How to Make the AI Zombie Trend Video in Dola

Dola is ByteDance's AI assistant app — the one that used to be called Cici until it was renamed in November 2025, and the international sibling of China's Doubao. It chats, edits photos and, in many countries, makes short videos with ByteDance's Seedance model, the same family behind Dreamina and CapCut's AI video. That's why "Dola" shows up next to the AI zombie trend in so many searches. Here's how to make the zombie love story video in it, and what to do if your Dola can't.

Can your Dola make the zombie video?

It depends on where you are and which version you have. Dola's features vary by country, platform, account and plan:

• Video generation is promoted in the mobile app with Dreamina Seedance (Seedance 2.5 as of late August 2026). Some users, depending on their region, only get image tools.
• Free use has a daily allowance, then it's paid. Expect a few videos a day at most on a free account.
• Dola isn't offered everywhere. It's reported as unavailable in the United States, Canada, Australia and mainland China, and available in places such as the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and much of Southeast Asia. ByteDance doesn't publish an official list, so check your app store.

If you open Dola and see no way to make a video, that's a regional or account limit — not something you're doing wrong. The alternatives at the end of this page use the same model.

What you need

• Photo 1: the survivor — usually you. Front-facing, face fully visible, even light.
• Photo 2: the one who turns — your partner, a friend who agreed, or your pet.
• The Dola mobile app, signed in, with video generation available on your account.

Step by step in Dola

Dola works like a chat, so you can ask for things in plain words — but a precise prompt gets you much closer to the trend.

1. Start a new chat and open the video option (or simply ask Dola to make a video).
2. Attach both photos if your version accepts two images. Say which is which: "Photo 1 is the survivor, photo 2 is the one who turns."
3. Paste the prompt below and ask for a vertical 9:16 video.
4. Ask Dola to use the prompt as written. Assistants like to "improve" prompts and often drop the details that matter — the match cut and "no gore".
5. Generate, then re-roll if faces drift. Keep the take where the zombie still looks like them.

Make a vertical 9:16 cinematic, photorealistic video. Use this prompt exactly as written.
PERSON A is the person in photo 1; PERSON B is the person in photo 2. Keep both faces faithful to the photos in every shot.
Part one, cold blue-grey light, an abandoned cabin at dusk in a zombie apocalypse, handheld camera: PERSON A aims a rifle, trembling. PERSON B turns toward them, infected: pale grey skin, dark veins, clouded eyes, torn clothes, no blood and no gore. PERSON A cries, drops the rifle and hugs PERSON B, who hugs back.
Hard match cut on the same embrace into part two: a sunlit meadow at golden hour, both healthy and smiling; PERSON B lifts PERSON A and spins them round, laughing.
Ambient sound only. No music, no dialogue, no on-screen text.

If Dola only takes one photo

Make the starting picture first, then animate it:

1. Ask Dola's image tool to put both photos into one picture: "The two people from these photos hugging in a dark ruined cabin; the person from photo 2 looks infected — grey skin, clouded eyes, no gore."
2. Turn that picture into a video with the prompt above, removing the lines about photo 1 and photo 2.
3. If the cut to the happy memory doesn't come out, make it as a second clip and join the two in CapCut — our CapCut guide shows where to cut.

Dola-specific problems

• No video option. Your country or account doesn't have it yet. See the alternatives below.
• Dola rewrites your prompt. Tell it to use the prompt word for word, or paste it again and say "don't change anything."
• It refuses the photos. Real faces and anything that looks violent can trip safety filters. Use clear daylight photos, keep "no blood and no gore", and only use photos of adults who agreed.
• The free allowance runs out. Test with a short clip first; only spend on the full version once the faces look right.
• Short clips. If a single clip can't hold the whole story, make the zombie scene and the memory separately and join them on the hug.

Dola not available where you live?

You don't need Dola itself — what makes the trend is the Seedance model and a good prompt, and those are available elsewhere:

• Dreamina (ByteDance's creative app, on the web) runs Seedance and takes the same prompt.
• CapCut has Seedance in its AI video tool in several countries, plus zombie templates — see our CapCut guide.
• Higgsfield offers Seedance with two reference photos — see our Higgsfield guide.
• Our zombie video generator — no app and no region lock.

The shortest route, wherever you live. Dola's video tool depends on your country, your account and a daily allowance — and you still write the prompt and re-roll until the faces hold. Our zombie video generator skips all of that: two photos, pick the memory, and the finished 15-second story in 720p with no watermark. $6.90 per video, no app, no subscription, works in the US. Failed renders are credited back automatically.

For the background on the trend, read what the AI zombie trend is; for longer prompts and the pet version, see the free zombie love story prompt.

Zombie AI Video is an independent site and isn't affiliated with Dola or ByteDance.