OmniHuman-1 creates full-body AI avatars from a single image

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has recently launched OmniHuman-1, a sophisticated AI video generation framework that can create high-quality videos from a single image coupled with an audio clip. This model combines video, audio, and near-perfect lip-syncing capabilities.

ByteDance launches OmniHuman-1: A new AI video generation model

OmniHuman-1 is notable for producing not only photorealistic videos but also anthropomorphic cartoons, animated objects, and complex poses. Alongside this, ByteDance introduced another AI model called Goku, which achieves similar text-to-video quality with a compact architecture of 8 billion parameters, specifically targeting the advertising market.

These developments position ByteDance among the top players in the AI field alongside Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent. Its advances significantly disrupt the landscape for AI-generated content compared to other companies such as Kling AI, given ByteDance’s extensive video media library, which is potentially the largest after Facebook.

The demo videos for OmniHuman-1 showcase impressive results from various input types, with a high level of detail and minimal glitches. Unlike traditional deepfake technologies that often focus solely on facial animations, OmniHuman-1 encompasses full-body animations, accurately mimicking gestures and expressions. Furthermore, the AI model adapts well to different image qualities, creating smooth motion regardless of the original input.

Technical specifications of OmniHuman-1

OmniHuman-1 leverages a diffusion-transformer model to generate motion by predicting movement patterns frame-by-frame, resulting in realistic transitions and body dynamics. Trained on an extensive dataset of 18,700 hours of human video footage, the model understands a wide array of motions and expressions. Notably, its “omni-conditions” training strategy, which integrates multiple input signals such as audio, text, and pose references, enhances the accuracy of movement predictions.

Tried out CogVideoX, another open-source text-to-video AI

Despite the promising advances in AI video generation, the ethical implications are significant. The technology introduces risks such as the potential for deepfake misuse in generating misleading media, identity theft, and other malicious applications. Consequently, ByteDance has not yet released OmniHuman-1 for public use, likely due to these concerns. If it becomes publicly available, strong safeguards including digital watermarking and content authenticity tracking will likely be necessary to mitigate potential abuses.

Featured image credit: Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash