Intern - Animator and Rigging Artist

Human Computer Lab; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Human Computer Lab in San Francisco is seeking a technical animator to rig LeLamp and own the animation pipeline for the robot hardware. You’ll bridge creative intent with real joint constraints and actuator limits, collaborating with the CEO and engineers.

You will build and maintain rigs, design idle motion and gestures, translate animation to hardware, keep URDF-compatible representations, and develop internal tools and pipelines to iterate until the motion reads as alive.

Qualifications

• Have professional experience as a technical animator or rigger with a strong rigging and animation portfolio.
• Are fluent in Maya, Blender, or similar DCC tools and can build production-quality rigs from scratch.
• Understand animation principles such as timing, weight, anticipation, and follow-through.
• Have experience rigging mechanical or non-organic subjects with real-world constraints.
• Have strong intuition for what makes motion feel alive rather than mechanical.
• Have experience animating robots, mechanical characters, or non-humanoid subjects.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the robot rig, defining joint hierarchies, constraints, and control structures aligned with hardware limits
• Design and animate behaviors including idle motion, reactions, transitions, gestures, and interaction sequences
• Work with controls and firmware engineers to translate animation intent into real robot motion
• Stay aligned with mechanical updates and maintain the rig as the platform evolves
• Maintain a URDF-compatible or simulation-ready representation of the robot
• Help define the robot’s motion language and expressive vocabulary
• Build internal tools, workflows, and documentation for the animation pipeline
• Evaluate animations on physical hardware and iterate until intent translates reliably

Skills

Rigging portfolio

Animation

Motion design

Tools

Maya

Blender

URDF

ROS

Gazebo

MuJoCo

Isaac Sim

Unity

Unreal

Job description

Human Computer Lab is a research lab building character robots that feel alive and responsive. Our first robot, LeLamp, explores a new category of consumer robotics where everyday objects become interactive and help us reshape our attachment to technology.

Our goal is to push the frontier of human-robot interaction by making technology more legible, emotionally intuitive, and human-centered. We are building the foundation for a new generation of robots designed for everyday environments.

What to expect

We're looking for a technical animator to rig LeLamp, our first robot, and own the animation pipeline that brings it to life on physical hardware people will actually live with. This role sits at an unusual intersection: the technical depth to build a rig that maps onto real joint constraints and actuator limits, and the creative sensibility to design motion that feels intentional and warm, shaping whether the robot comes across as alive or mechanical. You'll work closely with the CEO and engineers to translate design intent into motion that runs on the robot itself, not just in a viewport.

In this role, you will:

• Build and maintain the robot rig, defining joint hierarchies, constraints, and control structures aligned with hardware limits

• Design and animate behaviors including idle motion, reactions, transitions, gestures, and interaction sequences

• Work with controls and firmware engineers to translate animation intent into real robot motion

• Stay aligned with mechanical updates and maintain the rig as the platform evolves

• Maintain a URDF-compatible or simulation-ready representation of the robot

• Help define the robot’s motion language and expressive vocabulary

• Build internal tools, workflows, and documentation for the animation pipeline

• Evaluate animations on physical hardware and iterate until intent translates reliably

You may be a good fit if you:

• Have professional experience as a technical animator or rigger with a strong rigging and animation portfolio

• Are fluent in Maya, Blender, or similar DCC tools and can build production-quality rigs from scratch

• Understand animation principles such as timing, weight, anticipation, and follow-through

• Have experience rigging mechanical or non-organic subjects with real-world constraints

• Have strong intuition for what makes motion feel alive rather than mechanical

• Are comfortable building pipelines in environments where they don't yet exist

• Have experience animating robots, mechanical characters, or non-humanoid subjects

• Have exposure to procedural animation, motion graphs, or behavior trees

• Are familiar with URDF, ROS, or simulators such as Gazebo, MuJoCo, or Isaac Sim

• Have experience working in Unity, Unreal, or other real-time animation environments

• Have experience collaborating with engineering teams on hardware or robotics projects

You will be a strong fit, if you:

• Care deeply about motion as a form of communication

• See constraints like joint limits and actuator bandwidth as part of the creative process

• Take ownership of the robot’s motion language from keyframe to hardware execution

• Work well in small, collaborative teams across animation, engineering, and design

• Want to create motion for a physical object that lives in someone’s home, not just on a screen

The early team becomes the DNA of the company. We set ourselves and others to a high standard, and we respond with kindness when things get hard but keep everyone accountable. This requires us to be curious, creative, and diverse in our thinking and approach.
We're proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. Even if you don't meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply. Studies show that women and underrepresented groups often hold back unless they meet 100% of the criteria - we don't want that to be the reason we miss out on great talent.