Tom Bancroft(I)
- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
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 Children's 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
family-friendly "Veggietales" video series. In 2005, Bancroft had his
popular art instruction book "Creating Characters with Personality"
published by Watson-Guptill 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 best-selling
art instruction books. He has also illustrated over 50 children's
books, art directed a major children's educational website
(ABCMouse.com), 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 (TaughtByAPro.com), Artist in Residence for
Lipscomb Univeristy, speaks at video game companies and art schools all
around the world (EA Entertainment, SCAD, Ringling, Nemo Academy-Italy,
etc.) and creates art and art direction for clients all over the world.
Bancroft and his family reside in Franklin, Tennessee.
