The Illusion of Life

I was privileged to see firsthand these two Disney Legends and their passions for the craft of storytelling through animation. I worked with Frank and Ollie as a young animation trainee. I learned the basics of animation by ‘in-betweening’ scenes primarily for Frank. In addition to ‘in-betweening’ for Frank, he would give me scenes to animate under his supervision. The principles and philosophy of the ‘Disney way’ are explained within the pages of this book and I was fortunate to have absorbed them firsthand.

Applying the principles of animation that Frank and Ollie presented has had a tremendous effect on… show more.

I started my career at Walt Disney Animation Studios one year after graduating from school. I have the good fortune of working on The Lion King and learned a great deal about art, story, and collaboration while at the studio. This book is the best when it comes to understanding the tools to 2D animation and to many of the same skills used today in 3D animation. This book covers ideas in drawing, the principles of animation, and much more, all written by two of the nine old men, Frank and Ollie, masters of the craft.

This was one of my first animation books and by far the bible of classic Disney animation. The book explains the Disney animation process step-by-step including the 12-principles of animation, which applies to all animation techniques and is the foundation of great animation. This is a book that you will reference for a lifetime if you are pursuing a career in animation. 

This book offers so much knowledge into the animator's role in the animation process. I love that it covers a variety of positions in animation and offers some really fun sketches in there that inspire you to practice drawing. A book like this can be so valuable that you may not even have to take an animation class after reading it.

I bought this book many years ago when I couldn't really afford it. But there it was, a single, beautiful copy sitting on the floor in Floyd's bookstore in London, and I had to have it more than food or shelter. The anecdotes by the animators made me feel part of those early days at Disney Studios. The book has great warmth and is beautifully illustrated. The first edition, which I bought, was luxuriously huge with heavy stock and high-resolution printing, and cost a small fortune, but today it can be bought at a third of the cost with thinner… show more.