Looking for copyright-free, royalty-free Zombie images

[Trevor]

I'm looking for some copyright-free, royalty-free images of zombies so I can include them as part of a sample plugin. But all the internet searches I try lead me to sites that are annoyingly NOT copyright-free and royalty-free. If anyone could find some images like this, or know of a site that actually has images that are completely free to use, please let me know.

[Chris]

How many images are you looking for?

You may be able to find some useable images in DeviantArt's stock photo section: http://www.deviantart.com/resources/stockart/model/?order=9&q=zombie&offset=0
You'll have to make sure that the creator of each image has given permission to use their image outside of DA, and most stock photographers that do ask for a credit notice or to be contacted beforehand. If you only need some sample images, you might be able to get some quick results that are good enough with just a bunch op Photoshop filters applied to stock photographs.

Regards,
Chris

[Trevor]

I just need a few, like 4 or 5. They can be cartoony or realistic or what. It doesn't matter, though I guess it would be odd if some were cartoony and some were scary.

While deviantart has a lot of cool pictures, it seems like they are mostly (from the ones I saw) not copyright-free. Its a bit frustrating to search and finally find an image and then find out that the picture is not free to use. There has got to be some site that has copyright-free art that can be used without limits that can be searched.

What's the name of this sort of image license? An image with no limits, that can be used for any purpose, completely free and with no restrictions. If I knew the term, maybe I could do a better query.

[Chris]

There exist a lot of different licensing models, each with their own rules.

A well known one that allows for free use of images is the set of Creative Commons licenses. See: http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences. As you can see there are different versions that allow for more or less freedom in the use of the image.

A good source for images released under the Creative Commons license is Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org
Each image on Wikimedia Commons has a clear labeling of the allowed use.

There are also a lot of sites that offer free stock images. See: http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/tips/freeimages.htm for a list. One I sometimes use is www.sxc.hu

You are right that most images on Deviant Art are copyright protected. But a lot of people release stock images (for which there is a separate category: http://www.deviantart.com/resources/stockart/ ). The drawback here is that (as far as I know) it is not possible to do an advanced search on the type of license. So while there are a lot of stock images released under a Creative Commons license, or for which the creator simply gives free use, it can be hard to find them.

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I've done a quick search and these are some options that I found.
These are pretty nice and are free to use at their smallest dimensions (288?400px), which may be good enough for your goals:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombies_Walking_p76671.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombie_Sceaming_p73260.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombie_Walking_p77112.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombie_Creatures_p76672.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombie_Creatures_And_Mist_p76674.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Death_g408-Coffin_With_Hand_Coming_Out_p73432.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Halloween_g164-Zombie_Head_And_Shoulders_p76670.html

Zombie images on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Zombie
Which you can use to do a quick PS job with. For example:

From:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Max_and_Jessica_%284062266003%29.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TGS_2010_Zombie.jpg
(You need to attribute the original author of the photo's to use these)