Hedra AI

Hedra AI makes talking characters. You give it a still image and an audio track, and it returns a video of that face speaking the audio, with the lips, head, and expression moving in time. The image can be a photo, an illustration, a mascot, or a product with a face drawn on it. The audio can be a recording or a voice generated from a script. For a marketing team, that means a presenter, a character, or a talking brand mascot without a camera, a set, or an actor on the day.

That is a narrower job than a full video generator, and it is worth keeping it narrow in your head. Hedra is at its best when one character talks to the camera. It is not the tool for a busy product scene with five moving parts. Teams that use it for what it is good at get usable clips in minutes. Teams that expect a commercial from one prompt get a talking head and a disappointment.

This post covers what Hedra AI does, where it fits in a marketing workflow, how a typical clip gets made, how the credit pricing works, the rights and likeness questions to answer before you publish, and the checks that catch the usual problems.

What Hedra AI does

The core of the product is Hedra's own character model, called Character-3. Hedra describes it as a model that reads the image, the audio, and a text prompt together, instead of animating a face first and fitting the mouth afterwards. In practice that shows up as lip sync that follows the words closely and expressions that react to the tone of the audio, not only to its volume.

• Image to talking video. Upload a portrait or a character, add audio, and the face speaks. This is the main use and the reason most people sign up.
• Script to voice to video. If you have no recording, you can type a script and pick a generated voice, then animate the character with it.
• Prompted style and motion. A text prompt shapes the delivery, such as calm, excited, or whispering, and how much the head and body move.
• Other models in the same studio. Hedra's studio has grown beyond its own model and also offers third-party image and video models, so some teams use it as a general creative workspace. What is available changes often, so check the model list in your account.

The length of a clip is set by the audio. A twenty second voice track gives you a twenty second video. Hedra's documentation lists a maximum duration per generation of several minutes for Character-3, but limits have changed more than once and third-party reviews quote different numbers. If you plan a long explainer, test the real limit on your plan before you build a script around it.

Where Hedra AI helps a marketing team

The strongest use cases share one trait: a single face talking directly to the viewer, where the message matters more than the scene behind it.

• Mascots and brand characters. An illustrated character that can finally speak, in every campaign, without an animation studio.
• Short explainers. A presenter who walks through one feature in thirty seconds for a landing page or a help article.
• Social hooks. A talking character in the first three seconds of a Reel or a TikTok, to stop the scroll before the product shot.
• Localised versions. The same character speaking German, French, or Polish audio, so one visual identity runs across markets.
• Internal and sales content. Onboarding clips, product updates, and personalised intros where a camera shoot would never be approved.

It also works as a fast test bench. Before you pay an illustrator to finish a mascot, you can animate a rough version and see whether the character holds attention when it talks. That is cheap research, and it is often the most valuable thing a team gets out of the first month.

How to make a clip with Hedra AI

A typical project runs in a few steps. The order matters more than the settings, because most bad clips come from a weak input, not from the model.

1. Lock the script first. Write the line, read it out loud, and get it approved before any generation. Every change later costs credits.
2. Prepare the audio. Record it cleanly or generate it from the script. Remove music and room noise. The model animates what it hears, including a cough.
3. Choose the image. Use a clear, front-facing face with even light and the mouth visible. Illustrated characters work best when the mouth area is simple and clean.
4. Write a short prompt. Describe the delivery and the framing in one or two sentences, for example calm, friendly, slight head movement, shoulders in frame.
5. Generate a short test. Run five to ten seconds first. Check lip sync, eyes, and teeth before you spend credits on the full length.
6. Generate the full clip and review it on a phone. Watch it at the size people will see it, with and without sound.
7. Finish in an editor. Add captions, the logo, and the end frame in your editor of choice. Hedra makes the performance. It does not cut the ad.

Voice is half the result. A flat synthetic voice makes even a perfect face look cheap. If you generate voices, pick and approve one voice per character and keep it, the same way you would keep a voice actor. We covered the voice side in more detail in ElevenLabs.

Hedra AI pricing

Hedra uses credits. Each generation costs credits based on the length of the video, so you pay by the second. Hedra's documentation puts Character-3 at roughly three to six credits per second, depending on the resolution you pick. That makes the maths easy: a thirty second clip at the higher setting costs about one hundred and eighty credits, before any retries.

There is a free tier with a small monthly allowance. At the time of writing, free outputs carry a Hedra watermark and are not licensed for commercial use. The paid tiers add more credits, faster generation, watermark-free exports, and commercial use. Reviews quote different prices and credit amounts for each tier, and Hedra has repackaged its plans during 2026, so we are not printing numbers here. Check the plans page on hedra.com for the current offer.

• Budget for retries. A finished thirty second clip often takes two or three generations.
• Check whether unused credits roll over on your plan. Several reviews report that they do not on the entry tier.
• Use the lower resolution for tests and the higher one only for the final take.
• Anything that will run as an ad or on a client channel needs a paid plan with commercial use.

Rights, likeness, and consent

This is the section to read twice. A tool that makes any face speak any words is also a tool that can put words in a real person's mouth. Hedra's terms require users to follow its acceptable use policy, and most markets now have rules on deepfakes and synthetic media. Treat every face and every voice as something you need permission for.

• Real people need written consent. That includes employees, founders, and influencers. The consent should name the use: which channels, which markets, and for how long.
• Voices need consent too. Cloning a voice is a separate permission from using a face. Get both in writing.
• No public figures without a contract. A celebrity who appears to endorse your product is a legal problem, not a creative idea.
• Label realistic synthetic people. Platforms such as Meta, TikTok, and YouTube ask for a label on realistic AI-generated content, and the EU AI Act adds transparency duties for deepfakes.
• Own the image you animate. A stock photo licensed for a website banner is not automatically licensed to become a talking spokesperson.

Illustrated mascots and fictional characters you own are the easiest route. There is no likeness to clear, and the character can be used in every market. For the wider checklist, see AI compliance.

Limits of Hedra AI and what to check

Hedra is good at one thing, and the limits sit just outside it.

• It starts from a still image. Hedra animates a picture. It is not the tool to redub existing footage of a real person speaking. For that job, a localisation tool such as Rask AI is the better fit.
• Hands and complex motion. The face is strong. Hands, big body movement, and objects in the character's hands are where artefacts appear.
• Teeth and eyes. Watch for teeth that change shape and eyes that drift on long clips.
• Brand names and numbers. If the voice is generated, it may mispronounce your product name or a price. Listen to every line.
• Consistency across clips. The same image can look slightly different from one generation to the next. Keep your source image and prompt saved so a series stays consistent.

Before anything goes live, run the same short review every time: lips match the words, names and numbers are right, nothing in the frame looks wrong when paused, the label is there if the person looks real, and the export is from a plan that allows commercial use.

Hedra AI compared to other avatar tools

Avatar tools fall into two groups. One group gives you a library of stock presenters and a timeline built for training and explainer videos, such as Vidnoz AI or the tools in our HeyGen alternative and Synthesia alternative guides. The other group animates your own image with more expression and less structure. Hedra sits in the second group.

That makes Hedra the stronger choice for characters, mascots, and short creative hooks, and the weaker one for a ten minute training course with slides. Many teams end up with one of each, or with a workspace that holds the brief, the voice, and the visuals in one place.

Where Hedra AI fits in a week of work

Use Hedra in the middle of the process, not at the start. The idea, the script, and the character design come first. Hedra turns an approved line and an approved face into a performance. The editor adds captions and the end frame. Then the clip goes to review like any other asset.

What Hedra will not hold for you is the context: which claims you may make, which character is approved for which market, and which version ran last week. If those live in five personal accounts, every new clip starts from scratch. In Content24, AI Avatar and AI Video sit next to the script and the Brand Kit, so the character, the voice, and the rules travel together.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hedra AI free?

There is a free tier with a small monthly credit allowance. Free outputs are watermarked and, at the time of writing, not licensed for commercial use. For ads and client work you need a paid plan.

Can I use Hedra AI videos in ads?

On a paid plan that includes commercial use, yes, as long as you also have the rights to the image and the voice. The plan covers Hedra's side. Consent from the person in the picture is your side.

Does Hedra AI work in German and other languages?

The lip sync follows the audio you provide, so it works with recorded speech in other languages. If you generate the voice inside Hedra, test the language and accent before you commit, and have a native speaker listen to the result.

How long can a Hedra AI video be?

The audio sets the length. Hedra's documentation lists several minutes per generation for Character-3, but limits vary by plan and have changed over time. For most marketing uses, shorter clips of fifteen to sixty seconds give the best results anyway.

Conclusion

Hedra AI is one of the quickest ways to give a face a voice. It is strong for mascots, presenters, and short hooks, and it is cheap to test. Lock the script before you generate, get consent for every real face and voice, label what looks real, and keep the character and the rules in one place so the tenth clip matches the first. Get Started with Content24, or read best AI video generator for marketing for the wider picture.