RISING TALENT 2024: VFX AND ANIMATION

RISING TALENT 2024

The IF Rising Talent list for 2024 is made up of people we think will shift and lead our industry into the future. Some are newer faces, others have recently stepped into senior roles where they’re now making waves. We think you’ll want to work with all of them. We put this list together through a public call out and extensive insdustry outreach. This year, we had a staggering 692 names put forward. As always, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of talent that’s out there in Australia.

VFX AND ANIMATION

HEATHER ECK

Heather Eck began her career in 2014 as a runner at The Mill in New York, and is now a lead compositor at Fin Design and Effects in Sydney.

She got her feet wet in commercial work for Apple, Cartier, and Hennessey, but since immigrating to Australia, has switched to film and episodic work. Her credits include Penguin Bloom and The Dry at Alt.Vfx, and at Fin Design, Thor: Love and Thunder, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Creator.

As a compositor, Eck works mostly in Nuke. She prides herself on speed and accuracy of comps, and has used many out of the box techniques to accomplish shots that don’t have time to go through the full pipe.

As a lead, she has mentored many new artists and is currently involved in setting up formal training at Fin Design.

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SHEREE CHUANG

Sheree Chuang is a lighting technical director at Industrial Light & Magic in Sydney.

Chuang graduated with a Bachelor of 3D Art & Animation from the Design Centre Enmore in 2014, before landing her first job in the industry as a 3D modeling intern at Iloura Sydney in 2015. Prior to joining ILM, Chuang worked at Rising Sun Pictures in Adelaide and Framestore in Melbourne.

Given the opportunity to explore different aspects of the VFX pipeline before honing her skills, she ultimately found passion in the lighting department. With an enthusiasm for cinematography and solid foundation in painting, Chuang blends her creative skills and technical expertise as a VFX artist to tackle complicated sequences.

Her notable credits include Game of Thrones: Battles of the Bastards (Emmy winner for best VFX), Disney’s Christopher Robin (Oscar-nominated for best VFX), John Wick 2 and 3, and most recently Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

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CALEB DE LEON

Caleb De Leon is a VFX supervisor with more than 10 years’ experience across commercials, TV and feature films.

Graduating from Griffith Film School in 2014, De Leon already had five years’ experience working in 3DCG and motion graphics for outside broadcast. His career in visual effects started at Alt.Vfx as a visual effects assistant.

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By 2019, he was a gun-for-hire visual effects supervisor, flame artist and colourist across South East Asia. In 2021 he found a home at Queensland’s Chop Shop Post as their creative director and VFX supervisor, where he built their visual effects department from the ground up to deliver sequences for Paramount+, Netflix and Amazon Studio projects.

In 2024, De Leon is stepping into role of creative director and VFX supervisor at 3P Studio, leading their team of VFX and CG artists and growing the studio’s long-form post production offering. He is also passionate about nurturing and mentoring the next generation of artists.

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JAKE DUCZYNSKI

Jake Duczynski is a proud Gomeroi and Mandandanji writer, director and animator who is committed to First Nations representation on screen and fortifying a space for Indigenous voices in the animation industry.

Duczynski is the co-writer and director of ABC short-form series Cooked, and was the animator and illustrator of the Walkley award winning SBS interactive animation My Grandmother’s Lingo, which also won Best Responsive Website at the SXSW Festival and a 2017 Webby Award for Best Use of Interactive Video.

In 2021 Duczynski launched Studio Gilay in partnership with James Hackett. Duczynski is development on Orcy & JJ, co-created with Taboo from BackEyed Peas, and co-partners Studio Gilay and Flying Bark. Other projects in development include Cooked: An Ownerous Deed, Gali and Dreaming Country. Duczynski recently directed the ABC Kids Lullaby, Ninganah, written and performed by Troy Cassar-Daley.

His animation commemorating the 25th anniversary of the landmark Mabo High Court decision was projected onto Sydney’s Maritime Museum, and he helped design From the Sails: Light Years, a 17-minute motion artwork projected onto the Sydney Opera House’s sails for its 50th anniversary.

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LACHLAN PENDRAGON

Lachlan Pendragon is a Brisbane-based stop-motion animator and filmmaker.

After completing a Bachelor of Animation at Griffith Film School, Pendragon continued into higher degree research specialising in stop-motion animation, which he developed a strong passion for.

As part of his research, he wrote, directed and animated short film An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It, which went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short and won the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards. Pendragon shot the film over 10 months during COVID lockdowns in his mum’s living room.

The meta-comedy, a meditation on the art of stop-motion, is also nominated for the 2024 AACTA Award for Best Short Film, and won Best Australian Short Film at Melbourne International Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Graduation Short at Annecy and shortlisted for the Yugo BAFTA Student Awards.

Pendragon is currently completing his Doctor of Visual Art and is in development on a number of feature film ideas.