The Buddhist concept of anatman states that the self is empty, ephem-eral and dependent on an endless number of conditions for its existence. The illusion of continuous movement and life in animation shares this empty, ephemeral, and dependent nature. As a time-based art form that lives only in a series of instances, animation requires a number of stages of creation to come into being and when broken down in search of a defining essence, it re-veals only empty spaces between drawn frames. These qualities make the Buddhist illusory self and animation’s illusion of life perfect parallels that mutually help enrich the understanding of each. Both feed into the themes contained within the visuals and narrative of my thesis animated short about the loss of self.