On January 10, HUH YUNJIN released her fifth self-penned song, “jellyfish.” The artwork for the music video pairs visuals that capture HUH YUNJIN’s perspective as she watches jellyfish swimming in the deep abyss from various angles with her personal handwriting to amplify the song’s consoling message. We spoke with artist mareykrap, who created the artwork for HUH YUNJIN’s “jellyfish” music video, to learn more about the creative process behind it.
Could you please introduce yourself to the readers of weverse magazine?
mareykrap: Hello, I’m mareykrap, aka Park Yeram, and I’m an artist. I primarily work on animated graphics, but I’ve been doing static illustrations lately as well. Just like my alias “mareykrap” doesn’t have any real meaning, I enjoy creating work that’s sort of unusual or bizarre. I aim for a sort of uncanny feeling by combining unfamiliar colors, situations, and objects into my art. My main approach is through rotoscoping, which captures motion and is a technique that allows an artist to follow their vision to create in a way that’s seriously limitless. I started exploring rotoscoping because I wanted to make my illustrations move. At the time, drawing was a way of keeping a record of moments I wanted to preserve, and I thought that if those records could move and loop repeatedly, they’d leave an even more vivid memory. Over time, my efforts in rotoscoping led to me making full animations, like the “jellyfish” music video. When I rotoscope, I don’t copy the real-life subject itself, just the movement.
What were your first impressions hearing “jellyfish”? How did those impressions influence the overall tone of what you produced?
mareykrap: SOURCE MUSIC was incredibly thorough in explaining the project and “jellyfish” to me. I loved HUH YUNJIN’s song so much right after I heard it that I was happy to jump on board. The first time I heard it, I felt it wasn’t simply a cheery song. I actually jotted down some keywords at the time. HUH YUNJIN: cynical, sarcastic, somewhat lethargic, contemplative, futility. Jellyfish: free-spirited, worry-free—like that. To me, the song expressed how HUH YUNJIN longs to live free-spirit and worry-free like a jellyfish, but that it isn’t realistic, which only drives her to want it more. And she seemed to project all sorts of feelings onto the jellyfish—kinship, admiration, lethargy, solace. What I got from the song was the struggle of not being able to just drift through life but instead having to swim with all your might, as if there’s no other choice. So, when I went to make the music video, I ended up playing on what HUH YUNJIN feels while looking at jellyfish and emphasizing that sarcastic and cynical tone. From there, I drew the HUH YUNJIN’s deep inner world and all the different jellyfish that always occupy it.
The lyrics to “jellyfish” describe the speaker’s inner emotional state as they watch jellyfish. Given the abstract nature of the song, I’m assuming there were a lot of factors you had to consider when shaping the story or creating concrete visuals. Could you share what you prioritized when depicting HUH YUNJIN in the music video and the ideas behind the individual shots?
mareykrap: Even though the song’s titled “jellyfish,” I didn’t want to simply make a music video centered entirely around them. Instead, I focused on showcasing HUH YUNJIN’s perspective as she watches them. So I had the music video show HUH YUNJIN experiencing a range of emotions while being with the jellyfish. Sometimes she stares blankly at jellyfish much larger and more spectacular than herself. Other times, she sits down on a soft, squishy jellyfish to take a rest, or reaches out as if to touch them as they elegantly drift along, or simply sits lethargically on a stool. Rather than literally show each line of the lyrics one after the other, I wanted to show the overall meaning through a number of shots, one at a time. For example, where the song goes, “Jellyfish, why don’t you know / How beautiful you are,” I chose to have a single jellyfish on its own, swimming more gracefully than any others, to reflect HUH YUNJIN’s viewpoint.
The thing I paid the most attention to while portraying HUH YUNJIN in the music video was her fabulous sense of fashion. Even though it takes place underwater, I wanted to draw her in the kind of clothes you see onstage or in fashion magazines rather than go with swimsuits or other ocean-themed outfits. That’s because I interpreted lines like, “Just keep swimming / Plenty busy just drifting about / We still have a long way to go / Perhaps I’m someone else's jellyfish, struggling to survive,” as being reflective of her career. I used the clothing as a kind of metaphor to show what I felt, which was that she holds onto thoughts about her work even while swimming alongside the jellyfish deep in her mind.
The focus shifts from the listener to the speaker later in the song. How did you capture that in your art?
mareykrap: I felt the narrator of this song was intentionally left ambiguous. When it’s from the jellyfish’s perspective, it sounds like they understand HUH YUNJIN’s feelings, and while it’s from her perspective, it seems like she understands them back. There’s a part where HUH YUNJIN is inside one of the jellyfish and floats there weightlessly, and that’s meant to represent her desire to become one herself. She can’t actually become a jellyfish, though—she just floats inside one momentarily, which is meant to reflect the way she briefly observes or pictures jellyfish, or a kind of way to relax. In the most memorable part of the song, which goes, “You’re busy breathing, I’ll appreciate you in your stead,” HUH YUNJIN’s there alone without any jellyfish around. I wanted to depict a moment where the boundaries between her and the jellyfish blur and it feels like they identify with one another. I incorporated a lot of jellyfish-inspired curves for the dress she’s wearing during that part, too.
In another interview, you mentioned how you pay special attention to texture when practicing your craft. What do you normally prioritize or value most in your creative process, and how were those reflected while making this video?
mareykrap: Some things I tend to keep in mind while working are: try to surprise yourself in a new way each time; don’t repeat what you’ve done before; choose the right approach for each project; leave no room for regrets. I try not to repeat myself by making sure I don’t always stick with my typical style, and instead try to keep myself open to new interpretations for each new project and find a way from there. For “jellyfish,” since it’s rooted in imagination and not real life, I spent a lot of time thinking about fun poses that could emerge from the interactions between the jellyfish and human forms. And, as you mentioned, I did also pay a lot of attention to texture. Even when they first asked me to do this, they specifically asked for me to make the textures in my art stand out, so I mixed various textures in each frame. I was also really mindful of where HUH YUNJIN’s handwriting would appear. Since she wrote it in pen, I worried it might clash with the rough textures of the background, so I decided to have her words move like the background does. And what I was most focused on was the design of each jellyfish and figuring out how HUH YUNJIN would interact with them.
How did you feel when you saw the final product? Is there anything you'd like to say about working on the project?
mareykrap: First of all, it was an honor to contribute to such a beautiful song. I heard that HUH YUNJIN specifically said she liked my illustrations when they were choosing an artist, and it had been a while since I animated a whole music video, so while it was challenging, it was also incredibly fun. I was involved from the beginning right to the end, from the planning stages to the actual production, so it’s near and dear to my heart. I also want to thank Yu Rok at SOURCE MUSIC, who was managing things and was so considerate and supportive all throughout it. It was a huge blessing to be able to take what a musical artist worked on and convey it in a world of my own, and I’m so grateful for that.
You’ve done a lot of work with K-pop and R&B artists before. What are your thoughts on putting a visual spin on music?
mareykrap: I grew up watching music videos on MTV every day before and after school. Honestly, sometimes I can’t believe I get to work in this field now. Everyone’s got one or two music videos they think are really cool and they watch again and again, and I think creating visuals for music is all about taking an already incredible song and giving it high-impact visuals so it lingers in your mind even more. It’s about creating a mental image that comes to you whenever you hear the song. That eventually became my goal. I get to take what I picture when I hear a song and bring it to life, and I’m almost 100% N in my MBTI, so to get to bring my imagination to life like that through my work is incredibly exciting. Getting to do what I love for a living is such a blessing. It can obviously be tough a lot of the time, but transforming music into the visual medium helps me dream again. Watching something I dreamed up take physical form right in front of my eyes tells me that nothing in this world is impossible. One thing I realized at a deep level these past few years is just how much faith an artist has to have in me to leave the visualization of a song that’s so precious to them in my hands. That trust means the world to me, and I’m filled with gratitude for it. So, every time I take on a project for a song, I give it my all and try not to leave any room for regrets. To everyone who has entrusted me with their work and to those who’ve enjoyed watching what I’ve made, thank you so much. I really mean it. Have a wonderful 2025 and may it be a happy new year where your dreams can take shape.
