Real-looking people in a product video, for $0, on a MacBook: I tested 5 methods

Description and use

The author tested five free local methods to add realistic people to a product demo video on a MacBook Pro M1 Max. The best result came from generating images with SDXL, producing consistent characters in ~2 min per shot on the GPU. Other methods were slower or less realistic.

Problem

Product demo videos lacked realistic human characters, relying on silhouettes or icons, which reduces viewer connection.

Outcome

AI images with SDXL delivered realistic, consistent characters in ~2 min per shot on the Mac GPU, outperforming free stock, AI video, Blender 3D, and talking narrator methods in speed and quality.

Workflow

• Define a single character description and reuse it across all shots
• Generate two image options per shot with fixed seeds using SDXL
• Select best images manually
• Add slow camera push and overlay narration
• Render final video with HyperFrames at 1080p

Evidence

Everything ran on one MacBook Pro (M1 Max, 64 GB), cost $0, and used about 28 GB of models.

Source

The winner is AI images with SDXL: realistic, consistent characters at ~2 min per shot on the Mac GPU.

Source

The models and their download sizes: RealVisXL V4 (7.3 GB) + fp16‑fix VAE (7.3 GB)

Source