Rive Animator & Character Designer for AI Learning App

Freelance Rive Animator & Character Designer for AI Learning App About Us SpeakX is one of India's leading AI-powered English learning platforms helping users improve spoken English through immersive, conversational experiences. We are building a next-generation learning experience where users interact with AI mentors and characters inside the app. We are looking for an experienced Rive artist who can create production-ready animated characters with rich expressions, lip sync support, and interactive states. Project Overview We need a freelancer to design, rig, animate, and optimize high-quality characters in Rive for a mobile application. The characters should feel alive, expressive, friendly, and emotionally engaging—similar to modern AI companions and animated learning assistants. Scope of Work Phase 1: Character Design Create production-ready character assets from concept references. Deliverables: - Full character design - Front-facing character - Multiple pose variations - Layered assets suitable for rigging - Clean vector-based artwork - Characters include: 1. One male 2. One female Phase 2: Character Rigging in Rive Rig characters for real-time animation. Required controls: Head - Head turn - Head tilt - Head nod - Looking left/right - Looking up/down - Eyes Natural blinking - Slow blink - Fast blink - Eye tracking - Eye movement - Eyebrow movement Mouth - Full lip-sync rig - Phoneme support - Open mouth - Smile - Frown - Surprise - Talking variations Facial Expressions - Happy - Excited - Curious - Confident - Thinking - Sad - Disappointed - Proud - Encouraging - Sarcastic - Laughing Phase 3: Animation States Create reusable animation states. Examples: Idle States - Natural breathing - Eye movement - Blinking - Small head movement - Subtle body motion Speaking States - Listening - Speaking - Explaining - Encouraging - Celebrating Emotional States - Happy - Excited - Motivated - Confused - Concerned - Surprised - Proud Interactive States - Greeting user - Pointing - Thinking - Giving hint - Correct answer celebration - Wrong answer encouragement Phase 4: Lip Sync System Create a scalable lip-sync system that works with app-generated voice audio. Requirements: - Smooth phoneme transitions - Natural mouth movement - Works with dynamic speech - Supports English speech - Real-time animation friendly Phase 5: Rive Optimization Characters must be optimized for mobile applications. Requirements: - Lightweight files - Fast rendering - Android compatible - iOS compatible - Smooth 60 FPS performance - Clean state machine architecture Deliverables For each character: Design Files - Editable source files - Illustrator/Figma files - Layered assets Rive Files - Fully rigged .riv file - State machines - Animation controls - Documentation Animation Library - Idle animations - Speaking animations - Listening animations - Expression states - Gesture states Ideal Candidate Must have: - Strong Rive portfolio - Character design experience - Facial rigging expertise - Experience with Rive State Machines, Audio-driven lip sync and Viseme systems Bonus: - AI avatar experience - Educational product experience - Duolingo-style character experience - Interactive animation systems Application Requirements Please share: - Rive portfolio - Character animation examples - Lip-sync examples - Interactive state machine examples - Estimated timeline Project Goal The final characters should feel like a real AI mentor rather than a static illustration. We want: - Natural blinking - Realistic eye contact - Smooth speaking animations - Emotional expressions - Human-like presence - Delightful personality The quality benchmark should be comparable to modern AI assistants, Duolingo-quality educational characters, and premium interactive mobile experiences.