Human Avatar — Alibaba Cloud AI Video & Speech

Capabilities overview

Quick selection guide

Talking head (have audio/video already)     → LivePortrait
Talking head (no audio; synthesize first)   → Qwen TTS → LivePortrait
Full-body dance / motion                    → AA (AnimateAnyone)
Text → image                                → T2I (text_to_image)
Image → video                               → I2V (image_to_video)
Text → video end-to-end                     → T2I → I2V (image_to_video --t2i-prompt)
Enterprise digital human / template news    → LingMou (avatar_video)

Environment setup

pip install requests==2.33.1 dashscope==1.25.15 oss2==2.19.1 numpy==1.26.4
# LingMou additionally:
pip install alibabacloud-lingmou20250527==1.7.0 alibabacloud-tea-openapi==0.4.4

export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=sk-xxxx               # Beijing-region API key
export ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_ID=xxx         # OSS upload
export ALIBABA_CLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET=xxx
export OSS_BUCKET=your-bucket
export OSS_ENDPOINT=oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com

⚠️ API keys for cn-beijing and Singapore are not interchangeable; use the key for the correct region.
OSS_ENDPOINT may include or omit the https:// prefix; scripts normalize it.

1. LivePortrait — talking-head video

When to use: You have a portrait photo + speech and want a talking-head video quickly.

Flow:

Step 1: liveportrait-detect (sync)  → pass=true
  ↓
Step 2: liveportrait        (async)  → video_url

Image: Single person, front-facing portrait, clear face, no occlusion
Audio: wav/mp3, \x3C 15MB, 1s–3min
Video input: Audio extracted automatically (ffmpeg)

# Image + audio file
python scripts/live_portrait.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --audio ./speech.mp3 \
  --template normal --download

# Image + video (extract audio)
python scripts/live_portrait.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --video ./speech_video.mp4 \
  --template active --download

# Public URLs
python scripts/live_portrait.py \
  --image-url "https://..." \
  --audio-url "https://..." \
  --mouth-strength 1.2 --download

Motion templates:

• normal (default, moderate motion)
• calm (calm; news / storytelling)
• active (lively; singing / hosting)

2. Qwen TTS — text to speech

When to use: Generate speech files from text (for LivePortrait, EMO, etc.).

Default model: qwen3-tts-vd-realtime-2026-01-15

Auto model selection by scene

Available voices

# Default (qwen3-tts-vd-realtime + Cherry)
python scripts/qwen_tts.py --text "Hello, welcome to Qwen TTS." --download

# Match by scene
python scripts/qwen_tts.py --text "Today's market..." --scene news --download
python scripts/qwen_tts.py --text "Once upon a time..." --scene audiobook --download

# Style via instructions
python scripts/qwen_tts.py \
  --text "Dear students..." \
  --model qwen3-tts-instruct-flash-realtime \
  --instructions "Warm tone, steady pace, suitable for teaching" \
  --download

# List options
python scripts/qwen_tts.py --list-voices
python scripts/qwen_tts.py --list-models

3. T2I — Wan 2.x text-to-image

When to use: Generate images from text (optionally feed into I2V).

# Default model (wan2.2-t2i-flash, fast)
python scripts/text_to_image.py \
  --prompt "A woman in Hanfu in a peach blossom forest, cinematic, 4K, soft light" \
  --size 960*1696 --download

# Higher quality
python scripts/text_to_image.py \
  --prompt "..." --model wan2.2-t2i-plus --size 1280*1280 --download

# Latest (Wan 2.6)
python scripts/text_to_image.py \
  --prompt "..." --model wan2.6-t2i --size 1280*1280 --n 1 --download

Models:

• wan2.2-t2i-flash (default, fast, good for tests)
• wan2.2-t2i-plus (higher quality)
• wan2.6-t2i (latest; more aspect ratios; sync call)

Common sizes: 1280*1280 (1:1) / 960*1696 (9:16) / 1696*960 (16:9)

4. I2V — Wan 2.x image-to-video

When to use: Turn an image into motion video; supports text-to-video via T2I first.

# Local image → video
python scripts/image_to_video.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --prompt "She turns slowly and smiles; dress and petals drift gently" \
  --model wan2.7-i2v \
  --resolution 720P --duration 5 --download

# Pipeline: text → image → video
python scripts/image_to_video.py \
  --t2i-prompt "A woman in Hanfu in a peach blossom forest" \
  --prompt "She turns slowly; petals fall; poetic mood" \
  --download --output result.mp4

# With background music
python scripts/image_to_video.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --audio-url "https://..." \
  --prompt "..." --download

Models:

• wan2.7-i2v (default; includes sound; 5s/10s)
• wan2.5-i2v-preview (high-quality preview)
• wan2.2-i2v-plus (no built-in audio; faster)

5. AA AnimateAnyone — full-body animation

When to use: Full-body photo + reference motion video → dance / motion video.

Requirements:

• Image: Single person, full body front, head to toe, aspect ratio 0.5–2.0
• Video: Full body in frame from first frame; mp4/avi/mov; fps ≥ 24; 2–60s

Three steps:

Step 1: animate-anyone-detect-gen2   (sync)  → check_pass=true
  ↓
Step 2: animate-anyone-template-gen2 (async)  → template_id (~3–5 min)
  ↓
Step 3: animate-anyone-gen2          (async)  → video_url (~3–5 min)

# Local files (auto convert + OSS upload)
python scripts/animate_anyone.py \
  --image ./portrait_fullbody.jpg \
  --video ./dance.mp4 \
  --download --output result.mp4

# Use image as background
python scripts/animate_anyone.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg --video ./dance.mp4 \
  --use-ref-img-bg --video-ratio 9:16 --download

# Skip Step 2 (existing template_id)
python scripts/animate_anyone.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --template-id "AACT.xxx.xxx" --download

Auto conversion: video webm/mkv/flv → mp4; image webp/heic → jpg; if fps is under 24, normalize to 24 fps

6. EMO — talking head (legacy)

Note: Prefer LivePortrait; EMO suits cases that need stricter lip-sync.

python scripts/portrait_animate.py \
  --image ./portrait.jpg \
  --audio ./speech.mp3 \
  --download

7. LingMou — enterprise template video

When to use: Corporate digital-human news, template-based broadcasts, scripted reads with optional character images.

New workflow (prefer no template_id)

• If the user provides template_id: use that template to generate.
• If no template_id:
  1. List existing broadcast templates for the account.
  2. If any exist, pick one at random for creation.
  3. If none, fetch public templates and copy up to 3 into the account.
  4. Pick one at random from the copy results and continue.
• Caveat: After a public template is copied, the copy may not yet be a fully “ready-to-render” template; some copies are still drafts and may lack clips, assets, or variable bindings—complete them in LingMou.
• If the user only gives an image and “make a talking video” without a script: confirm the spoken copy before generating.

What scripts/avatar_video.py supports

• --list-templates: list account templates
• --list-public-templates: list public templates (SDK 1.7.0+)
• --copy-public-templates: copy up to 3 public templates (SDK 1.7.0+)
• Omit --template-id: random existing template
• When local templates are empty: auto try public-template copy as fallback
• --show-template-detail: template detail and replaceable variables
• Fills input text into template text variables (prefers text_content / test_text)
• If generation fails right after copying a public template, surfaces a clear error that the template may still need completion (no silent failure)

# List templates
python scripts/avatar_video.py --list-templates

# Public templates (SDK 1.7.0+)
python scripts/avatar_video.py --list-public-templates

# Copy up to 3 public templates (SDK 1.7.0+)
python scripts/avatar_video.py --copy-public-templates

# No template_id — random existing template
python scripts/avatar_video.py \
  --text "Hello, welcome to today's tech news." \
  --download

# Specific template_id
python scripts/avatar_video.py \
  --template-id "BS1b2WNnRMu4ouRzT4clY9Jhg" \
  --text "Hello, welcome to today's tech news." \
  --download

# Detail for randomly chosen template
python scripts/avatar_video.py \
  --show-template-detail \
  --text "This is a test script for broadcast."

Conversational usage

When the user says things like:

• “Make a talking video from this image”
• “Digital-human broadcast for me”
• “Upload image and make a news read”

Do this:

1. Check whether they already gave copy/script ready to read.
2. If not, ask: “What is the exact script to read? You can give bullet points and I can turn them into broadcast-ready copy.”
3. With script in hand, run LingMou: prefer random existing template; if none locally, try public copy.
4. If they uploaded a portrait but the template API does not use it, explain: this path is template-driven; for image-driven talking head, use LivePortrait or EMO.

API reference links

• LivePortrait: https://help.aliyun.com/zh/model-studio/liveportrait-api
• EMO (emo-detect + emo-v1): references/emo-api.md
• AA (Animate Anyone): references/aa-api.md
• T2I (text-to-image v2): https://help.aliyun.com/zh/model-studio/text-to-image-v2-api-reference
• I2V (image-to-video): https://help.aliyun.com/zh/model-studio/image-to-video-api-reference/
• Qwen TTS: https://help.aliyun.com/zh/model-studio/qwen-tts-realtime
• LingMou: references/lingmou-api.md
• OSS upload: references/oss-upload.md