Floaties
Lukas Niklaus, Garrick Rawlingson, Stephanie Parker and Laurent Herveic are our four Founders of Floating Rock, but you can call them the Floaties! Each driven by passion for their craft, with a dream to create unique originals, and 10+ years from the film industry, these friends established Floating Rock in 2020.
4 creative brains + assorted personalities x diverse ways of working = a vibrant, uniquely creative studio, backed by a fun and talented team aka the Rockies.
Rockies
The Rockies are our team of talented artists, production, and everyone in between. The majority of them are based in Wellington but we have plenty across the world too. Our Rockies buzz through our studio with good vibes and make an impact with their dedication and mahi (work) which feeds and creates an inspiring ecosystem! TLDR- our Rockies rock!
Meet Our Team
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Alex Telford
Senior Software & Pipeline Engineer
Alex is a senior software and pipeline engineer with over 13 years experience developing plugins, tools, and pipelines for visual effects. With a focus on User Experience and artist-driven workflows his work aims to minimize friction and cognitive load of artists to enable them to do what they do best- passionately creating!
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Benjamin Mulot
Senior Animator
Benji, Creator of 'Kyoryu', is a passionate artist who animates with an incredible eye for timing and weight. He has animated countless creatures and characters, including “Kong vs Godzilla, “Eternals”, “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Game of Thrones”.
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Garrick Rawlingson
Co-Founder // Chief Business Officer
Garrick is a versatile professional with expertise in client outreach and creative project leadership. He has extensive experience in character and creature animation and developed his creative eye having worked for top VFX studios around the world on films like Alita: battle Angel, Peter Rabbit 2, and The Hobbit 3. His natural social skills aligned him well for connecting with people and businesses.
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Laurent Herveic
Co-Founder // Chief Creative Officer
Laurent, has an asset creation background, specializing in facial modelling and FACS. His work on Pogo from 'The Umbrella Academy' earned the prestigous VES award nomination. His additonal work includes memorable characters for movies like 'Alita: Battle Angel' and 'Planet of the Apes'. Laurent's artistic eye leads the way when it comes to creative needs for high quality and structure for outstanding production.
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Lukas Niklaus
Co-Founder // Chief Executive Officer
Lukas leads Floating Rock with strategic vision and industry representation, audaciously driving the future of entertainment. His past as an Animator with credits on 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Jungle Book', he brings deep industry expertise and insight. Passionate about innovation, he pushes the boundaries for bold storytelling within the film and games industry.
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Nathan Santell
Executive Producer
Nathan, an Emmy-nominated Producer, is focused on drumming up business for Floating Rock on the service side of the company, ensuring projects run smoothly and he's instrumental in the development and sales of Floating Rock’s IP’s. He's worked on feature films 'Mad Max: Fury Road', 'Gravity', 'Avengers' and more. His past experiences and vast knowledge adds value when strengthening story development, managing teams, leading, and communicating.
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Stephanie Parker
Co-Founder // Chief Experience Officer
Stephanie drives Floating Rock's marketing and its unique IP incubator, Pitchfest, which fosters new ideas in film and games. An Animator by heart, she has worked on major films like 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' and 'Angry Birds', bringing creativity and precision into her work. By building innovative and engaging spaces for people to connect and create, she continues to make a positive impact in the industry.
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Sudesh Sudevan
Systems Administrator
Sudesh ensures Floating Rock's infrastructure runs smoothly and securely. With a strong background in IT support and system management, he's passionate about keeping teams connected and operations efficient.