Automated news video generation with HeyGen AI, Apify, and GPT-4.1 Mini
Overview
This n8n workflow automates the creation of AI-generated news recap videos using HeyGen's avatar technology. The template scrapes daily newsletter content, uses AI to generate engaging scripts, and produces professional video summaries with synthetic avatars and voicesβall without manual intervention.
Use Cases
- Daily News Digests: Automatically convert Morning Brew or similar newsletters into short-form video content for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts.
- Content Repurposing: Transform written blog posts, articles, or reports into engaging video summaries for broader audience reach.
- Automated Social Media Content: Schedule daily video updates for your audience without recording equipment or on-camera presence.
How It Works
The workflow operates in three main stages:
Stage 1 - Content Acquisition: The Apify Web Scraper node fetches the latest newsletter content from Morning Brew, extracting markdown-formatted text for processing.
Stage 2 - Script Generation: An AI agent powered by GPT-4 analyzes the content and creates a concise 40-60 word script highlighting the top 2-4 stories in an engaging, conversational tone perfect for short-form video.
Stage 3 - Video Production: The script is sent to HeyGen's API, which generates a video featuring your custom AI avatar delivering the content. The workflow includes intelligent polling to check video completion status before proceeding.
Customization Options
- Avatar & Voice Selection: Use the "Get Avatars" and "Get Voices" nodes to browse available options and customize your video presenter
- Content Source: Modify the News Scraper node URL to pull from any website or RSS feed
- Script Style: Adjust the AI prompt in the Script Writer node to change tone, length, or focus areas
- Video Dimensions: Configure aspect ratios (landscape, portrait, square) for different platforms
Prerequisites
- HeyGen API key (for video generation)
- OpenRouter API key (for AI script writing)
- Apify token (for web scraping)
π οΈ Setup Guide
Author: Jadai Kongolo
Follow these steps to configure your HeyGen + n8n automation workflow:
-
Go to HeyGen, create your AI avatar and voice.
- You can import your ElevenLabs voice clone, or let HeyGen clone your voice automatically.
-
Connect your HeyGen API key to the following nodes:
Generate VideoGet VideoGet AvatarsGet Voices
-
If you want to test out the "Create video with polling" flow:
- Connect your OpenRouter API key.
- Connect your Apify token in the node called
News.
Make sure all credentials are properly stored and referenced in your environment or credentials store for best security and reuse.
Recommended Node Renaming for Clarity
To improve workflow readability, consider renaming these nodes:
| Current Name | Suggested Name | Purpose |
|--------------|----------------|---------|
| News | Scrape Morning Brew Newsletter | Fetches newsletter content |
| Script Writer | AI Script Generator | Creates video script from content |
| Generate Video1 | HeyGen Video Creation | Initiates video generation |
| Get Video1 | Check Video Status | Polls for video completion |
| 30 Seconds | Wait for Video Processing | Initial wait period |
| If | Check if Video Complete | Validates completion status |
| Wait | Retry Video Status Check | Waits before re-polling |
Automated News Video Generation with HeyGen, Apify, and GPT-4
This n8n workflow automates the process of generating news video scripts, creating videos using HeyGen, and potentially publishing them, leveraging AI and web scraping. It simplifies the content creation pipeline by combining the power of Apify for data extraction, GPT-4 (via OpenRouter) for script generation, and HeyGen for video production.
What it does
This workflow performs the following key steps:
- Manual Trigger: The workflow is initiated manually, allowing for on-demand video generation.
- AI Agent (LangChain): An AI agent is employed to orchestrate the content generation process. It likely uses tools to:
- Scrape News: Utilize Apify to scrape relevant news articles or data from a specified source.
- Generate Script: Use a Large Language Model (LLM) like GPT-4 (accessed via OpenRouter) to generate a video script based on the scraped news content.
- Generate Video: Interact with the HeyGen API to create a video from the generated script, potentially selecting avatars, voices, and other video parameters.
- HTTP Request: After the AI agent completes its tasks, an HTTP request node is included. This node is typically used for making API calls to external services. In this context, it could be used for:
- Publishing the Video: Posting the generated video to a platform (e.g., YouTube, social media).
- Notifying: Sending a notification about the successful video generation.
- Further Processing: Handing off the video details to another system for additional steps.
- Conditional Logic (If): An 'If' node is present, suggesting that the workflow might branch based on the outcome of previous steps (e.g., success/failure of video generation, specific content types).
- Wait: A 'Wait' node is included, which can be used to introduce a delay in the workflow. This might be necessary to:
- Allow video processing: Give HeyGen enough time to render the video.
- Rate limit API calls: Prevent overwhelming external services with too many requests.
- Sticky Note: A sticky note is present for documentation purposes within the workflow, likely containing important information or instructions for the user.
Prerequisites/Requirements
To use this workflow, you will need:
- n8n Instance: A running n8n instance.
- OpenRouter Account & API Key: For accessing various Large Language Models, including GPT-4.
- HeyGen Account & API Key: For generating AI-powered videos.
- Apify Account & API Key: For web scraping capabilities.
- Credentials Configuration: Appropriate credentials configured in n8n for OpenRouter, HeyGen, and Apify.
Setup/Usage
- Import the Workflow: Download the provided JSON and import it into your n8n instance.
- Configure Credentials:
- Set up your OpenRouter API key as a credential in n8n.
- Set up your HeyGen API key as a credential in n8n.
- Set up your Apify API key as a credential in n8n.
- Customize AI Agent: Open the "AI Agent" node and configure its settings:
- Specify the prompt for news scraping and video script generation.
- Ensure the correct OpenRouter Chat Model is selected and configured.
- Verify the tools used for Apify and HeyGen are correctly set up and linked to your credentials.
- Review HTTP Request: If the HTTP Request node is intended for publishing or further actions, configure its URL, headers, and body according to the target service's API documentation.
- Adjust Wait Time: Modify the "Wait" node's duration if necessary to accommodate the video generation time or other delays.
- Activate and Execute: Activate the workflow and click "Execute Workflow" on the "Manual Trigger" node to run it.
This workflow provides a powerful foundation for automating the creation of news videos, saving significant time and effort in content production.
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