Rive Animator — Specialised Designer- Interactive Animal Characters for Children’s iPad App

We're building Ekoko, a premium iOS family-connection app for children aged 5–11 We need a specialist interactive designer/animator to design the Kindness Animal Garden — the heart of the child's experience: a warm, illustrated garden where animated critters appear daily for the child to discover, touch and care for. Designed iPad-first — the iPad is the child's main screen, so the garden must be composed for the large canvas and scale to iPhone. The feel is gentle, cosy and premium — a picture book that moves, not a flashy game. Soft illustrated style, peach-cream warmth. A garden with lush trees and ponds. Reference art of our existing mascots and garden provided on hire. WHAT YOU'LL CREATE • The garden scene (layout, art, atmosphere) matching our brand style • Touch-reactive animated critters — examples- tap the ladybirds and they fly off sparkling, tap the frog and it hops toward the pond, touch the Rabbit and it gets back home safely • Discovery reveals, celebration moments, idle behaviours It has to feel like an interactive play for the children where it’s easy and fun WE START WITH A PAID PILOT (~$500): one critter, one interaction, implemented end-to-end in the app by our Flutter developer. Once the pilot is proven, the full set follows (the budget shown covers the complete garden), with ongoing work adding new characters after launch for the right person. DELIVERY FORMAT (non-negotiable — our developer implements your files directly) • Rive (rive.app) for all animated, touch-reactive elements — NOT Lottie, video, or static frames • One tidy .riv file with named state machines per critter/interaction, consistent naming throughout • Touch built with Rive Listeners (tap areas live in the file) • App-controlled values (critter selection, moods, counters, onboarding progress) via Rive Data Binding — not the retired Inputs system • Lean file, no unused artboards • A one-page handoff note: state machine names, interactions, what each does • Figma for the static screen design around the animation • You must have a Rive plan with production export access WORKING STYLE Behaviour-first: interactions blocked out early so our developer wires them up while art is polished in parallel. Clear communication and iterative feedback. TO APPLY, PLEASE INCLUDE 1. Examples of interactive or animated character work — Rive projects especially 2. Confirmation you have a Rive plan with production export access 3. A few sentences on how you'd build the "frog hops toward the pond on each tap" interaction in Rive 4. Any children's app or game design experience 5. Your availability over the next 2–4 weeks