Text to video API and AI: Selecting the ideal solution
Selecting the optimal text to video API for your exact needs can be challenging, especially since it is difficult to find a single place with all the necessary information needed to make an informed decision. Searching online returns a plethora of product pages for various text to video API providers, but selecting the right one largely depends on what you need – so we have decided to make a concise but comprehensive guide on how to pick the right one for you.
Recently, there has been an explosion of progress in the world of AI, with some groundbreaking recent advancements being made in convert text to video AI. One of the most notable developments is OpenAI’s Sora, a pure text to video AI model capable of transforming textual descriptions into realistic videos, such as this short film. However, it is important to keep in mind that these pure text to video AI models are still in early development and that their use is mostly limited to experimentation and fun. We are likely still a year or two away from having a fully commercially applicable pure text to video AI.
In this article we will review some pure text to video AI solutions, as well as certain alternative solutions that can rely not only on text inputs to generate video, but also on other supplementary media such as images, graphics, animations, and audio.
Practical applications of text to video APIs
Due to the rising demand for video content, text to video APIs have become increasingly popular.
In this section, we will examine their practical uses and industry impact, and focus on how text to video APIs play an important role in developing digital content and communication.
- Social media content: the ability to quickly convert ideas or trending topics to engaging video content can be invaluable to content creators and resonate with their audience. A steady stream of fresh and visually appealing posts that can capture the audience’s attention is paramount for maintaining engagement, and text to video APIs can allow you to sustain a high level of video content output without having to spend hours (or sometimes days) in the editing process.
- News: for news organizations, speed is of the essence, and journalists and editors often deal with high volumes of news articles. With text to video APIs, they can automate the video creation process within their platforms to turn news articles into informative videos, facilitating a faster and more immersive storytelling experience for their readers.
- Advertising: the key to advertising is creativity, but the process of placing an ad includes many technical aspects too – often involving video production. Text to video APIs allow advertising agencies to produce good quality video ads that will captivate their audience from text-based scripts in an automated fashion, significantly reducing production time and costs, and enabling greater scalability.
- Educational: educational facilities and e-learning platforms can greatly benefit from using text to video API. It allows them to effortlessly transform educational materials into dynamic and interactive video lessons that enhance learning experience and efficacy, while making learning more accessible and enjoyable for learners of all ages.
- Product showcasing: Companies can easily incorporate engaging product demos by feeding textual descriptions of their products into a text to video tool, allowing them to effortlessly increase interest and engagement. Text to video APIs can allow them to automate these processes, streamlining content creation and enabling consistent, scalable marketing strategies.
Text to video APIs allow you to create video content even if you do not have access to video production. And even for users who have access to video production, these tools can be extremely helpful, especially for videos that need to be made in bulk or on a recurring basis. By using the automation features of these tools one can save time, thousands of hours, and money, allowing them to focus those valuable resources on other productive endeavors.
Exploring text to video APIs: Pros and cons for our top picks
In the rapidly developing field of text to video technology APIs, each available product offers unique advantages and caters to different applications, making a direct comparison challenging. In this part of the article, we will first examine pure text to video APIs, assessing their advantages and limitations. Then, we will explore some more market-ready options. Our aim is to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each product and offer an unbiased perspective of the current market situation, thereby empowering you to make a well-informed decision in unleashing your imagination.
Pure text to video APIs:
SoraAI - OpenAI
SoraAI is a powerful pure text to video AI, but at the time of this writing it does not have a publicly available API. While Sora is known for its realism, authenticity, and precision, the absence of an API functionality removes it from contention for anyone looking to integrate generative AI text to video automation in their next project.
Pros:
- Enables users without a technical background to convert plain text and ideas into engaging video content
- Under continuous evaluation by visual artists, designers, and filmmakers whose feedback helps refine its capabilities
Cons:
- Challenges in depicting complex physical scenarios accurately
- Occasional confusion between left and right directions
- Technical limitations due to its early development stage
- No API available yet
Predis.ai
Predis.ai is an AI-powered tool designed to help businesses with social media marketing. While it features a great text to video tool, it is mostly limited to social media formats, but it is a job it does well. With just a simple text prompt, it can generate the caption for your post, as well as the accompanying video. It also features an API allowing you to integrate it into your platform. However, for users looking for text to video applications predominantly outside of social media, some of the other solutions are likely to be a better fit.
Pros:
- Great at creating quality social media captions and content quickly
- Offers a free trial and tiered pricing
- Appreciated for time saving capabilities and ability to improve engagement on Instagram
- Ease of use
- Supports post scheduling
Cons:
- Some users have reported a lack of customer service
- User interface may be challenging for some to navigate
- Usefulness limited to social media content creation and management
Alternatives to pure AI text-to-video:
HeyGen AI Avatars
HeyGen AI is a platform for creating studio-quality videos with AI-generated avatars and voices. It allows users to choose from over a hundred available avatars and voices or to create their own. While it offers a maintained API making it a better choice than Synthesia.io for anyone looking to integrate text to video into their platforms, it similarly falls short when presented with non-avatar (or non-speaker) video creation requests.
Pros:
- Text reader mimics human like intonation and inflections
- User-friendly interface
- Does not require deep technical knowledge to use
- High quality avatars and voices
Cons:
- Pricing can add up with high volume usage
- Text to video AI limited to avatar and voice creation
- Reports of long waiting times for videos to be approved
- Reports of videos being rejected based on possible political statements
Creatomate
Creatomate is a media content creation platform boasting video creation services for both non-code users and developers. It allows users to create reusable templates for video production, and it offers automation that is suitable for a variety of purposes, including social media, e-commerce, advertising, and more. They provide two types of API interfaces: the REST API and the Direct API, the latter of which allows users to create short (under 100 seconds) videos using just the URL in their browsers.
Pros:
- A relatively easy to integrate API
- API integration supports Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, and C#
- Offers a native video editor
Cons:
- Limited template functionality, can create only simpler videos
- Each project has its own API key, which can make managing keys challenging for users working with multiple projects or clients
Synthesia.io
Synthesia is an AI-powered video creation platform that focuses on text to video creation for avatars and voiceovers in over 130 different languages. It is mostly designed to replace traditional PowerPoints and PDFs with more engaging videos. While it features a text to video API, it is currently not being improved and there is no support for it, rendering it unviable for anyone trying to integrate text to video tools into their platforms. While synthesia.io is a quality tool for generating avatars and voiceovers, it is incapable of other forms of text to video creation, making it a suboptimal tool for anyone other than people looking for its narrow set of features.
Pros:
- User friendly
- Technical skills not required
- Can provide a wide range of ethnically diverse avatars
Cons:
- At the time of writing API is in beta and not being actively improved and no support is available
- Limited customization options
- Applications limited to avatar and voiceover creation
Plainly Video Editing API
Plainly Video Editing API is a powerful tool that lets users automate video editing by creating templates in After Effects, allowing a high degree of customization. By connecting the templates to your data, it allows you to create thousands of videos in a matter of minutes. It offers a high degree of versatility and is currently the most commercially viable text to video API on the market. The flexibility of Plainly’s API makes it a great choice for a variety of industry applications, including real estate, social media, sports, advertising, news, education, AI spokesperson/avatar applications, creative, tech, and many others.
Pros:
- Easy to integrate API (also compatible with Zapier & Make)
- Supports template creation in After Effects
- Considered most cost-effective
- High degree of scalability
- Comprehensive API documentation available
Cons:
- Pricing geared towards B2B clients, so it might not be the best solution for personal use
- May be less relevant for those who do not need API functionality
Plainly also offers an AI-powered article-to-video option that allows you to quickly transform articles into engaging videos. You can select a template from Plainly’s library or create a custom one in After Effects, and then just paste your article into Plainly – it will automatically summarize your article, create bullet points for on-screen text, add a voiceover, select relevant imagery, and then combine it all into the final video. It is also available through Plainly’s API allowing you to automate video creation to a high degree and integrate it into your platform.
Pros:
- Seamlessly transform articles into quality videos
- With After Effects support, it allows you to customize your templates and videos to a high degree
- Can create videos in different languages
- Allows detailed video editing during the revision process
- Automatically creates videos when you publish new articles on your website
- Easy to download multiple videos to Dropbox, Slack, e-mail, Google Drive, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Cons:
- Video quality depends on article quality, so it might generate less effective videos for poorly written content
BannerBear
BannerBear offers an API that streamlines the creation of images and videos, aiming to enhance workflows and manage recurring marketing tasks. The API is recognized for its intuitive interface and quick processing, making it a go-to tool even for those without coding expertise. BannerBear’s image and video generation capabilities can be accessed via its REST API or through its official libraries in Ruby, Node.js, and PHP. While it is considered an efficient and economical solution, users should be aware of the learning curve associated with understanding and integrating the API. Also, since it does not support After Effects templates there are limits to the level of customization compared to other text to video APIs like Plainly.
Pros:
- Automated workflows
- Intuitive interface suitable for non-coders
- Image and video generation through its REST API
- Free trial with 30 API credits (no credit card required)
- Offers interactive demos and free tools that help users better understand products’ capabilities
Cons:
- Some learning may be required for API integration
- Customization and functionality may be limited compared to other APIs
Bottom line: which text to video API should you choose?
The evolution of text to video APIs has been a game-changer for content creation, offering a higher degree of efficiency and scalability than ever before. However, this progress comes with its own set of hurdles. Commonly criticized areas include editability and branding options, which can leave companies desiring more control over their final product. As we look to the future, the trend is clear: demand for more customizable and brand-centric solutions will continue to grow.
In this environment, Plainly emerges as a standout, offering a unique blend of After Effects integration and full editorial control that sets it apart from the competition. Its ability to offer massive rendering scale without sacrificing brand identity makes it an attractive option for those seeking a commercially viable text to video API.
For businesses looking to harness the power of text to video APIs while maintaining a strong brand presence, Plainly may just be the solution you have been searching for. To truly appreciate the capabilities of Plainly and how it can transform your content strategy, book a demo and see what sets it apart from the rest.
