Animated GIF of a text reading TENDER IS THE FLESH with a red overlay of farm animals on black background.

Tender Is The Flesh

Motion Design
Illustration

Role:

Motion Designer, Visual Designer

Tools:

After Effects, Illustrator

Deliverables:

Opening title sequence (video, 76 sec), Style Frames

Tender Is the Flesh is a motion graphics title sequence designed for a fictional film adaptation of Agustina Bazterrica's splatterpunk dystopian novel. The sequence draws from the cold aesthetics of the meat industry: sterile whites, deep reds, and clinical framing, to build a slow, unsettling atmosphere punctuated by jarring cuts. Underscoring it all is Ethel Cain's Ptolemaea, chosen for its eerie vocals and haunting subject matter making it a natural fit for the novel's themes. The result is a dark and gritty atmosphere that lingers long after the sequence ends.

Three pieces of red meat, each with a small white hook, hanging on with chains.
Animated butcher chart highlighting parts of a cow and flickers to a chart of a human showing cuts of the human body.
Hand slaps a packaged raw piece of special meat on a black surface.
Animation showing a repeating pattern of arms holfing butcher knives swinging down in dark space.

Storyboards

The storyboard established a deliberate progression that mirrors the novel's central horror. It opens with familiar scenes animal butcher diagrams before slowly corrupting the imagery. Livestock diagrams give way to a human one, then the cold routine of the meat industry: packaged cuts, a "Special Meat" label, a butcher's hands and knives striking down. A sudden cut to a severed human hand lands the sequence's darkest implication, and the title follows.

Storyboard sketch of black and white butcher's diagram of a pig with numbered sections and handwritten notes.
Storyboard sketch of meat cuts hanging on hooks with red handwritten notes and actor names.
Storyboard sketch of a cow diagram with numbered parts and actor names Anya Taylor-Joy and Javier Bardem.
Storyboard frame showing a butcher's diagram of a human body with labeled sections and producer names.
Storyboard frame showing text based on Agustina Bazterrica's novel moving on a conveyor belt.
Storyboard sketch of a packaged special meat loin with price $8.23 and handwritten notes below.
Storyboard sketch of close-up of a special loin label showing price $8.23 and screenplay credits for Agustina Bazterrica and Jon Spahts.
Storyboard sketch of three hands holding cleavers striking down in unison, with scene timecode and notes above and below.
Storyboard panel shows a hand with a tag and handwritten text, with camera focus notes below.
Storyboard frame showing the phrase 'TENDER IS THE FLESH' in white on black background with red annotation.

Styleframes

The style frames established the visual language of the sequence, drawing direct inspiration from the novel's cover art. A limited palette of black, white, and red keeps the aesthetic stark and deliberate, while a collage of illustrated and photographic elements creates an unsettling tension between the clinical and the visceral to mirror the world the novel portrays.

Three red meat cuts hanging on silver chains with names Oscar Issac and Tatiana Maslany on black background.
Diagram of a pig divided into numbered sections with labels and credits to Dennis Villeneuve.
Red diagram of a cow with numbered meat cuts and actor names Anya Taylor-Joy and Javier Bardem.
Packaged special meat sirloin with price tag showing $5400 for 1.2 kg at $4500 per kg.
Hand with red-lit cut beside text reading 'Song Fluehrer Ethel Cain' on a dark background.
Multiple arms holding red meat cleavers fanned out against a black background.

Animatic

The style frame animatic translated the visual language into timed media, establishing the timing and pacing of the sequence before final execution. This stage was critical in crafting the slow, creeping tension that builds throughout and determining exactly where the jarring cuts would land for maximum impact. It's splatterpunk, what do you expect?