Being Viral
The future is lousy
with potential
Feature film concept design and art direction
The World
The world of Being Viral is inspired by the games Cyberpunk, Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Beneath A Steel Sky, with classic noir; and the surrealist-noir movie Under the Silver Lake, classic film-noir Union City and neo-noir movies like Mute, Dark City, Sin City and Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang.
The aesthetic language and styling of these films helped us develop the look, feel, pace and tone of the alternative universe where a contemporary society and a deadly virus are wreaking havoc on a humanoid monkey civilisation.
The Story
In an alternate future where apes have evolved into intelligent, humanoid creatures, a deadly virus threatens their society.
Follow a group of unlikely ape heroes as they race against time to find a cure and save their species.
Being Viral is a feature length 3D animation set in an alternative future where apes and monkeys have evolved to have human characteristics, societies and issues.
The story is told as a sci-fi neo-noir, incorporating themes of epidemic and virology, identity and mind control, the impact of social media, food and resource shortages, public health crises, authority agencies and concepts of power and control.
The primate land is a lifeless wilderness from the ground to its tips, bustling with ill-designed, heartless high-rise concrete coops where primates of diverse species live in state-approved harmony.
Inhabitants can be blinded and hypnotised by the neon lights, the digital billboards and flickering hoardings that are desperately trying to convince you that you are definitely in the right place at the right time and you absolutely will be looked after.
For an outsider, the air feels heavy and difficult to acclimatise to. When you look up, a sense of eeriness creeps in, and you cannot help thinking that the dystopic future that we all hoped would never happen has it already arrived.
Dr. Trip’s Lab Entrance
Gary’s Pawn Shop
Hospital Emergency Service Entrance
Frank Loony High Rise Apartment Exterior
Title Sequence concept
The Characters - 3D rigged
Dr. Trip, Proboscis Humanoid
Frank Loony, Red Ruffed Lemur Humanoid
Jack, Chimpanzee Humanoid
Sara, Gelada Humanoid
Dave, Orangutan Humanoid
Gary, Mandrill Humanoid
Nurse Jackie, Bald Uakari Humanoid
Agent Black, Gorilla Humanoid
Dr. Trip disgraced scientist, broken, corrupted, manipulated and almost out of time to cure the virus and save us all
Frank Loony mid to low level food journalist, amateur detective, with only an average retirement plan to lose
Gary The Pawn Shark, bookie, black market organ dealer, a natural all rounder
Dave Top bloke, sweet, kind, gentle and loyal to a fault minus the wife-stealing
Agent Black Big, bad deep-state M*therF***r!, an operative in the shadows, he’s gonna mess you up
Sara self-serving, divorce paper serving agent of change, coming for your car, might also take your boots
Nurse Jackie jaded, knackered, tired of all of our bull, sticking band aids on our bullet wounds because no one else will
Character Dev Art
Jack Urban survivor (sort of), fame hungry chancer, hawked to the eyeballs loser, don’t forget to like and subscribe
Unreal Engine Set Concept
Apartment building street level and fly through
Animation test sequence of exterior location shot
Hospital building street level and fly through
Animation test sequence of exterior location shot