If you’re interested in Animation as an art or a career, you must read these two books!

The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of the greatest Animators to ever lift a pencil. There is no better animation guide for traditional character animation. Borrow or buy it, and read it often!

The Animator’s Survival Tool Kit, by the master animator and director Richard Williams, began as an amazing seminar that I attended in 1999, and where I filled an entire 9×12 sketchpad with every single thing he drew or said over those three days! That information is now distilled into an amazing guidebook that every Animator should own.

more great animation books

The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking–From Flip-Books to Sound Cartoons to 3- D Animation by Kit Laybourne

Directing Animation by Dave Levy

Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive by Dave Levy

Animation Development: From Pitch to Production by Dave Levy

Chuck Amuck by Chuck Jones

Cartoon Animation by Jon M. Gibson

Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi by Preston Blair

Creating Animated Cartoons with Character: A Guide to Developing and Producing Your Own Series for TV, the Web, and Short Film by Joe Murray

Animation: From Script to Screen by Shamus Culhane

other fun reads

Go Metric
Go Metric is a terrific zine edited by my friend Mike Faloon.  Also, check out his book, The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock.

Penny Arcade
A great comic and website about video games and gaming culture.  I’m a huge fan of Mike Krahulik’s art, and seeing how his work has evolved and improved over the past eight years is a testament to not only doing what you love, but always trying to make today’s work better than yesterdays.

Bud’s Art Books and Fantagraphics Books
Amazon is great, but here are two terrific places to purchase hard to find graphic novels, and other books.