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🤖 Build your character

You can create your own speaking character using either a photo or video. If starting with a photo, you'll need to transform it into a speaking avatar video with mouth movements using platforms like Heygen or Vidnoz. If you already have a speaking avatar video, you can skip directly to using a video

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1. Using a Photo​

  • Log in to Heygen/Vidnoz after creating an account. If you don’t have a character photo, no worries—both platforms offer ready-made avatar videos you can use, just ensure they align with the platforms’ commercial use policies.

  • Once your image is ready, convert it into a speaking avatar video:

    • Navigate to Avatars > Video Avatars > Create Avatar and upload your image.
    • Important: Always check the personal and commercial use rights to ensure compliance with your app.

Note: Make sure your photo features a clear character—otherwise, the conversion process will fail.

Once you've created your MP4 avatar (with mouth and face movements), the next step is to remove the background.

Several tools can help with background removal:

We recommend BackgroundRemoverAI as it’s free, accurate, and open-source, so you can run it locally or on hosted environments like Google Colab.

After uploading your MP4 to BackgroundRemoverAI plateform, you'll receive a transparent GIF file (since MP4 doesn't support transparent backgrounds).

3. Optimize Your GIF File​

To convert the GIF into a Lottie file, ensure it’s under 10 MB. If it’s too large, use the following tools to optimize it:

In EZGif, you can crop and resize the GIF to reduce file size without losing too much quality.

Important Optimization Tools:

  • 1.Crop Tool: Remove unnecessary empty spaces around the character.

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  • 2.Resize Tool: Reduce the width of the GIF to fit your use case (e.g., 600-720px for mobile or 720-900px for web). This will reduce the file size.

  • 3.Optimize Tool: This tool compresses the GIF using the Gifsicle and Lossy GIF encoder. You can adjust the compression level (0-200) to reduce the file size by 30-50%.

    gif_crop

    Convert MP4 to PNG Sequence (Optional)

    If you prefer, you can convert your MP4 video into a sequence of PNGs and perform operations on them in bulk, such as removing backgrounds or vectorizing the images. Afterward, you can convert the results(frames) back into a GIF or APNG.

    While this method gives you more control, it requires more tools and time. For simplicity, we recommend converting your video directly into a GIF.

4. Convert to a Lottie File​

After optimizing the GIF, head to the official LottieFiles platform to convert it to a Lottie file.

  • Upload the GIF to LottieFiles.

  • Follow the steps shown in the images below to get your Lottie CDN link.

    upload_gif upload_gif cdn_link

Congratulations!🎊 You've created a Lottie talking avatar. You can now use it as a CDN link, assets, or in any format required for your app.