Mark Neeley
On balance, process, and creative freedom
“There are a lot of preconceived notions that animation is a disposable media–that it’s just children’s entertainment. It’s often not intellectualized as an art form.”
Mark Neeley has been an animator his whole life. From learning how to make flipbooks from library books as a kid to now dedicating months of his life animating music videos by hand, Mark has become a sought-after animator by musicians, publications, and brands around the country.
“My parents would say that’s all I wanted to do from a young age. But as a kid in the ‘90s growing up in the Midwest, it was hard to wrap my head around the idea of pursuing animation when working in a studio seemed like the only option.”
Mark says he felt too intimidated to learn how to draw in the style of mainstream animation and looked to books from the library for inspiration and instruction.
“One of them was called The Animation Book by Kit Laybourne [published in 1979.] That was so influential to me. It highlighted all these different do-it-yourself techniques and taught me that you could animate in this more primitive, handmade way. It opened my eyes to things like claymation, cut out, and stop-motion animation.”
Mark has always been inspired by the animation style from the 1960s and 70s. “I love that era of illustration and animation where artists were making these playful yet primitive drawings that did such a beautiful job communicating and setting a tone.”
Like the handmade flipbooks he made as a kid, today Mark continues to draw and paint every animation by hand, using a separate sheet of paper for each frame.
“I love seeing an artist’s fingerprint on their work. I’ve always done it that way,” says Mark. “I end up with this big stack of papers at the end and individually shoot each one with a downshooter camera. It’s sort of the original, traditional method.”
Afterward, Mark will do some light editing on his computer to make edits like adjustments to timing. Despite the work being largely analog, Mark is quick to caution against being overly nostalgic about it. There’s a tradeoff. “It’s a weird thing. On one hand, it is doing things in a way that is so old-fashioned, and it’s easy to romanticize it. But it is a very tedious process, and I don’t know if I’d recommend someone doing it this way. It’s very time consuming.”
In recent years, much of his work has been focused on combining visuals with music.
Mark has been the animator behind The Aquarium Drunkard Picture Show, a half-hour web series that combines live footage with animation and music, since 2020. He has also made a range of animated music videos for acts including Psychic Temple, Michael Rault, Maston, and Cactus Lee. “A lot of my work is at this cross section of visual art and music. I’m grateful to be able to combine these passions in a symbiotic way.”
Mark says there are some unique challenges to creating a music video.
“Every single one is different. There are lots of little quirks about how to animate the beat of a song. When I did my first one for a band called Psychic Temple, it was very challenging. Basically you’re learning to work in reverse. It was my first time putting visuals to sound versus making a film and having someone make a soundtrack afterward.”
When a potential client reaches out to Mark, they’ll first have a dialogue about the creative direction of the video. “Usually they say we just like your style and want to see how you interpret it. Sometimes, a story or visual will come to me right away. Other times it takes awhile. I’m lucky in that I’ve never gotten too stuck.”
Mark’s animation process takes anywhere from 2-4 months for shorter music videos to 5-8 months for longer videos. He says the biggest challenge comes from finding the right balance of all the parts of a song.
“I’ll typically break it up to the chorus, if there is one, and the verses. I also think of the instrumental parts as part of their own sequence. There’s an art to having all these moving parts together and seeing if they fit.”
It’s not always about a linear story or following the lyrics line-by-line.
“Some artists will say they don’t want me to follow the lyrics, but I do like to have some certain pertinent elements. With lyrics, I like to follow some sort of through line. With the instrumental parts, that’s where I can experiment with sequences more psychedelic or abstract.”
As far as a creative routine, Mark says he’s learned to respond to inspiration when it comes.
“I have really bad insomnia. Sometimes I get this sort of creative high working in the middle of the night. There’s just this peace or tranquility, to get these creative bursts. So not being afraid to work whenever I have the urge has been a big lesson. Also, music plays a big part too when I’m working. I’m always listening to stuff and am pretty ritualistic about it.”
Music has been a constant thread throughout Mark’s life. He first started collecting records as a teenager.
“So much of what I do is driven by this sort of endless quest of researching things and always wanting to dig a little deeper into what you’re interested in. Around the age 15 or 16 (that was the late 90s in the early to mid 2000s), those were the formative years of alternative rock transitioning into the big wave of indie rock. I was fully immersed in that, but also I started looking backward and got really into psychedelic sixties records and The Byrds, all these West Coast bands. Also, the musical family trees of Haruomi Hosono and Robert Wyatt.”
Mark says jazz has also had a big impact. “Eric Dolphy’s ‘Out to Lunch’ was huge. Jazz has always held this very specific place in my psyche. I’m in my early 30s now, and I feel myself becoming more reflective and nostalgic. I’ve been thinking of the ‘90s and going back to listening to jangle pop, from Teenage Fanclub to The Chills. I’ve reminded myself just how much I love that music, and how important it was to me.”
Mark is currently working on a few projects: a music video for Japanese band Never Young Beach and animation for a Beatles-themed short film that’s based around the “Paul is dead” conspiracy theory.
“If someone approaches me about a project and simply trusts my vision to make it come to life, that’s sort of the ultimate compliment. Having that broadscale freedom presents its own set of challenges, but creatively, it ends up being the most fulfilling.”
Kitchen Music animation by Mark Neeley. Music + field recording by Cameron Knowler.
See more of Mark Neeley’s work on his website.
