Talking Head Production

Create talking head videos with AI avatars and lipsync via inference.sh CLI.

Quick Start

curl -fsSL https://cli.inference.sh | sh && infsh login

# Generate dialogue audio
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{
  "prompt": "[S1] Welcome to our product tour. Today I will show you three features that will save you hours every week."
}'

# Create talking head video with OmniHuman
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{
  "image": "path/to/portrait.png",
  "audio": "path/to/dialogue.mp3"
}'

Portrait Requirements

The source portrait image is critical. Poor portraits = poor video output.

Must Have

Requirement	Why	Spec
Center-framed	Avatar needs face in predictable position	Face centered in frame
Head and shoulders	Body visible for natural gestures	Crop below chest
Eyes to camera	Creates connection with viewer	Direct frontal gaze
Neutral expression	Starting point for animation	Slight smile OK, not laughing/frowning
Clear face	Model needs to detect features	No sunglasses, heavy shadows, or obstructions
High resolution	Detail preservation	Min 512x512 face region, ideally 1024x1024+

Background

Type	When to Use
Solid color	Professional, clean, easy to composite
Soft bokeh	Natural, lifestyle feel
Office/studio	Business context
Transparent (via bg removal)	Compositing into other scenes

# Generate a professional portrait background
infsh app run falai/flux-dev-lora --input '{
  "prompt": "professional headshot photograph of a friendly business person, soft studio lighting, clean grey background, head and shoulders, direct eye contact, neutral pleasant expression, high quality portrait photography"
}'

# Or remove background from existing portrait
infsh app run <bg-removal-app> --input '{
  "image": "path/to/portrait-with-background.png"
}'

Audio Quality

Audio quality directly impacts lipsync accuracy. Clean audio = accurate lip movement.

Requirements

Parameter	Target	Why
Background noise	None/minimal	Noise confuses lipsync timing
Volume	Consistent throughout	Prevents sync drift
Sample rate	44.1kHz or 48kHz	Standard quality
Format	MP3 128kbps+ or WAV	Compatible with all tools

Generating Audio

# Simple narration
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{
  "prompt": "[S1] Hi there! I am excited to share something with you today. We have been working on a feature that our users have been requesting for months... and it is finally here."
}'

# With emotion and pacing
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{
  "prompt": "[S1] You know what is frustrating? Spending hours on tasks that should take minutes. (sighs) We have all been there. But what if I told you... there is a better way?"
}'

Model Selection

Model	App ID	Best For	Max Duration
OmniHuman 1.5	bytedance/omnihuman-1-5	Multi-character, gestures, high quality	~30s per clip
OmniHuman 1.0	bytedance/omnihuman-1-0	Single character, simpler	~30s per clip
PixVerse Lipsync	falai/pixverse-lipsync	Quick lipsync on existing video	Short clips
Fabric	falai/fabric-1-0	Cloth/fabric animation on portraits	Short clips

Production Workflows

Basic: Portrait + Audio -> Video

# 1. Generate or prepare audio
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{
  "prompt": "[S1] Your narration script here."
}'

# 2. Generate talking head
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{
  "image": "portrait.png",
  "audio": "narration.mp3"
}'

With Captions

# 1-2. Same as above

# 3. Add captions to the talking head video
infsh app run infsh/caption-videos --input '{
  "video": "talking-head.mp4",
  "caption_file": "captions.srt"
}'

Long-Form (Stitched Clips)

For content longer than 30 seconds, split into segments:

# Generate audio segments
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{"prompt": "[S1] Segment one script."}' --no-wait
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{"prompt": "[S1] Segment two script."}' --no-wait
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{"prompt": "[S1] Segment three script."}' --no-wait

# Generate talking head for each segment (same portrait for consistency)
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{"image": "portrait.png", "audio": "segment1.mp3"}' --no-wait
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{"image": "portrait.png", "audio": "segment2.mp3"}' --no-wait
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{"image": "portrait.png", "audio": "segment3.mp3"}' --no-wait

# Merge all segments
infsh app run infsh/media-merger --input '{
  "media": ["segment1.mp4", "segment2.mp4", "segment3.mp4"]
}'

Multi-Character Conversation

OmniHuman 1.5 supports up to 2 characters:

# 1. Generate dialogue with two speakers
infsh app run falai/dia-tts --input '{
  "prompt": "[S1] So tell me about the new feature. [S2] Sure! We built a dashboard that shows real-time analytics. [S1] That sounds great. How long did it take? [S2] About two weeks from concept to launch."
}'

# 2. Create video with two characters
infsh app run bytedance/omnihuman-1-5 --input '{
  "image": "two-person-portrait.png",
  "audio": "dialogue.mp3"
}'

Framing Guidelines

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│          Headroom (minimal)     │
│  ┌───────────────────────────┐  │
│  │                           │  │
│  │     ● ─ ─ Eyes at 1/3 ─ ─│─ │ ← Eyes at top 1/3 line
│  │    /|\                    │  │
│  │     |   Head & shoulders  │  │
│  │    / \  visible           │  │
│  │                           │  │
│  └───────────────────────────┘  │
│       Crop below chest          │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Problem	Fix
Low-res portrait	Blurry face, poor lipsync	Use 1024x1024+ face region
Profile/side angle	Lipsync can't track mouth well	Use frontal or near-frontal
Noisy audio	Lipsync drifts, looks unnatural	Record clean or use TTS
Too-long clips	Quality degrades after 30s	Split into segments, stitch
Sunglasses/obstruction	Face features hidden	Clear face required
Inconsistent lighting	Uncanny when animated	Even, soft lighting
No captions	Loses silent/mobile viewers	Always add captions

Related Skills

npx skills add inferencesh/skills@ai-avatar-video
npx skills add inferencesh/skills@ai-video-generation
npx skills add inferencesh/skills@text-to-speech

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