The zombie trend is a short fictional video format in which two people meet again in a world that has changed, recognize each other, embrace, and then fall back into a memory of the time before. The contrast between the ruined present and the warm past is the point of the format; graphic horror is not.
This guide explains the format, how our planned two-photo version builds that story from portraits, what we can honestly say about the photos, the price and the refunds, and what happens to your images after you submit them. It does not claim that the format is popular right now, and it does not promise that a finished video will spread.
The zombie trend in one sentence
Two people you know are separated by the end of the world; the video shows them finding each other again, holding on, and then remembering life before the change.
That sentence is the whole format. Different makers treat it differently — some add a chase, some add narration, some swap the order — but the beats underneath are the same. Recognition matters more than violence: the moment one character sees the other and understands that something has changed in them is what the audience is meant to feel.
How two photos become the story
Our planned Zombie Love Story version takes two portraits and one fixed story, so you choose the people and the template handles the rest. The target output format is a 15-second vertical 720p MP4 in 9:16 — short enough for a phone screen and for social feeds.
The planned story has four beats:
- Encounter. The two characters meet in an abandoned setting, somewhere the world stopped being ordinary. The framing is wide and still, because the point is that they have found each other at all.
- Recognition. The character who remembers looks at the other and sees the face of someone they knew. This is the emotional center of the clip and the beat we spend the most time on.
- Embrace. They hold each other. The camera comes closer, and the movement settles.
- Memory. The film turns away from the ruined present and back to a warm memory from before the world changed, so the last thing the viewer sees is what the two of them had.
Because the story is fixed, this first release has no prompt box and no model picker. You choose the two people; the beats, camera language and mood belong to the template. The soundtrack is a separate step: the planned template track (licensing remains a launch check) is muxed into the finished MP4 in your browser, and a render is never presented as a finished music delivery unless that step succeeded.
All of the numbers above are targets. We only publish a sample, a price and a delivery claim once real output at that exact specification has been produced and checked.
Your photo checklist
Two good portraits are the entire input. Here is what our picker accepts and what we ask of the people in the picture:
- Format and size. JPG, PNG or WebP, one file per person, up to 20 MB per photo. Each side needs to be at least 300 pixels, so the short edge is 300 px or more. Bigger photos are welcome but not required.
- One adult per photo. A single, front-facing face per image. Group shots, faces turned away, faces hidden by hair, sunglasses or a hand, and heavy filters all make the result less recognizable than a plain portrait.
- Even light. Soft daylight beats harsh shadow or strong backlight that leaves the face dark.
- Both people are 18 or older. Every person who appears in the video must be an adult.
- Both people agreed to AI processing. The person in the photo has to know that their image is being processed by AI and appears in a generated video. Do not use children's photos, public figures' photos, or someone else's private photos without permission.
- Check the picture locally before you submit. Photos are inspected in your browser and may be downscaled before they are sent.
Cast the two roles
The first photo plays the character who turns. The second plays the character who remembers. You can replace either portrait, remove one and pick again, or use Swap character roles to reverse the casting before submitting — the reversal is worth trying if you think the pair reads better the other way round.
What happens after you submit
Before you submit, nothing leaves your browser. While you edit, a local draft is saved on your device (in IndexedDB), including across a sign-in or checkout redirect, so a half-finished selection is not lost. Drafts expire after 24 hours and are removed when next accessed; they are cleared when you sign out or switch accounts, and clearing your browser's site data removes them too. A successful generation clears the saved draft as well.
After you submit, the following is exactly what we do:
- Your photos are stored in Cloudflare R2 and passed through APIMart to the configured video-generation service, including the Seedance asset-library review.
- Photos and finished videos are also sent to the configured SeeAPI automated safety service.
- If a required review credential is missing or a review fails, the job stops and your credits come back. We do not quietly publish unreviewed output.
- Account media requires owner sign-in. Provider access uses purpose-limited, expiring credentials. Privacy checks must pass before launch.
These providers have their own processing and retention policies. We cannot promise that every copy held on a provider's side disappears at the same moment you delete a local file. If you need a copy removed, read our privacy policy and send a deletion request to support with your account and job references, and we will work through our own storage and our providers. Please read that policy before uploading anything sensitive.
Price, credits and refunds
- The candidate offer for the first release is a one-time purchase: 100 credits for $12.99, sized to cover one Zombie Love Story render. It is a candidate price shown for planning — the pack is not on sale and checkout is closed while the launch checks run.
- It is a one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no automatic renewal and no free trial that converts into a paid plan.
- A technical failure — a rejected photo, a review timeout, a provider error, a render that never completes — returns the credits to your credit balance automatically. Credit refunds are not refunds to your payment method. If you want your money back, contact support with your order and job IDs; cash refunds require separate support review under the applicable policy.
- Returning from checkout does not start a render on its own. A render starts only after the payment is confirmed and you confirm the job.
Share the story responsibly
- Preview the result and look at both faces before you post. AI can change identity details, expressions and timing; treat the output as a fictional recreation, not as a true record of a person.
- Download the MP4 and upload it to the social app you use. There is no automatic publishing and nothing is posted to your accounts for you.
- Say that it is AI-generated fiction. Do not present it as real footage of real events.
- Both people in the clip should know that you are posting it.
Before you pay, check five things
If you are deciding whether a zombie AI video service is worth paying for, ask for the answers first:
- Is there a real sample rendered at the exact spec you are buying, or only an outline?
- Who processed and deleted your photos, and what did they say about retention?
- What price is actually charged, and is it one-time?
- What happens when a render fails — automatic credit return, cash refund, or neither?
- Do you get the file with sound, and is a silent render labelled as silent?
Our own pages answer these the same way: until a sample at the target spec has been produced and verified, the pages label the outline clearly instead of passing a storyboard off as a finished clip, and generation and payment stay closed.
Open the Zombie Love Story template to choose the two characters and see the current release status, read what "zombie AI" means and how this tool is scoped, or compare the routes to a zombie AI clip before you pick a tool.