Request for project assistance "Zombie Love Story"

Zombie Love Story : True Love Never Dies

Hello! My name is Tom Wright and I’ve been a professional CG Artist for almost 15 years. I have worked at studios like Disney Feature Animation, Dreamworks and Sony Imageworks among others. I’d like to pitch you a story! Unfortunately, although I wrote this down many years ago, my idea was beat to the punch by a live action film with a very similar premise. This put me on hold with the project for quite some time… but after a long contemplation, I really think there is room for this animated piece.

I’m pitching this in hopes that I can find a handful of talented people to help complete “Zombie Love Story” and give it to the open-source community (like Ton does with his amazing films). The difference being that this project is very small and can be done on the side for people that have full-time jobs. The current project is right at 2 minutes, however, after all the assets are built, we would have the ability to make more episodes that are longer if we wish. The objective is to have fun, make something we are all proud of and at the same time learn a ton about Blender and the production process.

So here is the story in a nutshell:
Our hero is a zombie who is madly in love with a living human girl. Among the obvious problems, this particular girl is a very proficient zombie killer. The short story I’m trying to complete is the very first encounter between the main character, zombie Zack, and his love interest. It takes place in the gymnasium of the high school where they both used to attend. Here is the animatic in it’s ‘work-in-progress’ state along with some character tests…

The style will be in the line of current feature animation (i.e. Pixar or Disney). The tone will be colorful and fun and the animation should be snappy. I’ve already hired and paid a very talented voice actor for the main character lines. You can hear his final work in the animatic above. I need more VO (voice over) work but this should be fairly simple and we can work this out as needed. I have access to a recording studio at work for simple things that we need.

Here’s what’s needed to complete the project:

  • I modeled the main character but he probably needs another pass by someone more adept than I am. He needs a full set of phonemes and facial expressions. I was doing this with vertex blend shapes but if there is a better way, we can certainly change that up. I’m using rigify for everything else which I’ve found very adequate for character animation but again, if someone wants to tackle a different type of rig, we can discuss it.

  • The female character needs to be modeled and enough facial rigging for her to be expressive. She has no dialogue so no phonemes are needed.

  • The character, Bob (the guy he is talking to) needs to be modeled with enough phonemes for him to say “BRAINS”, otherwise, he’s fairly expressionless. We also need new VO for him (the animatic is temp work).

  • We need to model, texture and rig random zombies (maybe a mix-and-match style) to fill out the scene and some special case zombies for the close-up kills you’ll see in the animatic along with the zombie that gets cut in half. That might be several versions of the same model where we cut to it at different levels of being split.

  • We need to model, texture and rig a basketball style school gymnasium where the scene will take place.

  • We need some random weapons (whatever we decide will be funny for projectiles) and a chainsaw for our zombie killing girl.

Who’s needed:

  • Character modeler(s) -with a strength in cartoon styles

  • Rigger(s) -someone with facial rigging experience or someone who wants to tackle facial rigs

  • Texture Artist(s) -for characters, the set and random objects that we’ll want lying around. Someone good with shaders would be perfect

  • Set modeler(s) -maybe one of you kick-ass architectural guys would like this challenge

  • Animators -good, cartoon-style character animators

  • FX Artist(s) -for dust, smoke, debris, brains and guts flying around

  • Lighting Artist(s) -I will be helping out here but if a Lighter wants to join me, that would be really great

  • Sound FX -I have access to some sound guys that I think I can talk into helping us but if someone wants the job, we can certainly discuss it

  • Compositor -someone that can help put together node sequences for the shots where we can easily control color corrections, depth of field, lighting effects and so on.

  • Producer/Coordinator -someone to help organize the team by creating timelines and prioritizations

This project will be extremely collaborative, however, I will act as Director and basic final decision maker. This is mainly to speed the process along so we don’t bog down in small idea arguments. I’ll also take on any task that we can’t find a volunteer for. We will have reviews and feedback so be prepared to take constructive criticism and make iterations. That is just part of the process in making something great. :slight_smile:

People can certainly take on multiple roles (I know I will be) so the entire crew could be 3 guys if that’s all we get/need but I think the more the merrier so please throw your hat in the ring if you’re interested! This is of course a no-pay project that we will donate away at the end as open-source. We’ll have to discuss that licensing as a group. If there ends up being any financial success (i.e. YouTube hits), I think we should donate the earnings to the Blender Foundation but we can discuss this more as a group.

How to Apply:

Again, all are welcome so don’t think this is an exclusive process. I do need some special talent for the Senior roles but there is a lot to do and any help is very much appreciated. You can reply to this thread or PM me with a link to your reel and a quick summary of your experience so I can assign you an appropriate sections of the project.

Thanks for reading my super long message and I hope you decide to help out! :smiley:

Cool stuffs you already have :slight_smile: bases of your story look a bit simple and “déjà vu” but the scene of the animatic is fun and well done. Hope i could try to help you with my little skills but im on a fulltime project, maybe in a few months, have fun and good luck :wink:

@wildduck
Thanks! Do you have a recommendation to make the short more unique and/or complex? I’m totally open to suggestions and this is the phase of the project to do that.

A little bump for this thread.

There are 4 of us currently working on assets and an animator will be ready in a few weeks. I’m working on a nice clean workflow for us with asset lists and shot breakdowns. If you’re interested in joining this project, send me a message and we’ll add you to the roster.

Your video is not available anymore.

The video is not available in some countries, sorry. I’m not sure why. It’s a simply drawn animatic of the 2 minutes short with most of the voice over done. Maybe I can post it somewhere else with more access. Thanks for pointing this out.