FOR FACELESS CHANNELS
Publish without ever being on camera.
Screen recordings, generated cutaway cards, captions and a music bed carry a video on their own. No face, no studio, no lighting.
THE PAIN
- Not everyone wants their face on the internet
- Stock footage costs money and looks like stock footage
- Silence over a static screen is unwatchable
THE WORKFLOW
Record the screen or import assets
Auto B-Roll adds cutaway cards from your captions
Music bed with auto-duck, export
FROM YOUR PHONE
Auto B-Roll on iPhone and iPad generates its cutaway cards on the device with no API key and no network at all, so a faceless video can be made entirely offline.
Zella for iPhone & iPad →WHEN THIS OUTGROWS THE FREE TIER
When a script runs past two minutes, which most explainer scripts do. Saved templates also keep every episode visually identical, which is what makes a faceless channel look like a brand.
Everything else here is free forever: the complete editor, all the AI, unlimited recording, and watermark-free export up to 2 minutes at 1080p. Pro is $89 once and covers Mac, iPhone and iPad on a single purchase. See pricing →
Faceless content lives or dies on pace and legibility. There is no face to hold attention, so the cut has to do it: tight edits, captions that carry the whole message, cutaways that keep the frame changing, and zooms that land where the words land.
That is a lot of manual work per video, and it is the exact work Zella automates. Auto-Polish removes the dead air and the filler, writes keyword captions, adds a matched sound under every cut and lays in mood music. Auto B-Roll reads your captions, picks the most visual word in each line and drops matching cutaways across the timeline, spaced out rather than every few seconds.
On iPhone and iPad, Auto B-Roll needs no key and no account at all - it generates a designed cutaway card per keyword entirely on-device.
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY SHIP
A narrated explainer with cutaways throughout
Auto B-Roll places full-frame, silent, roughly four-second clips across the whole video, tied to the most visual keyword in each caption line.
A caption-first video that works on mute
Keyword captions with the active word popping, which is the entire message when there is no face on screen.
A stock-footage montage cut to music
Beat Sync punches a zoom on each detected beat, with sensitivity and punch tuned separately.
A voice that does not sound like a bedroom
On-device noise removal and voice polish, plus voice changers if the channel calls for it.
THE HONEST ANSWERS
Where does the b-roll come from, and does it cost anything?
On Mac it is Pexels, which is free stock video and needs a free Pexels API key you paste once - it is stored only in the macOS Keychain. Pexels clips are free to use, including commercially, and usually need no attribution. On iPhone and iPad the default needs no key at all. Auto B-Roll itself is free on both platforms.
Is this going to look like every other AI-generated channel?
Some of that risk is real and it is worth being straight about it. What you control is the caption preset, the music, the cutaway choices and the pacing, and every placed clip is a normal overlay you can swap, trim, move or delete. Zella gives you a fast first pass, not a house style you cannot escape.
Does anything get uploaded when it fetches b-roll?
Only a single keyword. Zella derives one visual word per caption line on-device and sends that word to search a stock library. Your video is never uploaded. If you would rather nothing left the device, do not run Auto B-Roll and the rest of the app still works entirely offline.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Can Zella add b-roll automatically?
Yes. Auto B-Roll reads your captions, picks the most visual keyword per line on-device, and places matching cutaways spaced across the timeline. It is free on Mac and on iPhone and iPad.
Do I need a stock footage subscription?
No. On Mac it uses Pexels, which is free and needs only a free API key. On iPhone and iPad it needs no key or account at all.
Can I make videos without ever showing my face?
Yes. Screen recording, stock cutaways, captions, titles and voice tools cover a full faceless workflow without the camera ever being switched on.
Does Auto B-Roll upload my video?
No. Only a derived keyword leaves your device. The video itself is never uploaded.
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