Education
University of California, Los Los Angeles
animator director film producer
University of California, Los Los Angeles
He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Los Angeles Acker originally set a goal of becoming an architect. He earned a bachelor"s degree in architecture from the University of Florida in 1994 as well as a masters degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of the Arts and Architecture.
Upon graduating in 1999, he decided to become a film-maker and went to study at University of California, Los Angeles"s Animation Workshop.
There he created The Hangnail, The Astounding Talent of Mr. Grenade, and 9, and earned in 2004 a masters degree in animation.
His original short titled 9 took him four and a half years to complete and was released in 2005. Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman and The Nightmare Before Christmas) saw Acker"s short film and, with the help of Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) from Focus Features, made the feature film with Attitude Studios in Luxembourg and Starz Animation in Toronto.
He is also a visiting professor at Loyola Marymount University.
Acker is currently "Artist in Residence" at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, a provider of online tutorials for visual effects artists. He has been working at Gnomon on a short film Plus Minus, co-directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas and due for release in late 2011. In June 2011, Acker was chosen to direct a new live-action adaptation of the children"s book and television series, Thomas & Friends.
He will be working from a script by Chris Viscardi, Will McRobb and Josh Klausner.
Weta Digital will create the film"s visual effects, with design by Weta Workshop Design Department
In 2012, Shane Acker confirmed that he planned to work with Valve to create his next animated feature film, Deep. Like 9, the film will be in a post-apocalyptic world, although it has no relation to 9 and is set in a different universe, where World War III has forced humans underground.
Deep will be another darker animated film, as Shane Acker has expressed his interest in creating more Procter and Gamble-13 animated films.