Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (ISBN 0786860707), 1981, is an acclaimed book by two of Disney's The Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. It is widely considered to be one of the best books ever published on the topic of character animation.

Totalling 576 pages, a revised edition, with the inverted title The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation was published October 19, 1995. It contains 489 plates in full colour, and thousands of black and white illustrations, ranging from storyboard sketches to entire animation sequences, all of which illustrate the exquisite art of Disney style animation.

The book gives many glimpses into the workings of the animation masters at Disney's during the _The_Golden_Age of animation. It is a frequently used reference among professional animators.

Disney books