Introducing Character AI Ovi Image-to-Video on WaveSpeedAI

The world of AI video generation has entered a new era. We’re thrilled to announce the availability of Character AI Ovi Image-to-Video on WaveSpeedAI—a groundbreaking model that transforms static images into dynamic, audiovisual experiences with synchronized video and audio in a single generation step.

Ovi represents a significant leap forward in AI-powered content creation. Unlike traditional video generation models that produce silent clips requiring separate audio work, Ovi generates both video and audio simultaneously, creating immersive content that rivals professional production quality.

What is Ovi?

Ovi is a Veo-3-like image-to-audio-video (I2AV) generation model developed by Character AI. Built on the research paper “Ovi: Twin Backbone Cross-Modal Fusion for Audio-Video Generation”, this 11-billion parameter model (5B visual + 5B audio + 1B fusion) uses a revolutionary twin-backbone architecture that couples two matched latent diffusion transformers for seamless audiovisual synthesis.

The model draws inspiration from Wan 2.2 for its video backbone and MMAudio for audio encoding and decoding, creating a unified system that eliminates the awkward workflow of generating silent video first and adding sound later. Whether you need dialogue, sound effects, ambient audio, or music, Ovi handles it all in one pass.

What sets Ovi apart is its approach to synchronization. The model learns lip-sync purely from data rather than requiring explicit face bounding boxes, achieving natural mouth movements and enabling realistic multi-person conversations without complex post-processing.

Key Features

Simultaneous Video + Audio Generation: Create synchronized audiovisual content in a single generation step—no separate audio pipelines required
Image-to-Video Transformation: Bring any static image to life with cinematic motion, dialogue, and contextual sound
Natural Speech Synthesis: Generate emotionally rich dialogue with precise lip synchronization and authentic speaker identity
Flexible Audio Control: Use special tags to specify speech (<S>...<E>) and ambient sounds (<AUDCAP>...<ENDAUDCAP>) directly in your prompts
5-Second High-Quality Clips: Output at 24 FPS with support for multiple aspect ratios (9:16, 16:9, 1:1)
Multi-Speaker Support: Handle multiple voices and multi-turn conversations naturally
100% Open Source: Apache-licensed for freedom to explore, modify, and integrate

In benchmark evaluations, Ovi demonstrated clear preference over competing models across audio quality, video quality, and audio-video synchronization metrics, bringing open-source capabilities significantly closer to frontier models like Veo 3.

Real-World Use Cases

Short-Form Content Creation Transform product photos, character illustrations, or scene concepts into engaging video clips for social media. Ovi’s ability to add contextual sound—from rainfall to laughter—creates emotional depth perfect for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

Character Animation Breathe life into digital characters, avatars, and virtual personalities. The model excels at human-centric content with expressive performances, natural head movements, and authentic facial expressions.

Marketing and Advertising Create eye-catching promotional videos from static product images or concept art. Add voiceovers, sound effects, and ambient audio without separate production steps.

Storytelling and Narrative Bring storyboards and illustrations to life for film pre-visualization, comic adaptations, or indie creative projects. Each frame becomes a mini-scene complete with dialogue and atmosphere.

Educational Content Transform diagrams, illustrations, and static educational materials into dynamic explanatory videos with narration and supporting audio.

Game Development Generate cutscenes, trailers, and promotional content directly from concept art or in-game screenshots.

Getting Started on WaveSpeedAI

Using Ovi Image-to-Video on WaveSpeedAI is straightforward:

Upload Your Image: Provide a reference image that will serve as the base frame for your video
Craft Your Prompt: Describe the desired motion, style, and atmosphere. Include speech using <S>Your dialogue here<E> tags and sound effects using <AUDCAP>Description of sounds<ENDAUDCAP> tags
Set Your Seed: Use -1 for random generation or a fixed number for reproducible results
Generate: Click run to create your 5-second audiovisual clip

Here’s an example prompt:

A wide shot of a medieval knight standing in the rain, sword planted 
into the ground, glowing with mystical energy.  
<S>I will defend this land until my last breath.<E>  
<AUDCAP>Thunder rolls across the dark sky, distant war drums echo.<ENDAUDCAP>

At just $0.15 per 5-second video, Ovi offers exceptional value compared to alternatives like Veo 3’s $3.20 per 8-second clip.

Why Choose WaveSpeedAI?

Running Ovi on WaveSpeedAI gives you access to:

No Cold Starts: Your generations begin immediately without waiting for model loading
Optimized Inference: Our infrastructure ensures fast, reliable generation times
Simple REST API: Integrate Ovi into your applications with straightforward API calls
Affordable Pricing: Pay only for what you generate with transparent, predictable costs
Production Ready: Enterprise-grade reliability for both prototyping and production workloads

Conclusion

Character AI Ovi Image-to-Video represents a paradigm shift in AI video generation. By unifying video and audio synthesis into a single, coherent process, it eliminates the friction of traditional multi-stage workflows while delivering results that push the boundaries of what’s possible with open-source AI.

Whether you’re a content creator looking to enhance your social media presence, a marketer seeking dynamic promotional material, or a developer building the next generation of creative tools, Ovi provides the foundation for truly immersive audiovisual content.

Ready to bring your images to life? Try Character AI Ovi Image-to-Video on WaveSpeedAI today and experience the future of AI-powered video generation.