The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation

This book is FANTASTIC. I am a college student trying to learn traditional animation and this book is perfect. I have spent countless hours bookmarking pages and annotating things like a crazy person because of how much there is to learn from this, even just in the tiny side notes! There is so much attention to even the tiniest of details, and even after going through this book countless times, I feel as if I am always learning something new. I cannot emphasize how good this book is even for people who are not into learning animation. This is my go-to coffee table book now; every person who comes into my dorm for the first time looks at the book for at least an hour (no I am not kidding) The quality of the pages is amazing - anyone who picks up this book can tell how well it was made.

Wow what a whopper of a book. I really enjoyed “The Magic Behind the Voices” a who’s who of animated character vocals – and this book on Disney animation seemed like a great follow up. It was. It was for me also surprisingly BIG, and at well over 500 pages a big effort to actually read. I read this for the history with no intention of becoming an animator. However my doodles have improved a lot since I've been reading this. I didn’t grow up with Disney movies. When I was a kid in the 70’s Disney was in kind of a slump with their animated films. I even remember reading something somewhere about how they would never get back the old magic. But I was still affected by Disney. I was in their “Record Club” for a short while. We also somehow had little plastic Disney character figures to play with (Kids - this was before Wal-Mart and China and the Internet) I still got to see Disney Illustrations everywhere and imagine the movies that were so famous in our culture. Then later when Disney got it’s magic back (after this book was written) I went out on a date with a girl to see Beauty and the Beast. And then got married to that girl and we lived happily ever after. And we had kids that grew up with Disney on video. So I got to see what I missed. Thank you Disney you have made my life a dream come true! Ok it wasn’t all you. Anyway about the book . . . It’s great history. Walt Disney doesn’t actually invent anything . . . but his workers do and he creates a whole new industry and world looking for magic . . . that “golden moment” that takes an audience to another place and leaves them feeling good. The book is extremely well written, wonderfully illustrated . . . but will cost you part of your life to read word for word. I think the lessons learned in animating are good lessons for life. Look for what is inspirational and moving. Creative teamwork can bring results no one imagined. Keep moving, and keep people engaged. Make something beautiful that people feel a part of. The character and the story are the driving and meaningful factors. So I feel happy and sad. Sad because maybe deep down I thought there was some real magic in Disney. Happy though, that the magic they were going for was after all, life. And life is pretty special.

I first saw Disney's Pinnochio as a six year old, and it changed my life. It lead to a life-long love of art, animation, ecology, whales, and the sea. As I grew older I was to learn that Pinnochio, along with Bambi, is regarded as among the very best, if not THE best of Disney animation. I have both these films on DVD, and any law abiding animation fan shouldn't be without them. Nor should any animation nut be without this book. This is a most comprehensive, colourfully illustrated document of the why's and wherefore's of Disney animation. While it goes into considerable detail, it is strictly speaking not a manual as such. It is more designed as an insight into the mysteries of animation for the lay person, with more than enough to inspire and inform any potential animator. It covers the various aspects of the animation process, and the history of Disney animation. It is accompanied by ooddles, and oodles of full page colour photos, reproductions of animation sequences of famous Disney characters, diagrams, sections on each of the main Disney animators, and hilarious caricatures that animators did of each other. This book is simply a "must have" for any Disney animation fan, or any animation fan period. I am thrilled to have this book. It arrived in record time too, and well packaged. Do yourself a favour, and get this. You'e GOT TO HAVE IT! You won't be disappointed.

Speaking as someone who started animation awhile back and needed to learn from the best, I found this one book the most helpful. I was turned onto the book from one of the actual Disney animators and we were able to discuss being in the business. It's what he, and most of the others that work there, consider the Bible of Animaton. His words. The book itself is not for a quick read or a nightly read. It's an education and industry guide for the world of movies. As I'm working on any project, you can bet I reference this book a lot. The book is great for people like myself to read straight up, but I get a kick out of those that say it's dry and boring. The book itself is full of the best wisdoms of the founding fathers of animation. The samples are great and it's full of great behind the scenes photos and stories. I really enjoyed the character sketches and quick animations. Definately not a book to miss if you are interested in getting into animation, both hand-drawn and computer. It applies to both because it teaches you the fundamentals of animaton, the timing, the story, and the overall production. It's a great foundation for anyone wanting to learn the craft.

I've read a few books on animation and practically every one has mentioned this book, and I honestly wished I read it first! This book acts as the history of character animation at Disney. On tip of that, also has notes on character animation and how to do it! It has photos from production of Disney films and short highlights on certain artists. They were my favorite part overall. Helped a lot with my animation journey.

I had an earlier version of this book (originally called "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life") that mysteriously disappeared from my garage where I had temporarily stored it. I remembered poring over it and studying it and marveled at the creativity and craftsmanship of the Disney animators. For years, I went without replacing it, until I looked it up on Amazon and ordered it and now it's part of my library once more - along with other Disney artwork books, as well as books of the great American illustrators and designers. I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the Nine Old Men before they passed away and only wish I had this volume under my arm at the time, so they could have autographed it. If your child shows any aptitude at drawing or illustration or longs to get into animation as a career, I would highly recommend this book to study and refer to time and time again. As an erstwhile illustrator and someone who made a successful career as a graphic designer and marketing professional, it's critical that even if your child longs to be a computer graphics wizard or Pixar-worthy artist, that they learn to master basic drawing skills, so they can bring relatively flat interesting 2d characters to very believable and dynamic full 3d life. This book may light a fire under them and give them the inspiration they need or are looking for.

This is the ultimate book if you love Disney Animation! The concept art is stunning, and there are so many cool facts I did not find in any other book. This might be my favorite book of all time!

Very good