Freelance Character Design Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Join a leading AI lab's cutting-edge GenAI team to be at the core of the AI revolution, where your expertise fuels the development of the most advanced AI models.

Overview

A leading AI lab is building a performance transfer model: one that takes an actor's original performance and carries it faithfully into a new output, holding on to the timing, the emotion, and the small physical choices that make it feel real. The team believes AI should honor the craft of performance, not flatten it.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish evaluation standards: Define clear criteria for when a performance has been captured well, both in emotional resonance and physical fidelity, and point out where current evaluations fall short.
• Curate benchmarks: Identify strong examples of performances that are easy to capture and ones that are genuinely hard, so the model has meaningful tests to measure against.
• Shape the evaluation pool: Help define the right profile, expertise mix, and rubric for the human reviewers who assess outputs at scale.
• Collaborate with other experts: Work alongside fellow subject-matter experts to keep evaluations consistent and accurate.

Core Qualifications

• 4+ years as a hands-on character animator, with human or character performance as your core craft.
• Verifiable credits on 2 or more feature films, animated features, or AAA game cinematics at recognized studios.
• Direct experience with facial animation and/or performance capture — facial keyframe work, motion-capture solving, cleanup or motion editing, or character technical design of facial and performance rigs.
• A meticulous eye for micro-expressions, emotional beats, and the subtleties that make a human performance feel authentic.
• AI proficiency: familiarity with AI tools and workflows, including the ability to generate your own visual samples for testing and comparison.
• The ability to translate complex visual details into clear, precise language that can be captured in data captions and evaluation templates.
• Able to come on-site in Playa Vista (Los Angeles), CA or New York, NY for in-person working sessions once or twice a month.
• (Optional) Reliable access to a 4K-resolution monitor for precise, pixel-level review.

Who this role is not for

This role is specifically for animators whose primary craft is character performance. It is not a fit for directors of photography, lighting or camera specialists, colorists, compositors, editors, or generalist 3D artists. Layout, previsualization, environment and effects work will not qualify on their own.

About Cincinnatus LLC

Cincinnati LLC is an enterprise staffing company that partners with leading technology companies to source and employ highly skilled professionals for contingent and contract-based opportunities. Cincinnatus serves as the employer of record for these engagements, providing W-2 employment, payroll, benefits, and compliance, while placing employees directly within client teams to work on high-impact initiatives.

Roles hired through Cincinnatus are not project-based or freelance engagements. They are structured, role-based positions that typically involve part-time or full-time commitments, close collaboration with a client's internal teams, and integration into standard enterprise workflows.

Cincinnatus is a legal entity separate from Mercor. While opportunities may be discovered through Mercor's platform, employment, onboarding, payroll, and benefits for these roles are administered by Cincinnatus LLC.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cincinnatus is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Cincinnatus is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans throughout the job application process.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.