How to create AI characters our ultimate guide

Advanced AI voice tools and image generators can enhance the creation of digital AI characters, bringing the online world to life.

This new technology can be creative and freeing, allowing you to experiment and generate incredible images, voices, and animation at the touch of a button. Ultimately, AI tools allow us to create something incredibly personal and unique: your very own AI-generated character.

The development of AI characters goes far beyond a game; every character is created specifically based on your very own prompts and can be used in a huge variety of ways, from creating a virtual friend to developing an AI presenter for your YouTube channel.

But how exactly can you create your very own AI characters? What tools do you need, and what exactly can you do with your character once you've developed it? In this ultimate guide, we'll delve into all this, giving you a step-by-step process to bring your characters to life. Let's jump in!

Welcome to the incredible world of digital AI characters

First of all, what is an AI character, and why are they suddenly so popular?
Over the last year, AI has exploded into the mainstream, creating huge new opportunities for humans to expand their creative process and make menial tasks online faster. There's an AI tool for everything - from taking notes in meetings to generating dubs of your favorite videos.

AI characters are created when users generate a unique character virtually, using a mixture of free online tools and AI software. They have a myriad of uses, from personal entertainment to corporate customer service. AI characters are the next step of human interaction with computer systems, bringing a name, face, voice, and even personality to a computer.

Create your Own AI characters

Now you're filled in on the background, it's time to get creative.

Follow the steps below or in the video to generate your very own AI character.

1. Create an image

The first thing you need to bring your AI characters to life? An image that truly replicates the character in your imagination. To create this, you need an AI image generator like Midjourney.

First, create a Discord account and log in. While Midjourney has a free account, it might not be working, so you might have to buy a paid subscription to get it set up.

Once you're in, though, start playing around with your prompts, and you can bring to life any mystical character.

Stuck for ideas?

The key to success when using AI generators is to have a specific, detailed prompt using language that the tool recognizes and can understand. If this is your first time using a tool like Midjourney, don't be afraid to experiment before you decide on your final image. It might take a moment to get your head around how the prompts work, so take your time.

With Midjourney, you can even experiment with backgrounds and situations, building out a story from the beginning. You can explore different color schemes and time periods or even play around creating characters inspired by your favorite books, games, and movies. It all comes down to the prompt that you input and the tweaks you make.

Once you're happy with your image, it's time to head over to the next step.

2. Write your dialogue

Now, let's build up a narrative around your character, complete with emotions, stories, and conversations.

To do this, we're heading over to ChatGPT - the world's most famous text generator. ChatGPT is a large language model that responds to the prompt, or input, that you feed it by generating unique text.

Let's start to add some background narrative to Freya, our newly-named Viking warrior princess we met over at Midjourney by asking ChatGPT to generate some dialogue.

At this moment, you'll notice that the prompt just asked for 100 words of text. It's best to start off with a small chunk of text and then make edits to the tone of voice and personality by adding to your prompt if you're not happy with what it first creates. Experiment with your prompt and ideas until you find the kind of dialogue you think suits your character.

Once you're happy with the outcome, you can use ChatGPT to generate dialogue that suits any situation. Whether you decide to create a YouTube script or simply tell a first-person narrative, ChatGPT can create whatever you have in mind.

Don't be afraid to let your creativity shine! Perhaps your character enjoys talking in rhyme or speaking in another language - it's all possible in the virtual world!

3. Generate a voice

Now, it's time to bring your character off the page. Creating an AI-generated voice is the difference between a flat image and a dynamic, breathing character that you can interact with and enjoy.

There's only one tool for the best AI character voices: ElevenLabs.

ElevenLabs is the number one voice generation and cloning tool on the internet. With sleek, easy-to-use software and incredibly realistic voices, ElevenLabs allows you to experiment and tweak a voice to be the perfect fit for your character. Simply copy and paste your dialogue to the ElevenLabs Speech Synthesis program. Then, experiment with the different voices on offer. Once you're happy with it, you can download your audio as an MP3 file for use in the final step.

You can either generate a voice entirely from scratch, choose one of ElevenLabs pre-configurated voices, or even clone your own to bring your character to life. Plus, ElevenLabs is completely free to join and create, and paid plans start from just $5/month, making it one of the most affordable platforms available.

Take a listen now to the incredible output we generated for Freya:

4. Animate your image

Finally, let's animate your image, turning that static Midjourney creation into a fully animated video. To do this, we're using D-ID Studio, but you can also choose from one of the myriad of tools that are available, including Deepbrain or Vyond.

With a great animation tool, you can play around with lighting, music, video length, and scenes. You can tweak your animation to create a narrative or deliver a great presentation, bringing a new dimension to your AI character and adding the final touch to your final video.

You may also want to experiment with background removal, especially if your video takes place over multiple scenes. To do this, you can use a video editor, such as CapCut, or an image editor, like Canva. Some creators experiment with different backgrounds depending on how their characters 'feel' at any moment or where they're presenting from. Whatever it is, you can play with different locations, backgrounds, and moods with just one click.

The best software to make AI characters

Ultimately, there's a gold rush happening with AI, and individuals and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon, experimenting with this new technology.

However, not all AI tools and software are created equal. If you're playing around with an AI character for fun, then you can experiment with different types of software to get the result you want. If you're looking for a professional character - perhaps for a unique customer service chat assistant or for a professional YouTube channel - then you'll want the best of the best.

The key to success is not hiding the fact that you're using AI but embracing it. Delve into the magic of this groundbreaking technology with fantasy and playing with futuristic features, and you'll find an audience as hooked on AI as you are.

To do this? Our recommendation is to choose your tools wisely - there's nothing more likely to break the AI spell than a robotic voice, weird dialogue, or strange animation. That's why we've recommended Midjourney, ChatGPT, and D-ID Studio for outstanding imagery, text, and animation. Then, when it comes to voice generation, ElevenLabs is always the best choice.

Whether you're looking to create a professional chatbot for next-level customer service, outstanding YouTube videos that build an audience, or a hyper-realistic AI version of your favorite game character, ElevenLabs is the voice-building tool that your project needs.

And even better? It's completely free to try out with paid plans starting from as little as $1/month for personal use. ElevenLabs is a fantastic tool that makes creating incredibly human-like voices easy and at an exceptionally affordable price-tag, too. Start experimenting with voice cloning, generation, and dubbing today, and sign in to create your free account with ElevenLabs now.