“Sexual Fantasies. Attraction. Birth Control. Fertility. Childbirth… This isn’t the sex education you may have had to sit through in school.” - Vox
I had the privilege of helping to lead the design & animation style on the Sex miniseries of Explained. Talk about a fun topic! I realized pretty early on that—like many viewers, I would imagine—I had only a rudimentary grasp on the birds and the bees, and only a hazy picture of the broader spectrum of human sexuality. I learned so much in working on these episodes. Especially the Fertility and Childbirth episodes, which I approached as someone who has never had a child, but has very real fears about pregnancy (which, have to say, appear to be pret-ty valid).
My favorite part about working on this miniseries was bringing the interviewees’ experiences to life through animation. There were so many vivid descriptions of attraction, sex, childbirth, and beyond. I knew right away that I wanted the look and tone of these animations to be some combination of “humor and grotesque,” and I think we hit the mark. Not every aspect of sex is fun; some of the subject matter the episodes dive into carries pain and stigma. And some of it is incredibly moving.
OH AND HELLO—voice over by Janelle Monaé!!?! 😍
You can watch the entire miniseries at Netflix.com/SexExplained.
The Childbirth episode is also available on YouTube for free.
People are attracted to different qualities!
Germ cells develop the same way in all fetuses, before progressing into male or female anatomy
Process
selected styleframes
