographics
• Use an AI assistant to create or edit a video script
• Record your screen to demonstrate how to use workplace software
• Produce compelling voice-overs for your training videos in a range of accents and languages
• Increase interactivity by implementing regular knowledge checks

AI video is a solid alternative to traditional training video films, and a much more affordable and time efficient option that can be used by your internal team. In fact, many AI video generators have an easy-to-use interface that even allows those with no video editing experience to create professional-quality videos. 

Let’s explore when and where generative AI tools can be useful during the training video production process. 

Does AI video make sense for your training? 

Many companies create employee training videos using the traditional video production process. You create a storyboard, film each shot, edit the shots together, and add voice-overs, soundtracks, and maybe even effects in post-production.

The problem with this standard approach is that it’s costly and can be far too slow to be effective. Often, by the time the video is ready to roll out, the information within it is already out-of-date.

That’s where AI video generation wins.

To understand whether AI video is the right choice for you, ask yourself these questions:

• Are we spending more than we would like on training video production?
• Is the training video production process long and cumbersome?
• Are some of our training videos already outdated?
• Would we create more training videos to better support our team if video production were faster and more cost-effective?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then AI video generation is likely a good option for you and may be an effective alternative to hiring a video production agency.

Colossyan: Your solution for efficient training video production

Partnering with a training video production company is a great way to produce professional-quality training content without investing in video equipment or hiring employees with the right expertise and experience. It can, however, be a costly and time-consuming exercise, and it often means you end up with training content that’s out-of-date and too expensive to update each time a process or role changes.

AI video generation platforms like Colossyan present a more affordable, agile, and realistic alternative for today’s fast-paced brands. With Colossyan, you can quickly start with our pre-built templates, add and enforce internal brand guidelines, and even deliver training content in several languages and accents at once. Plus, Colossyan allows you to create scenario-based training videos in minutes – allowing you to boost learning outcomes in the process.

Discover how Colossyan can help you deliver better training videos in hours, not weeks.

Interested in learning how to create engaging videos with the help of artificial intelligence? You’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how you can leverage AI avatars to generate high-quality text to speech videos at scale. 

What is text to speech?

Text to speech (TTS) is a technology that transforms written words into spoken language. But that’s just the high-level overview. AI text to speech technology also enables users to audibly present text-based material that caters to those who struggle with reading or simply prefer listening to information. 

Text to speech has a variety of other uses, too, including generating voiceovers for videos, providing audio output for those who are blind, and improving the accessibility of digital content.

How does text to speech work?

Converting written text into natural-sounding speech requires sophisticated computer algorithms and synthetic AI voices working together in tandem. This is what the TTS process looks like from start to finish: 

Upon receiving written input from the user in the form of documents, web pages, or other text-based content, the TTS system first analyzes the text on multiple levels. Then, it examines the synthesis of the audio for factors such as sentence structure, punctuation, and formatting to determine the appropriate pronunciation and intonation for each word and phrase. 

Finally, once you wrap up the text analysis, a TTS system can narrate the text using pre-recorded or computer-generated human voices based on your preferred language and voice characteristics.

The benefits and applications of text to speech

Text to speech has proven invaluable across multiple domains due to its diverse benefits and use cases. Here’s a closer look at two key advantages: 

Improves content accessibility 

A primary advantage is its ability to promote accessibility by allowing those with visual impairments or reading difficulties equal access to written information through synthesized audio. 

It can also serve as an assistive technology by aiding those with learning disabilities, dyslexia, or cognitive impairments through enhanced reading comprehension, proofreading support, and overall literacy development. 

Improves content scalability with digital avatars

While you can use text to speech technology to create voice overs for your video content, you can also create realistic video content at scale by pairing a text-to-speech voiceover with a digital avatar, which can be used to replace human actors in your video content. 

The advantage of text to speech avatars is you can update their script in seconds, without needing them to memorize a new script or manually refilm video footage. 

How to easily make text to speech avatar videos

Using a talking avatar today is much easier than it was just a few years ago. And, as a result, the global text to speech market is growing at a rapid pace; in 2021, the industry was valued at $2.8 billion and is projected to reach $12.5 billion by 2031.

You don’t need to craft the perfect text prompt or write code to create an AI presenter. Instead, with a dedicated AI avatar tool like Colossyan, all you have to worry about is the creative process – such as whether you want to use custom avatars or prebuilt avatars. 

Colossyan allows you to choose from a diverse library of premade AI avatars that match your target audience, or you can create your own custom avatar from scratch. 

From there, you’ll add your script to Colossyan’s text to speech generator, which will instantly produce high-quality audio of the avatar “reading” the words aloud with the avatar lip-syncing with the audio in real time, making your videos more visually realistic. 

Now that we’ve walked through this process at a high level, let’s take a closer look at how you can use one of Colossyan’s text to speech avatars to create your own videos in just a few minutes:

Step 1: Decide how your AI avatar should look

There are many different use cases for text to speech avatars, so you may want to start by considering how you want your AI avatar to look. Based on your message, you’ll want to evaluate your options for the avatar’s general age, gender, and visual style (casual, corporate, or sporty).

Fortunately, Colossyan offers an array of stock AI avatars, or if you’re looking for a text to speech avatar of yourself, you can create your own custom avatar in under a minute using the tool’s instant avatar feature. 

Alternatively, you can select a video template that matches your use case and start creating your text to speech video from there using the talking avatar the AI video generator selects for you.  

Step 2: Consider your target audience

While Colossyan supports a diverse number of use cases, determining the precise type, purpose, and content topic for your video is key. Consider the core knowledge area, like marketing, software, or health, as well as the audience’s demographics, interests, and learning styles. 

You should also take additional factors into account like calls to action; objectives like generating leads; and the delivery style, such as explainer, persuasive, or conversational. This might determine whether you include interactive quizzes or conversations between avatars within your videos. 

Finally, it’s always helpful to consider the culture of your organization: Are you a startup or enterprise? Do you have a laid-back culture or a more traditional corporate environment? Keeping this in mind will help you achieve the right tone and realize the full benefits of video content.

Step 3: Add your text 

The most important part of creating a high-quality text-to-speech video is having a good script, as this will dictate what your AI avatars say. 

Colossyan offers two features to help get your video scripts off the ground – prompt to video and document to video. 

With prompt to video, simply input what you want your video to be about, specify video details, your audience, and desired tone, and allow Colossyan to do the rest. 

But for those who already have a document with information they’re hoping to transform into a visual piece of video content, Colossyan’s document-to-video feature is worth checking out. 

Once you upload your document as a PDF, PPTX, TXT, or DOCX, Colossyan will create a video draft of your material, complete with an AI avatar, voiceover, and images – all in less than 60 seconds. 

Here’s how it works: 

But regardless of the feature you use – or even if you decide to hand write your script from text – it’s important that you input well edited copy into your AI video generator in order to receive the best possible output. 

Step 4: Select a voice for your text to speech avatar

Colossyan Creator offers robust language and accent choices so you can get uber-specific about what your AI avatar should sound like. In fact, you can even clone your voice, if you’d like your custom avatar to sound like you. 

Within Colossyan, you can experiment with accents in your selected language and choose the best cultural fit. Then, you can adjust the pitch, cadence, pronunciation, and emphasis on certain words or parts of a sentence. Once you’ve selected all of the options, you can go back and tweak them as needed until you’re satisfied with the result.

Step 5: Choose your language

Once you’ve explored the options for designing your avatar, the next important step is selecting your AI character's language. If you’re using Colossyan Creator, you’ll have the option to choose from an extensive list of over 100 supported global languages. 

Even better, there's no need to re-record your audio in a different language, as Colossyan automatically handles the translation for you. This kind of functionality is especially helpful for fast-growing companies that need to adapt to a globalized audience.

Step 6: Review your final video product

To achieve the highest quality results from your text to speech video, you’ll want to carefully review your video draft before generating it. 

This means playing through the audio while following the video script and analyzing how accurately the synthesized narration conveys its intended message, tone, and brand voice. 

During the video editing process, you’ll also want to check for clear pronunciation of key industry terms, names, and places and evaluate the AI avatar’s delivery for its overall clarity, flow, and emotion.

Once you’ve checked all those boxes, you can turn your attention to added elements like background music, subtitles, or any fun visual elements you want to include. After that, you’re all done!

Step 7: Export and use your text to speech avatar 

Once you’re satisfied with the result, export the video or audio file featuring your text to speech avatar. You can export these speech avatar videos as a standard MP4, or you can export them as a SCORM file and upload them to your learning management system. 

Once you’ve successfully exported your video, you can start using them for all kinds of use cases, including video presentations, marketing materials, or educational content for customers and employees.

How quickly can you generate a text to speech video with an AI avatar?

The speed at which you can create a text to speech video really depends on the tool you’re using and the length of the video you’re creating. But with Colossyan, creating high-quality text to speech videos is significantly faster than producing videos the traditional way. 

Whereas creating a traditional video might take weeks of scripting, filming, and post-production editing, this same process takes a matter of minutes using Colossyan. And once you’ve finished editing your video, you’ll typically have your final generated video in just a few minutes. 

What can a text to speech avatar do?

Text to speech AI avatars can serve all kinds of use cases. Here are some tasks that a text to speech avatar can perform, depending on your needs:

1. Educational material: By incorporating talking avatars into your eLearning platforms, tutorials, and training materials, your video content can provide more ways for learners to engage with a subject than by just reading the text alone.
2. Voice acting and narration: A talking text to speech avatar can create top-notch voiceovers and narrations for different media assets like videos, presentations, and audio content. Narration can make a big difference for the accessibility of your visual materials.
3. Digital marketing and social media: These realistic avatars can also be utilized for marketing campaigns and social media promotions. Or, you can include them in animated videos that feature unique facial expressions and natural-sounding voices.
4. Explainer videos: Text to speech avatars also serve as helpful tools for producing explainers and how-to videos like product demos or SOPs.

Create custom AI avatar text to speech videos with Colossyan

You don’t need to sit through hours-long recording sessions, transcribe your audio files, and try to use multiple programs to generate your text to speech videos. With Colossyan, you can manage your entire video creation workflow in one place and use the platform’s best AI presenters to act as your on-camera talent.

Want to start creating text to speech videos for your organization? Try it for free or book a demo with the Colossyan team to learn more.