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How I Created AI Videos Rivaling VEO-3 on My Own Computer, Without Spending a Dime

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Free, open-source, and the videos are so realistic they’ll make you question reality.
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Google’s VEO-3 recently made waves by generating videos from a simple text prompt. But I’m about to drop an even more explosive piece of news:

A free alternative has just emerged, and it might even be more powerful than VEO-3.

It’s called “Hunyuan Video Avatar,” and unlike VEO-3, it gives you complete control: You upload an image, then an audio file, and boom – it generates incredibly realistic videos that will make your jaw drop. The lip-sync is perfect, full-body movements are present, and it even captures emotions.

It’s entirely offline, unlimited, and watermark-free.

Why This Is a Game-Changer for Creators
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Most AI video tools on the market are either paid or limited to “talking head” avatars.

But Hunyuan goes far beyond just moving lips. It enables full-body motion, supports various styles (anime, Pixar, realistic), and can even perfectly capture emotions and expressions like anger, laughter, sadness, and even singing.

Stronger Than VEO-3? The Data Speaks for Itself
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With VEO-3, you can’t even upload your own voice. But with Hunyuan, you can generate voices using tools like:

  • RVC (Retrieval-based Voice Conversion)

  • Fakeyou, Tortoise, ElevenLabs (combined with TTS or voice cloning)

This means you have complete creative control over the character’s identity, voice, emotions, and performance across multiple videos.

Yes, You Can Run It at Home, Even With Low VRAM
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Initially, this tool had steep GPU requirements, needing a “monster” 96GB VRAM. But with recent updates, it now runs on just 10GB of VRAM.

What’s even better? It even has a specific installation option for the “GPU Poor” – I kid you not, it’s called Wan2GP. This version comes with various optimizations, parameter adjustments, and performance enhancements, such as:

  • Tiled VAE support

  • TC caching, providing a 2.5x speed boost

  • Sage Attention, accelerating rendering by 40%

Want to Try It Instantly, Without Installing?
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You can directly try their free online platform (using Chrome browser with auto-translate works best, as the interface is in Chinese).

Tencent Hunyuan

However, the online version has a watermark and doesn’t support custom prompts. But if you want to get a feel for it before installing locally, it’s a great way to start.

How to Install Hunyuan Video Avatar (Wan2GP) Locally
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This guide will walk you step-by-step through installing and running HunyuanVideo-Avatar, a powerful open-source AI tool. It can generate hyper-realistic, lip-synced videos from an image and an audio file, with no watermarks, completely offline, and unlimited.

System Requirements
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Step-by-Step Installation Guide
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1. Install Git
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Git is required to clone the repository.

  • Visit: https://git-scm.com/downloads/win

  • Download the version corresponding to your operating system.

  • Run the installer, and simply click “Next” throughout, keeping the default settings.

  • Complete the installation.

To test: Open Command Prompt and type:

git --version

You should see something like: git version 2.45.0.windows.1

2. Install Miniconda (Lightweight Python Manager)
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To test: Reopen Command Prompt and type:

conda --version

You should see: conda 24.5.0

3. Clone the Wan2GP Repository
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This repository contains the Hunyuan Video Avatar tool and its user interface.

git clone https://github.com/deepbeepmeep/Wan2GP.git
cd Wan2GP

4. Create a Python Virtual Environment
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conda create -n wan2gp python=3.10.9
conda activate wan2gp

At this point, you should see (Wan2GP) at the beginning of your command line prompt.

5. Install PyTorch (CUDA 12.4+ Required)
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First, check your CUDA version:

nvcc --version

If your CUDA version is 12.4 or newer:

# Install PyTorch 2.6.0 with CUDA 12.4 support
pip install torch==2.6.0 torchvision torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/test/cu124

If you have a different CUDA version, you can find the corresponding installation command here:

Get Started

6. Install Required Python Packages
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pip install -r requirements.txt

This step will install all necessary libraries, such as gradio, transformers, opencv, etc.

This may take several minutes, as it will install over 1GB of packages.

7. Optional: Improve Performance (Highly Recommended) #

a. Install Triton for faster attention mechanisms

# Windows only: Install Triton
pip install triton-windows 

# For both Windows and Linux
pip install sageattention==1.0.6

b. Install SAGE Attention (40% faster rendering)

# Windows
pip install triton-windows 
pip install https://github.com/woct0rdho/SageAttention/releases/download/v2.1.1-windows/sageattention-2.1.1+cu126torch2.6.0-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl

# Linux (requires manual compilation)
git clone https://github.com/thu-ml/SageAttention
cd SageAttention 
pip install -e .

8. Launch the Application
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Inside the Wan2GP folder:

python wgp.py  # Text to video (default)
python wgp.py --i2v  # Image to video

Once the server finishes initializing, you’ll see a link similar to this:

Running on local URL: http://127.0.0.1:7860

Click this link or copy it into your browser. This is the local Gradio interface for Hunyuan Video Avatar.

Generate Your First Video
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  1. Upload a reference image.

  2. Upload your audio clip (WAV/MP3 format).

  3. Add a short prompt.

  4. Set the video length (e.g., 150 frames, which is about 6 seconds).

  5. Click “Generate.”

Done! You’ll get an incredibly realistic animated video, with perfect audio and body motion synchronization, all without a watermark.

Final Thoughts: The Open-Source AI Revolution Is Here
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Hunyuan Video Avatar undeniably proves one thing: you don’t need a massive budget or cloud service credits to harness the magic of AI video. The open-source world is catching up, and at an astonishing pace.

If you’re a creator, an indie filmmaker, an educator, or just someone with a laptop and an idea, this is your chance.

The best part? You don’t have to dance to Google’s tune. All you need is a few gigabytes of hard drive space and a bit of imagination.