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Connecting HeyGen

Connect your own HeyGen account so your Digital Twin presents every video.

ReeltyGenie uses your HeyGen Digital Twin, an avatar of you, to present your videos. You keep your own HeyGen account. Your API key lets ReeltyGenie make videos with your avatar; it does not give ReeltyGenie your HeyGen password.

What you need​

  • A paid HeyGen plan. The free plan can't be used for this workflow.
  • A personal Digital Twin in HeyGen. If you don't have one yet, the guided setup below walks you through making it.
  • About 10 minutes, plus HeyGen's own processing time for a new Digital Twin.

Use the guided setup​

The first time you sign in, ReeltyGenie opens Set up your HeyGen Digital Twin. It asks two questions and sends you to the right place:

  1. Do you already have a HeyGen account? If not, choose Open HeyGen account setup, create the account, then come back and choose I created my HeyGen account.
  2. Do you already have a personal Digital Twin?
    • Choose Yes, my Digital Twin is ready to go straight to connecting your API key.
    • Choose No, help me create my Digital Twin for step-by-step help inside HeyGen: open Avatars, choose New Avatar, then Clone a Real Person and upload your footage. Use portrait framing. HeyGen will also ask you to record a short consent video.

Connect your API key​

  1. In ReeltyGenie, open Settings, then API Keys. Find HeyGen under Voice & Avatar.
  2. Choose Open HeyGen Developers and copy your API key from HeyGen.
  3. Paste it into API Key and choose Save Key. ReeltyGenie checks the key with HeyGen before saving it.

When it works, you'll see API key saved and verified, with the number of avatar groups HeyGen found.

Choose your Digital Twin and looks​

  1. In HeyGen, open Avatars and find your Digital Twin. Open the three-dot menu next to its name and choose Copy Avatar Identity ID.
  2. Back in ReeltyGenie, paste it into Digital Twin — Avatar Identity ID.
  3. Choose Fetch Avatar Looks.
  4. Under Avatar Looks · Rotation, click each look you want to use. Pick at least one portrait look; extra looks add variety.
  5. Choose Save Digital Twin selection.
Copy the identity ID, not a look ID

A Digital Twin can have many looks, and each look has its own ID. ReeltyGenie needs the identity ID so it can fetch all of your looks at once.

Your videos now rotate through the looks you picked, a different one each time. Avatar looks & rotation explains how to change that.

If something goes wrong​

What you seeWhat to do
Invalid API key or no access. Check that you copied the full key from HeyGen.Copy the key again from HeyGen Developers. Make sure nothing is missing from the start or end.
Could not reach HeyGen. Check your network and try again.Check your connection and try again in a minute.
Save your HeyGen API key first.Save and verify the API key before fetching looks.
Could not fetch looks for this identity.Check that you pasted the Avatar Identity ID, not a single look's ID.
No usable looks in this identity.Finish creating your Digital Twin in HeyGen, or add a portrait look to it.
Avatar videos need your HeyGen account and your HeyGen voice.You'll see this when creating a video before HeyGen is connected. Choose Connect in Settings and follow this guide.

Still stuck? Contact the ReeltyGenie team.

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