About

Kitsunemation is my little home to work on animations of my own and reflect on my own practice. It's a combination of Kitsune and Animation.

Kitsune are Japanese fox spirits that have paranormal abilities that increase as they age and can shapeshift. Known as “the fox of a thousand appearances”, the more tails a Kitsune has, the older, wiser and more powerful it is. It feels appropriate and I like what this means for my renewed enthusiasm for creative pursuits at this stage of my life.

I've always been in love with animation. I find it simply magical and I love how it can bring even the most complex subjects to life. My earliest memory of animation is a book I had as a child called, Anyone can draw by Albert Murfy and Sara Silcock. It had a foreword by Tony Hart. My biggest takeaway from the book was wonderment at the little mouse drawn in the margin: it suddenly came to life as you flipped the pages.

Stop motion was also my first love growing up - Morph, Wallace and Gromit, Rex the Runt, Ray Harryhausen's work on Jason and the Argonauts - and I think there's something really nice about how tactile it is. I'm a particular fan of Aardman and LAIKA, and in recent years i've enjoyed the work of Animatortor, Frantic Frames and Big Whoop! animation. I'm a very big fan of The Tiny Chef show too 🥰

Digital animation has also had a big impact on me. I grew up with Popeye, Tintin and Count Duckula. Of course, we were spoilt for choice with feature films from Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, but I also had (have!) a real soft spot for Basil the Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers and Fern Gully. Also, who can forget Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a live-action meets animation masterpiece starring Bob Hoskins. More recently, I think the Bluey series is simply wonderful.

Growing up with the developing web culture, and particularly the Flash era, I loved the heartfelt web series Ninjai: The Little Ninja by Team Ninjai and exciting Minushi by Tyler Gibb. The latter was a big inspiration since Tyler made it virtually by themself and shared so much of their process. I also saw Belleville Rendezvous for the first time.. a film that stayed with me right up until I watched it again this year (2025).

If Disney was a big part of my childhood, then Studio Ghibli has been a big part of my young adult life and beyond. There is such a cosy, reassuring quality to their films. From My Neighbour Totoro to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Kiki's Delivery Service, Gauche the Cellist, Ponyo and Arrietty and many more, they all have such fantastic stories about companionship, environmentalism, the human experience and the fantastical in the everyday.

What I actually love the most about them though are the depictions of daily life, particularly Japanese culture and folklore. There's so many standout scenes where the animators have shown their incredible skills at capturing even the tiniest moments, like the way way water flows in a stream, how aircraft sail on the wind and - wow - the food always looks incredible!

I'm passionate and continually fascinated by Japanese culture. Beyond Studio Ghibli, I love how Ghost in the Shell, Psychopass and Time of Eve show us different reflections of society, politics and 'what if?' scenarios. My favourite anime of all time is Cowboy Bebop, but Samurai Champloo - also by Shinichirō Watanabe, is a close second. Not only do I love Cowboy Bebop for it's western sci-fi aesthetic and Samurai Champloo for it's historical Japanese setting, both series are orchestrated so well around their soundtracks, being Bebop and Hip Hop respectively.

Having studied games design, 3D animation has always inspired me too. Pixar and Dreamworks have made incredible films that I love, such as Toy Story, Frozen, Inside Out, The Incredibles, Coco, Monsters Inc, and How to Train your Dragon. My favourite 3D animation film is Moana - i've seen it so many times - but I think K-Pop Demon Hunters may just have eclipsed that now.

I've long been a consumer of animation, but i've always had that feeling that I could make something of my own. Since last summer (2024), i've been trying to reconnect with my creative interests. However, it wasn't until one of my favourite stop motion creatives, Tortor Smith aka Animatortor, shared that they were launching a new stop motion community, that I thought I could give it a go.

It's early days but i'm having so much fun thinking up ideas and bringing them to life. I'm loving how tactile and instant stop motion is. Compared to digital animation, the barrier to entry feels much lower to me, and i've surprised myself by how quickly i've been able to bring my ideas to life.

This little corner of the web is my space to continue to do that, and also to share my learning about animation and the works of others that I think are pretty damn cool.