‘Tokkingheads’ Lets You Animate Portraits Using Artificial Intelligence

Rosebud.Ai, a company that wants to “disrupt media creation,” has created a service called TokkingHeads that will take any still image and turn it into a moving, talking avatar using artificial intelligence.

Tokkingheads advertises its service as being able to instantly animate a portrait photo with text, speech, or existing puppet animation from its library. The results are mixed, with some that could pass as close to the genuine article while others struggle with head shape and proportion.

The service isn’t limited to photos of actual people and can animate still images of drawings or renders.

The service is free, but a subscription account allows you to generate high-resolution videos (which can also be accessed for free they are watermarked).

Tokkingheads, and Rosebud.AI, may appear to be less sophisticated than other AI-generated people such as Hour One, but it is also starting with a lot less when it comes to input data. Hour One is able to make its AI talking heads a lot more realistic both in how they look and how they talk because it uses a nearly full-scan of a subject’s head as well as a set of words spoken by a person in order to generate a realistic-sounding voice. Rosebud.AI only has a still image and has to generate motion and sound from scratch or port in existing audio from an unrelated source.

The result can give a significant “uncanny valley” effect, but when it is considered how little the company has to start with, is still impressive. The idea of “Deep Nostalgia,” which brings to life old photos, is also possible and Tokkingheads can be used to create similar results.

Tokkingheads is just one iteration of what Rosebud.AI has created. Its other technology that it calls Generative Photos can instantly change the face structure, hair color, age, facial expression, and more using AI. The company positions this technology as a way to adapt any photo to work perfectly with a brand or e-commerce store and adjust stock photos to better differentiate from competitors.

While many can still spot fakes — even in the very good examples of AI face manipulation — artificial intelligence is getting extremely advanced and heavily commoditized. One thing is for sure: it’s only going to get better and easier to use going forward.

You can see more of the Rosebud.AI Tokkingheads artificial people on the Generative.Photos Instagram that’s run by the company.

(via Laughing Squid)

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