Character Designer & Animator — Mascot (Remote Contract Project)
About the role
Kumi is building a permanent, free companion feature for our Japanese-learning web app: a small, clickable, draggable origami crane that lives on-screen, waddles around, reacts when you play with it, and opens into a chat companion for anything Kumi-related. This crane has never been fully designed — right now Kumi only has the folded-crane silhouette from our landing page. Designing the full-body character is the first deliverable, not an afterthought.
We're hiring one contractor to take this from concept to a complete, animated character.
What you'll do
• Design the full-body Kumi crane: front/3-4/side/back turnaround, an 8+ face expression sheet, and prove it reads clearly at small sizes and on both dark and light backgrounds.
• Animate a set of behaviors and reactions — for example, idle, blink, waddle, flap, turn, grabbed/falling/drop-impact (the core drag-and-drop interactions), talking, thinking, plus charm moments like groom, sleep/wake, curious tilt, confused, and happy bounce. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive — the final animation set will be scoped together with you.
• Deliver clean production files: one shared origin/pivot point across every animation, seamless loops, transparent backgrounds, layered and named source files, consistent naming convention.
• Adapt your output to whichever engineering format we land on (Rive, sprite sheets, or Lottie — confirmed before the final milestone).
• Use AI tools as part of your workflow, especially for rapid style exploration. This is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
What we're looking for
• Character animation experience with non-human creatures that have real personality — not just motion graphics or logo animation.
• Clean vector / flat illustration style. (Painterly, heavy-outline cartoon, or pixel-art portfolios are not a fit.)
• Comfortable openly discussing your AI-assisted process.
• Bonus: game or app mascot work, or experience adapting to an existing brand system.
Project details
• Type: Fixed-scope contract project (not an ongoing role)
• Estimated duration: 4–6 weeks (a ceiling, not a deadline — finish sooner and that's totally fine, pay doesn't change)
• Compensation: Up to $2,500 total, fixed regardless of how quickly the work is completed
• Start: Early August 2026
• Location: Remote, open internationally
• IP: Full IP assignment — this character becomes a permanent Kumi brand asset
• Sound like you? Send a portfolio that shows off character work with personality!