Senior Character Animator - VFX Expert

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Character Animator - VFX Expert based in the United States. Join an innovative AI research initiative where your expertise in character animation will help shape the next generation of AI-generated performances. As a Senior Character Animator, you will evaluate digital character performances and establish quality standards for realistic movement, facial expression, timing, and emotional authenticity. You will provide expert feedback to improve model accuracy and help define benchmarks for assessing animation quality. Working alongside other creative and technical specialists, you will contribute to consistent evaluation frameworks and reviewer calibration. This remote contract opportunity is suited to an experienced animation professional with a strong background in feature films, visual effects, or AAA game cinematics. Your creative judgment will play a key role in advancing AI capabilities in character performance. Accountabilities: As a Senior Character Animator, you will apply your animation expertise to assess AI-generated performances, establish evaluation standards, and support the development of reliable quality-assessment processes. - Define clear standards for evaluating performance transfer, including body mechanics, facial nuance, timing, and emotional intent. - Review AI-generated character performances and provide precise, actionable feedback to improve realism and accuracy. - Establish benchmarks using reference performances to assess model quality and track performance accuracy. - Evaluate subtle animation details, including micro-expressions, lip synchronization, weight distribution, movement, and timing. - Develop reviewer profiles, evaluation rubrics, and calibration processes to ensure consistent assessments. - Help structure and refine the human reviewer pool to support high-quality and reliable evaluations. - Collaborate with other animation and technical experts to align evaluation criteria and maintain consistent standards.

- Create clear written feedback, evaluation templates, and documentation to communicate findings effectively. - Contribute industry-level expertise to improve the quality and authenticity of AI-generated character animation. Requirements: The ideal candidate is a highly experienced character animator with a strong artistic eye, a deep understanding of human performance, and the ability to translate complex animation observations into clear evaluation criteria. - Have at least 10 years of professional experience in character animation, with a focus on human and character acting. - Hold animation credits on feature films, visual effects productions, or AAA game cinematics at recognized studios. - Demonstrate a strong understanding of facial expressions, micro-expressions, lip synchronization, body mechanics, weight, timing, and emotional nuance. - Be able to identify subtle performance issues and provide specific, constructive, and actionable feedback. - Possess excellent written communication skills, particularly for developing evaluation rubrics, templates, and structured feedback. - Be comfortable collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and applying consistent evaluation standards. - Be available to attend in-person sessions in Playa Vista, California, or New York, New York, as required, despite the role being primarily remote. Preferred qualifications: - Experience in facial animation and advanced character performance. - Familiarity with Unreal Engine or Unity. - Experience with virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or performance-capture pipelines. - Hands-on experience with generative image and video tools such as Sora, Veo, Midjourney, Runway, or Kling. - Interest in applying traditional animation expertise to emerging AI technologies and evaluation workflows.