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Character Mentor: Learn by Example to Use Expressions, Poses, and Staging to Bring Your Characters to Life 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
| Tom Bancroft (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
You've researched your character extensively, tailored her to your audience, sketched hundreds of versions, and now you lean back content as you gaze at your final character model sheet. But now what? Whether you want to use her in an animated film, television show, video game, web comic, or children's book, you're going to have to make her perform. How a character looks and is costumed starts to tell her story, but her body language reveals even more. Character Mentor shows you how to pose your character, create emotion through facial expressions, and stage your character to create drama. Author Tom Bancroft addresses each topic with clear, concise prose, and then shows you what he really means through commenting on and redrawing artwork from a variety of student "apprentices." His assignments allow you to join in and bring your drawing to the next level with concrete techniques, as well as more theoretical analysis. Character Mentor is an apprenticeship in a book.
Professional artists from a variety of media offer their experience through additional commentary. These include Marcus Hamilton (Dennis the Menace), Terry Dodson (X-Men), Bobby Rubio (Pixar), Sean "Cheeks" Galloway (Spiderman animated), and more. With a foreword by comicbook artist Adam Hughes, who has produced work for DC, Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures, and other companies.
- ISBN-13978-0240820712
- Edition1st
- PublisherRoutledge
- Publication dateNovember 12, 2012
- LanguageEnglish
- File size19200 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
You've researched your character extensively, tailored her to your audience, sketched hundreds of versions, and now you lean back content as you gaze at your final character model sheet. But now what? Whether you want to use her in an animated film, television show, video game, web comic, or children's book, you're going to have to make her perform. How a character looks and is costumed starts to tell her story, but her body language reveals even more. Character Mentor shows you how to pose your character, create emotion through facial expressions, and stage your character to create drama. Author Tom Bancroft addresses each topic with clear, concise prose, and then shows you what he really means through commenting on and redrawing artwork from a variety of student 'apprentices.' His assignments allow you to join in and bring your drawing to the next level with concrete techniques, as well as more theoretical analysis. Character Mentor is an apprenticeship in a book.--CartoonBrew.com
If, like me, you are always looking to push yourself as a character artist I cannot recommend this book enough... Each chapter is a lesson on a specific topic, ranging from Posing to Shape-based composition. At the end of a chapter [Tom] sets you homework followed by examples of completed tasks by fellow students. Tom himself has gone over each example, annotating and thoroughly explaining each one in order for you to see how to bring your own work up to scratch...The best thing about this book for me, however, is that it doesn't end. You can never be truly finished with it as the teachings within are always relevant...it's like having a teacher on your shelf that will never be too busy to help you out and will always give you good advice.--Robin Liebschner, Skwigly.com
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00ABLIKPU
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (November 12, 2012)
- Publication date : November 12, 2012
- Language : English
- File size : 19200 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 174 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,387,727 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #223 in Cartooning in Graphic Design
- #801 in Digital Art
- #16,759 in Graphic Design (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Tom Bancroft is a veteran Disney and Big Idea director. At Disney, he helped create the animation for many memorable characters including: Roger Rabbit, Young Simba, Jafar and Iago, Pocahontas, Rutt and Tuke and for the film MULAN he designed the character "Mushu", the dragon. While with Big Idea, he designed and directed the LarryBoy 2D series of videos. Tom still keeps his hands in animation, but he also enjoys creating comics, children's books, and characters for all forms of media.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on August 26, 2019
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Top reviews from the United States
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There have been a handful of books over the last thirty years or so that have touched on this topic to one degree or another. However, these are very often oversimplified, starting with volumetric shapes and hurrying through the details to arrive at the quickest complete character possible. Such methods are certainly valid and universally applicable -- for first-year animation students, perhaps, or fledgling comic book artists. Up until now, the question of what makes a character truly unique and lively has been left as something the novice must explore him/herself.
Tom Bancroft's book is probably the first one of its kind that goes past this basic level. Right off the bat, Tom assumes the reader is not only intelligent but avidly interested in the details. He explores perceptual cues, the various methods of conveying emotion and personality (which are far more numerous than simply drawing a smile or a frown), and the tiny little decisions that can completely alter the way an audience will see a character, for better or for worse.
Tom's experience as a veteran of Disney's traditional animation era really shines through here. And in an age where technology provides an ever-increasing range of shortcuts, it's ultimately all the more important that these techniques be detailed and passed on to the next generation of artists. Check this out -- you won't regret it.
Level: intermediate (not for beginners in drawing; I have been drawing for more than 10 years, including 4 years at an art institute, and I still had to do some research and practice on anatomy while reading this book).
Pros: - the chapters are well organized. Each will focus on a different feature of your drawing.
- very helpful tips from a professional
- there are exercises for each chapter, with student samples and instructor's comments on said samples
Cons: (I can't really call this a con, but for lack of a better word, I'll just go with it)
Don't expect this book to hand you all you need to know on a platter. It's a mentor, so you will still have to do some work on your own to find how to adapt the instructor's advice to your own style.
Top reviews from other countries
He actually gives you pointers that help into making your art feel more alive, that actually makes you realize what you need to look at and what you need to pay attention to.
I'm super happy, you NEED this book.
Ich bin sehr Begeistert davon!
Es wird Schritt für Schritt erklärt, wie man Posen Dynamischer und Interessanter Gestalten kann. Diese Beispiele sind immer anhand von 2 Möglichkeiten und im Vergleich zweiter Comic Zeichner gezeigt. Was ich persönlich sehr Interessant finde, da doch jeder Zeichner seinen eigenen Stil hat.
Sehr Interessant finde ich den Teil mit den Emotionen. Es ist doch sehr schwierig das Zeichnerisch fest zu halten und in diesem Buch wird es erklärt. Ich kannte bis jetzt kein einziges Buch oder Tutorial wo es erklärt wird.
Im Buch ist übrigens auch Perspektive erklärt anhand von mehren Beispielen, in verschiedenen Blickwinkeln.
Ich bin zwar eher im Mangabereich präsent, aber dieses Buch gefällt mir wirklich ausgesprochen gut.
Kaufempfehlung :-)













