OpenAI has expanded the creative toolkit within its Sora video generation app, introducing a feature that allows users to create character cameos. This new capability lets you design digital avatars of virtually anything, from your pets and personal doodles to original fictional personas or even inanimate objects, and then insert them into AI-generated videos. The process for creating a cameo is straightforward. Users begin by navigating to their profile page in the Sora app and selecting the Create cameo button. From there, you upload a short video of the subject you want to turn into a character. OpenAI states that only a few seconds of footage are sufficient for the model to learn from, and it is even possible to use videos previously generated by Sora itself as the reference material. Once the video is uploaded, you can assign a display name to your new character. The next crucial step is to describe how you want the character to be animated and behave. For example, in a demo provided by OpenAI, a wicked green witch character was brought to life with the description: She glides with a mysterious, whimsical grace, speaks in rhymes when casting spells, and her pointed hat always tilts as if listening to secrets on the wind. Users have control over who can use their creations through a permissions system. The Who can use this section offers several options, including: Only me, People I approve, Mutuals, Everyone, and Everyone excluding specific sets of users. When you are ready to generate a new video and want to include one of your characters, you simply tag the specific cameo during the creation process. This new application for character avatars builds upon the existing cameo feature in Sora 2, which initially launched with a focus on creating a digital likeness of the user themselves. However, the use of the term cameo has not been without controversy. Cameo, the service where users can purchase personalized videos from celebrities, has recently filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for trademark infringement. The company argues that OpenAI’s use of the word is likely to cause confusion among consumers and dilute its brand. OpenAI has publicly disagreed with this claim, stating that it does not believe anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word cameo. Alongside the character cameo rollout, OpenAI has introduced other new features to Sora. A stitching tool now allows creators to combine several video clips together, seamlessly connecting different scenes. The app also now includes a leaderboard, which highlights the most popular videos based on how often they have been used for cameos or remixed by other users. This update significantly broadens the scope for personalized and creative storytelling within the AI video platform.
