Connect the Dots: Link ElevenLabs to HeyGen by API Key, Produce Your First Avatar Video, Fix Pronunciation, and the External-Audio Workaround

PROCEDURE: ElevenLabs -> Developer -> API Keys -> Create -> name it -> Read permission is enough -> Create -> copy (it is never shown again). HeyGen -> open the avatar -> voice edit icon -> New Voice -> 3rd Party Voice (ElevenLabs and LMNT are the only two) -> Import Voice -> paste -> Confirm -> toggle on the specific cloned voice. Done once per account. Warning repeated: anyone holding the key spends your ElevenLabs credits.

PROCEDURE: 1) select avatar; 2) paste script; 3) confirm the look; 4) select your imported professional voice, not HeyGen's numbered auto-clones; 5) Motion Engine - Avatar 3 for everyday (near-unlimited), Avatar 4/5 for the important videos (script-driven gestures, monthly credit cap); 6) remove or replace the green-screen background; 7) preview the audio; 8) fix misses - ask ChatGPT or Claude 'it can't pronounce Dubai, give me a phonetic spelling', CAPS for emphasis, pause controls, Regenerate audio; 9) Generate with resolution, FPS and MP4 (4K on premium). Audio ~5 minutes, render ~5 minutes: a video in ten minutes, same-day reaction content instead of a shoot day and a two-week lead.

Instead of generating through the API link, write and refine the line in ElevenLabs (wording, pauses, emphasis, regenerate), download the MP3, and in HeyGen choose upload audio rather than a linked voice. Works with any TTS export or a real phone recording, so you are not locked to ElevenLabs. The trainer's own published videos are then edited in Premiere and After Effects, but the same look is reachable without an editor (next lessons).