1. Getting Started: Adding an Avatar
To add an avatar to your project, look for the Avatars tab in the left-hand sidebar of the Pictory storyboard editor.
Select an Avatar: Browse through the available stock avatars. Pictory launches with over 20 unique avatars, some with multiple "looks" or outfits to choose from.
2. Customizing Your Avatar's Appearance
Once you've selected an avatar, you reach the Looks and Voice tab. Here you can customize how the avatar appears in each scene or across your entire project (note, not all avatars support multiple looks). Simply click on a look to apply it to your video. Once applied, you can click on the avatar thumbnail in the viewport to reopen these settings.
Project-Level Settings
These settings apply to the avatar throughout the entire video:
Change Looks: Swap between different outfits or styles for the same avatar. Avatars which support multiple looks will show you those looks here; otherwise, you will just see the default look
Audio: Here you can see the default voice associated with the avatar As soon as you apply an avatar, its default voice is automatically applied as well. If your project already has a different voiceover, that will show up here as Applied voice. You can press reset to reapply the avatar default.
Delete avatar from all scenes: This allows you to completely remove the avatar from the project
Scene-Level Settings
You can fine-tune the avatar's placement on a scene-by-scene basis:
Size: Choose between Small, Medium, or Large. By default, avatars are added at a "small" size.
Position: Move the avatar to different corners of the screen (default is the bottom right).
Masking (Shape): Switch between a Circle (default) or Normal frame.
Borders: Customize the border color and thickness to match your brand.
Apply to All: If you find an avatar setting you love, use the "Apply to All" button to instantly update every scene in your project.
3. Giving Your Avatar a Voice
Every avatar needs a voice to bring it to life. You have several options for audio:
Default Recommended Voices: Each avatar is mapped to a recommended voice based on its gender and ethnicity.
AI Voices: Choose from our extensive library of premium ElevenLabs voices. You may speed up or slow down the voiceover. In the final download the avatar will lip-sync to your audio
Bring Your Own Voice: Upload your own pre-recorded voiceover file to have the avatar lip-sync to your specific recording.
Multilingual Support: Avatars are available for all languages supported by Pictory.
4. Previewing Your Avatar
Because generating full AI video is resource-intensive, Pictory uses a Partial Preview system during the editing phase:
What you see: A video of the avatar with the mouth hidden. This indicates the avatar's position and presence without requiring a full render.
What you hear: You can still preview the audio (AI voiceover or uploaded file) to ensure the timing is perfect.
Final Result: The full talking-head animation with realistic lip-syncing is generated only when you click Download to produce the final video.
5. Credits and Generation
Adding an avatar to your video requires AI Credits.
Cost: You will be charged a set number of credits per minute of total video duration (currently 30 credits per minute). You will be charged this amount irrespective of how many scenes have hidden or unhidden avatars
Billing Logic: Credits are billed in 30-second increments, rounded up. For example, a video that is 2 minutes and 10 seconds long will be billed for 2.5 minutes.
Estimation: Before you download, Pictory will show you a popup explaining the total credits required for the generation and estimated waiting time
FAQs & Troubleshooting
Can I have multiple avatars in one project? No, only one avatar look can be active per project at a time. Replacing an avatar will prompt a confirmation to replace it across all scenes.
What happens if I delete my voiceover? Since avatars require audio to function, removing the voiceover will also remove the avatar from your project. You will see a warning popup before this happens.
Where does the avatar sit in the layers? The avatar is placed at the bottom of the "frozen layers," meaning it will appear behind your story text and logo but above the background media.
Does the avatar appear on every scene? Avatars are automatically added to all scenes. You can further manually hide/unhide avatars from a specific scene.