Character and Facial Animation Consultant

$60–90/hrrate as listed

A leading AI lab is building a performance transfer model — one that carries an actor's timing, emotion, and physical choices into a new output — and needs senior character animators to define what a faithful capture actually looks like. You'll set evaluation criteria, curate easy and hard benchmark performances, and help shape the rubric and reviewer profile used to score model outputs at scale.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

The work

This is evaluation design, not production animation. Day to day you'll be articulating — in language precise enough to survive being turned into a rubric — why one output preserves a performance and another quietly flattens it. That means naming the specific failure: an eyebrow that fires a frame late, a smile that reaches full extension without the asymmetry the actor actually had, a jaw that tracks the phoneme but loses the breath before the line. You'll critique the lab's current evaluation approach where it's too coarse, curate benchmark clips spanning trivially easy captures to genuinely adversarial ones, and help define the expertise mix and scoring template for the larger pool of human reviewers. Expect to generate your own visual samples for comparison testing and to work alongside other subject-matter experts to keep calibration tight.

What the screen looks for

Mercor's AI-led interview is checking that performance is genuinely your core craft, not adjacent to it. Be ready to name specific credits on features, animated features, or AAA game cinematics, describe your exact scope on each, and go several follow-ups deep on facial pipelines — keyframe workflow, mocap solving and cleanup, FACS-based rigs, corrective shapes, retargeting problems. The listing is explicit that DPs, lighting and camera specialists, colorists, compositors, editors, layout, previs, environment, effects, and generalist 3D artists do not qualify on their own. The other thing being measured is whether you can convert visual judgment into written criteria — vague praise for "good acting" won't survive the follow-up.

Logistics and pay

Part-time W-2 employment with Cincinnatus LLC, the employer of record, with placement into a leading AI lab's extended workforce. Not freelance or project-based.
Hybrid, not remote: on-site working sessions in Playa Vista (Los Angeles) or New York once or twice a month are required.
Observed pay band is $60–90/hr — as posted, not guaranteed; final rate depends on credits, depth, and the lab's leveling.
4+ years hands-on character animation and 2+ verifiable credits are hard gates. A 4K monitor for pixel-level review is listed as optional but useful.

Good fit if you've spent years on faces and have opinions about what mocap solvers ruin. Poor fit if you want an anonymous piecework task queue.

What they look for

4+ years hands-on character animation with performance as core craft
Verifiable credits on 2+ features, animated features, or AAA game cinematics
Facial animation and/or performance capture: keyframe, mocap solving, cleanup, or facial rig technical design
Ability to translate micro-expression detail into precise written criteria and captions
Familiarity with AI tools and generating your own visual samples for comparison
Availability for monthly on-site sessions in Playa Vista, LA or New York, NY

Before you apply

Would you pass this screen?

Drawn from what this listing actually requires. Answered in your browser — nothing is sent to us, and we do not store your answers.

Do you have at least 4 years of professional experience as a hands-on character animator, with human or character performance as your core craft?
4+ years hands-on character animation experience · required
Are you credited on 2 or more feature films, animated features, or AAA game cinematics at recognized studios?
Feature film, animated feature, or AAA game cinematic credits · required
Do you have direct hands-on experience with facial animation and/or performance capture work (facial keyframe, motion-capture solving, cleanup, motion editing, or facial rig design)?
Facial animation or performance capture experience · required
Are you familiar with AI tools and workflows, and able to generate your own visual samples for testing and comparison?
Familiarity with AI tools and workflows · preferred
Are you able to come on-site in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, CA or New York, NY once or twice per month for in-person working sessions?
Geographic availability · required
Do you have reliable access to a 4K-resolution monitor for precise, pixel-level review?
4K monitor access · preferred

0 of 6 answered

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 13 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: Whether the candidate thinks about performance as *emotion first* rather than technical execution, and whether they can articulate the micro-decisions that sell authenticity to an audience.
A strong answer: Name a specific scene with an emotional or psychological arc (not just a technical rig challenge). Explain what made the performance subtle or hard—a micro-expression, a held pause, a contradiction between what the character says and does—and describe the iterative choices made to nail it, ideally referencing feedback or reference.
Where people lose it: Focusing on technical prowess ("I rigged a complex facial system") instead of the *performance choices* that made the emotion land. Or describing a scene where the brief was simply to match mocap cleanup rather than interpret a performance.