As a child Acker was hyperactive, so his parents encouraged him to draw.[3] 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 master's degree from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.[3]
Career
Upon graduating in 1999, Acker decided to become a film-maker and went to study at UCLA's Animation Workshop. There he created The Hangnail, The Astounding Talents of Mr. Grenade, and 9. In 2004, Acker earned a master's degree in animation.[3]9 took him four and a half years to complete and was released in 2005. Acker concurrently held a position at Wētā FX in 2004 as an animator, where he focused on CG characters and creatures, followed by NCsoft from 2005 to 2006 as both an animator and CG generalist.[4]
From January 2009 to 2010[4] Acker worked as an instructor for an advanced animation class at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects. He worked at Gnomon on a short film Plus Minus,[5] co-directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas which was due for release in late 2011 but has yet to be released.[6]
In 2011, Acker formed Benthos Studio, an animation production company with partners Greg Little, Jack Mitchell and Brown Bag Films.[citation needed]
In 2012, Shane Acker confirmed that he planned to work with Valve to create his next film, Deep. Like 9, the film takes place 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. Shane Acker has expressed his interest in creating more PG-13 animated films, of which 9 and Deep are such.[9]
As of 2021, most of Acker's feature films, including his animated feature film Deep, are yet to be released.[10] Acker completed the short film Crusoe, which was shown at the Berlin Short Film Festival. The film won the award for Best Science Fiction Short Film at the festival.[11]
