Senior Character Animator – AI Performance Transfer Lead

Mercor; Los Angeles (CA); Remote; USD 83,000 - 124,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading AI lab seeks a senior character animator to help define what a well-transferred performance looks like, bridging acting and AI evaluation. This part-time W-2 role is hosted by Cincinnatus LLC, with opportunities to be placed onsite at a top AI lab.

Requirements include 10+ years of hands-on animation, feature/VFX/AAA credits, and proficiency with facial animation and real-time pipelines. On-site sessions in Playa Vista, CA or New York, NY may occur monthly.

Qualifications

• 10+ years hands-on character animation focused on human acting.
• Credits on feature films, VFX features or AAA game cinematics.
• Sharp eye for micro expressions, lip sync, weight and timing.
• Facial animation experience and real-time engines preferred (Unreal/Unity).
• Experience with generative image/video tools to create samples for testing.

Responsibilities

• Set the quality bar for carried-over performances in body, face, timing and emotion.
• Critique model outputs shot by shot and write precise notes.
• Build benchmarks with reference performances from easy to hard.
• Shape the reviewer pool, rubric and calibration for scoring outputs at scale.
• Collaborate with other experts to maintain evaluation consistency.

Skills

Character animation

Micro expressions

Lip sync

Timing

Real-time engines

Tools

Sora

Veo

Midjourney

Runway

Kling

Job description

A leading AI lab seeks a senior character animator to help define what a well-transferred performance looks like, bridging acting and AI evaluation. This part-time W-2 role is hosted by Cincinnatus LLC, with opportunities to be placed onsite at a top AI lab.

Requirements include 10+ years of hands-on animation, feature/VFX/AAA credits, and proficiency with facial animation and real-time pipelines. On-site sessions in Playa Vista, CA or New York, NY may occur monthly.