Generating a lip sync video is really simple in Hedra. It needs some audio and a still image. Whether you provide your own voice clip or generate one with Hedra’s built-in text-to-speech, the tool animates the character in your image with realistic mouth, face, and upper-body motion.
Unlike many lip sync tools that only move the mouth (often stiffly), Hedra animates subtle head tilts, eye movement, and facial expressions. The result feels alive. According to the company, its motion is adapted to both the context of the audio and the visual traits of the character. In my experience, that claim holds up.
How To Create a Lip Sync Video Clip with Hedra
You can start with either your own audio file (speech, narration, or a song) or type/paste text for Hedra to convert to speech using one of their AI voices. If you import your own audio, note that free accounts may be limited in duration—up to 30 or 60 seconds depending on usage and credits.
To create your speaking character, you can upload a still image or generate one directly in Hedra by describing the person you want to see. This can be a realistic human, a stylized cartoon, or anything in between. With newer Character-2 and Character-3 models, Hedra now supports images showing more than just front-facing heads—profile views and even full upper-body framing can be animated.
Once your image and audio are ready, you’ll choose your video’s aspect ratio (square, vertical, or widescreen), select a resolution, and hit generate. In about a minute, you’ll have a fully animated talking-head clip.
In my testing, I created multiple lip sync videos using a variety of inputs (imported audio, AI-generated voices, custom and AI-generated images), and all of them worked well—no frustrating retries or tedious tweaking required.
Limitations with Hedra Lip Sync
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Watermarking: Free accounts include a small Hedra watermark on output videos. Paid plans remove it.
Aspect Ratio Support: Formerly limited to 1:1 square, you can now create videos in 16:9 (widescreen), 9:16 (vertical), or 1:1.
Credit-Based Usage: Hedra now operates on a credit system. Free accounts get limited credits each month; paid plans (starting at $8/month) offer more credits, HD output, commercial use rights, and access to premium features like voice cloning.
Geographic Restrictions: Users in Illinois, Texas, and Washington are not allowed to use Hedra due to legal considerations. Additionally, you must be 18 or older to use the platform.
Image Upload Policy: You may be asked to confirm that uploaded images are of yourself, likely due to concerns over deepfakes. However, if you generate the image inside Hedra, this restriction does not apply. It’s unclear how strict or enforceable this policy is, but the intent seems to be preventing misuse of real identities.
What Else Can Hedra Do?
Hedra describes itself as a “creation lab building foundation models into products that power the next generation of human storytelling.” That suggests there’s more on the way. For now, the lip sync tool (with models like Character-2 and Character-3) is its most fully developed feature.
These newer models allow more expressive animation, including profile-view characters, body gestures, and better visual consistency. The generated motion feels more naturally synced to the audio—not just in the mouth, but in posture, eye movement, and overall presence.
I Made Abe Lincoln Sing the Blues!
One of the lip sync creations I made with Hedra was a 30 second clip of Abe Lincoln singing part of a blues song about attending a bad play. It’s toward the end of the video below, where I walk through how to create a lip sync video in Hedra and make several of them using audio and video generated in Hedra and audio and video imported from other sources.
Hedra Compared to Other Lip Sync Tools
I recently compared Hedra with a handful of other lip sync tools, using the same starting images and audio. See how Hedra (and the other lip sync tools) performed in this video:
