Shawn P. Krause was born as a middle and second child and a second son of Ronald "Ron" Krause and Jacqueline Laverne "Jackie" Krause (née Kissel). Ron was a previous and the second-generation manager of Krause Key & Lock, a prominent key store and locksmith service in
St. Louis, and was a business that has been established in 1947 by Shawn's paternal grandfather as well the store’s first-generation manager, William “Bill” Krause. The store itself also made its appearance during one of the montages in the end credits of
Inside Out, a film in which Shawn worked as a supervising animator. He had an older brother, Eric Krause, who is a current and the third-generation manager of the said store, and a younger sister, Candace "Candy" Gehricke (née Krause). He became interested in animation since his mother took him to watched the re-release of a
Disney animated feature,
Pinocchio and he also spent his childhood making flip books. His influences including
Disney veteran animators,
Frank Thomas and
Ollie Johnston, in which he owned and read the famous book they have created,
The Illusion of Life and he also watched the both said animators when they appeared as guest stars at
one of the episodes of
The Tonight Show, a show he used to watch and he was also influenced by the works of
Bud Luckey (who later worked with him at
Pixar) that were shown as segments in many episodes in
Sesame Street. He also used to watch animated shorts by
Warner Bros. Cartoons, such as
Looney Tunes with his father. As a native of
Mehlville, he attended the schools of
Mehlville School District, such as
Margaret Buerkle Middle School and
Mehlville High School. After he graduated from the said high school in 1987, he attended the
University of Missouri and graduated with Bachelor's Degree of Fine Art with a Minor in Art History and Archaeology in 1992. Some of his classmates were later become fellow animators who also worked at Pixar with him including
Sanjay Patel, Mark Walsh, Stephen Gregory,
Tasha Wedeen, and Bobby Podesta. He created one of his student films,
The Bicycle Thieves, his first year short film that caught the attention of
Pete Docter, and it also made it into ''CalArts Producer's Show''. During his second semester, his sessions at that college were temporarily halted due to the
1994 Northridge earthquake. At this time, he never earned a degree of this college due to never finished all the semesters, in which according to one of his interviews, he expressed regret. == Career ==