Wes Ball

Wes Ball was raised in the small Florida town of Lake Como, and attended Florida State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in film production. It was here that Wes first gained attention for his first animated student film, A Work in Progress, which was honored with a Student Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Fine Arts. Off of the success of A Work in Progress, Ball sold his first feature film idea, The Treehouse, to Warner Bros. and Tapestry Films. Although the project was never realized, it allowed Ball to hone his skills as a filmmaker, and to start his boutique visual effects and animation studio, Oddball Animation.

With the establishment of his independent animation company, Ball began a project alongside Tom Hanks on the IMAX-3D documentary Magnificent Desolation, as the pre-viz animation supervisor. In addition to this critically acclaimed project, Ball and his team designed title sequences and created CG-animation and visual effects for Playtone, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Pictures, and Spike TV, and many other companies.

In 2011, Ball led the visual effects effort for the steampunk music video Eye of The Storm, by Lovett. The work Wes accomplished as the visual effects director won high praise.

Ball's life changed greatly in March of 2012 with his digital release of the 3-D short film Ruin, a project that had been gestating for over six years. The short was only a tiny glimpse at a larger story, but gathered over 5,000,000 hits in its initial run online and continues to be discovered daily. The film catapulted Ball into the conversations of young directors to watch. Two months later, the feature version of Ruin sold to 20th Century Fox. That same week, the studio began talks for him to direct his first feature film, The Maze Runner, which he directed. Released by 20th Century Fox in 2014, the film grossed over $340 million in worldwide boxoffice.

20th Century Fox