Tom Bancroft

Tom Bancroft has almost 25 years of experience in the animation industry most of which was for Walt Disney Feature Animation where he was an animator for 11 years He has been nominated for Annie and Rueben awards spoken at the Kennedy Center and awarded an entry into the Chicago Childrens Film Festival While at Disney Bancroft had the opportunity to contribute his talents to 10 animated feature films five animated shorts and numerous special projects and commercials Among the classic films on which he worked are Beauty and the Beast The Lion King Aladdin Mulan and Brother Bear He was also a character designer and director for Big Idea Productions makers of the familyfriendly Veggietales video series In 2005 Bancroft had his popular art instruction book Creating Characters with Personality published by WatsonGuptill Publishers It has become the most recognized book on designing characters for animation video games comic books and cartooning and is a required textbook at many art schools around the world In 2012 Focal Press published his second book Character Mentor and it is already one of their bestselling art instruction books He has also illustrated over 50 childrens books art directed a major childrens educational website ABCMousecom wrote and illustrated multiple comic book series and created character designs for TV Film and Video games for clients like Lego Disney Warner Brothers Dreamworks CBN Random House Big Idea Production Marvel and more Presently Bancroft is the Head of Character design for the animated TV series Superbook Seasons 2 to 4 for Christian Broadcasting Network President of his online art instruction website TaughtByAProcom Artist in Residence for Lipscomb Univeristy speaks at video game companies and art schools all around the world EA Entertainment SCAD Ringling Nemo AcademyItaly etc and creates art and art direction for clients all over the world Bancroft and his family reside in Franklin Tennessee IMDB