Make Money With Deepfakes (And Even If You Don’t Know How To Make Some)

If you scour Youtube and Tiktok today, you could see plenty of videos with people that look to be very real but are actually clever creations due to the latest breakthroughs in CGI technology. Let’s learn some steps on how you could make money with deepfakes, and some other tips for earning even if you don’t really know how to make them.

What you’ll learn here:

Ethical Considerations For Making Deepfakes

Before deepfaking anything, there are ethical considerations you must internalize first. Here are a few factors you must understand before getting consumed with excitement in making deepfake videos:

Consent: It’s important to obtain consent from anyone whose likeness or voice will be used in the deepfake video. Failure to obtain consent can be a violation of privacy and can harm the individual’s reputation.

Deception: Creating deepfake videos with the intent to deceive or mislead others is unethical. It’s important to consider the potential harm that can be caused by spreading false or misleading information.

Harassment and bullying: Using deepfake technology to create videos that harass or bully others is unethical and can have serious consequences. It’s important to consider the potential impact on the individuals depicted in the videos.

Intellectual property: Using someone else’s likeness or copyrighted material in a deepfake video without permission may be illegal and can have serious legal consequences.

Transparency: If you create a deepfake video, it’s important to be transparent about its creation and clearly indicate that it is not real. This can help prevent the spread of false or misleading information.

Context: It’s important to consider the context in which a deepfake video is used and ensure that it aligns with your overall message and values. Using deepfake technology for malicious or unethical purposes can harm your reputation and credibility.

Please bear in mind that your deepfaking skills must be accompanied by a great level of responsibility. Never use it for putting down someone or destroying someone else’s reputation. This should make us realize that deepfakes must only be used for the sake of fun and entertainment.

What Makes a Good Deepfake Video?

In the context of creating a good deepfake video for artistic or entertainment purposes, here are some factors that can contribute to its quality:

Realistic visuals: A good deepfake video should look as realistic as possible and seamlessly blend the manipulated elements into the original footage.

Convincing audio: The audio in the deepfake video should also be convincing and match the lip movements of the person in the video.

Attention to detail: A successful deepfake video requires attention to detail in every aspect of the production, from the lighting and camera angles to the facial expressions and body language.

Creative storytelling: A good deepfake video should tell an engaging story or deliver a message that resonates with the audience.

The Hard Way

1. Learn CGI manipulation and rendering.

Why this is the most important yet most difficult part of your deepfaking journey is due to these reasons:

You must learn about computer graphics thoroughly

Because the world today is very visual in nearly everything, computer graphics is one of the most crucial fields in the industry that keeps the world functioning. It is very safe to affirm that anyone with in-depth knowledge about it could make a great fortune out of it.

If you are someone who knows deepfaking, then you can be declared as one of the most proficient in CGI technology. If you wish to be very good at it, you need to have a very deep understanding of computer animation and computer graphics in general – this takes a great deal of discipline which takes you to this next key point.

It takes a long time to attain mastery

Like the transformation of kung-fu masters and music prodigies, becoming an expert in computer imagery doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of time – weeks and months will never be enough. you need to spend years learning about it.

In learning the art of deepfaking, you must learn video editing and computer animation. Only by blending together these 2 disciplines can you make a convincing deepfake video.

You need to buy a powerful computer

If you’re someone who’s just starting out with the work-from-home setting, chances are you can’t afford to purchase a high-end computer yet. Working with digital videos and computer imagery overall can’t be done efficiently with an average laptop or desktop PC. You need to have one with a high processing speed, high storage capacity, and high access rates.

You need to have a huge budget for this. It’s one difficulty you need to get through to be proficient deepfaker or in working with computer videos and animation.

Here’s your guide about having the right computer equipment for video editing.

2. Choose a video clip you want to make a deepfake with.

Now let’s assume you’ve already spent some time getting through the previous points. If you have, it should be the time to do some actual deepfaking. To pull it off successfully, you must choose a certain video to make a deepfake with carefully.

The most famous deepfakes actually stem from passion first, then “realness” second. What this means is that you have to select a video clip of a person that you’re so familiar with because only then can you mimic that person’s facial mannerisms and oral inflections digitally. Your favorite movie scenes should be a very good place to start.

3. Upload your deepfake creations and monetize them

Though the monetization part could be a bit tricky since you’ll need to deal with copyright infringement issues, there are plenty of content creators out there that are actually gaining streams of income due to their creations.

It is quite natural that you’ll have a hard time monetizing your deepfakes during the first few tries. Perhaps it should be in these next steps that you’ll get actual money.

4. Teach people how deepfake is done

Since it’s assumed at this point that you’re quite proficient with deepfaking already, how about teaching interested parties how you do it? By making watchable content about it, you could earn money through advertising, affiliate marketing, or through sponsorships.

5. Get hired by major film producers

This could be the hardest step here, but this will clearly give you the greatest gain. If you Google the name “Shamook”, you’d learn that he is a deepfake Youtuber who got hired by Lucasfilm, the entertainment company behind Star Wars.

Due to his dedication to his deepfaking craft, the guy is now earning a huge salary from a major film studio. If you’ve started doing the same and you keep at it for extended periods, it could happen to you as well.

The Easy Way

If you find the above steps to be painfully difficult, fret not. Here are the easy ways of still making money with deepfakes, even if you don’t get too deep into the technicalities behind it.

1. Choose a deepfake app and use it

If you hate the idea of learning the intricacies of CGI manipulation, you could choose those deepfake apps that you can download on your phone or your PC. Here are some of these you could try:

FaceApp – A photo editing app that can change your facial features and age you.
Reface – Allows users to swap their face onto a celebrity’s face in a video or GIF.
FaceMagic – A video editing app that can manipulate facial expressions in a video.
Wombo – An app that turns photos of faces into singing and dancing animations.
MyHeritage – A genealogy website that can create deepfake animations of old family photos.
Fakeme – An app that can change your face to look like someone else’s.
Speakpic – Allows users to animate a photo to make it appear as if the person is speaking.
Zao – A Chinese app that lets users swap their faces with that of a celebrity in a video.

While these are very user-friendly and could be used by nearly anyone, you have to accept that they are bound to technical limitations and can’t really address the “expert-level” stuff of deepfaking. As a beginner, you might want to use them first and then expand your proficiency further using professional CGI-rendering software like Blender and Maya.

2. Find existing deepfake videos and make commentaries about them

This is how you could make money with deepfaking even if you don’t know how to make them. Since there is plenty of deepfake content on Youtube and Tiktok these days, you could make video commentaries about them or video comparisons about them.

By discussing how good or bad those deepfakes are in technical detail, a very interesting video output would surely await the viewers. But here’s a precaution.

By doing so, you could earn the dislikes of their original creators and their fans. You have to be brave enough to handle the negativity behind it and focus on the money you could earn from the views that your deepfake analysis and commentaries could earn.

If you’re considering a career out of computer graphics, deepfaking could be among your best options. It’s both engaging and rewarding for both of you the creator, as well as the spectators.

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