Cute 3D Mascot Animation

About the Project We're looking for a talented **3D Character Designer and Animator** to help bring our mascot to life. We already have a character concept and several AI-generated visual references illustrating its appearance, personality and different expressions. Your job will be to transform these references into a **unique, professionally designed, consistent and production-ready mascot** that can be used throughout our mobile application, website and marketing campaigns. We want the character to feel friendly, confident, slightly playful and instantly recognisable, with a premium, soft 3D appearance similar to modern consumer app mascots. This is not simply an illustration project. We're looking to build a character that becomes a core part of our brand identity. ## What We're Looking For **1. Character Design & Development** - Refine our existing mascot concept into an original, distinctive character. - Create a consistent 3D or premium 2.5D visual style. - Maintain consistent proportions, facial features, colours and personality across all poses. - Develop a reusable character system that allows us to create additional expressions and animations in the future. - Ensure the character works at both large and small sizes, including inside a circular avatar in our app's chat interface. **2. Different Expressions & Character States** We want the mascot to react naturally to different activities and situations inside our app. Initial states include: - **Idle / Waiting:** Relaxed, smiling and ready to help. - **Listening:** Attentively listening when the user asks something. - **Thinking:** Curious or thoughtful expression. - **Searching:** Quickly typing on a laptop, wearing headphones, searching for information. - **Processing:** Focused on completing a task. - **Found It:** Happy expression, giving a thumbs-up. - **Success / Completed:** Celebrating a successful action. - **Nothing Found:** Slightly disappointed or apologetic expression. - **Need More Information:** Curious expression, asking the user for clarification. - **Urgent Attention:** Alert and attentive without appearing alarming. We will also require additional static character illustrations for features such as account security and empty screens. **3. Lightweight Character Animations** The mascot will appear primarily inside a **small circular avatar at the top of our app interface**. We want subtle but engaging animations triggered by user interactions. For example: - When a user submits a question, the character begins typing rapidly on its laptop. - While searching, it looks focused and occasionally reacts. - When a result is found, it smiles and gives a thumbs-up. - If nothing is found, its expression changes sympathetically. - When idle, it has a subtle breathing, blinking or movement animation. The animations should be smooth, lightweight, loopable where appropriate and optimised for use in a mobile application. **4. Deliverables** We expect: - Original master character design in high resolution. - Reusable 3D model or layered 2.5D source files. - Consistent static illustrations for all agreed character states. - Transparent PNG/WebP exports. - Animations in appropriate mobile-friendly formats, such as Lottie, Rive, WebM or other suitable formats. - Editable source files (Blender, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Rive or equivalent). - A basic character style guide covering colours, proportions, expressions and usage. - Full commercial usage rights and assignment of intellectual property to Crux Global Ltd. We are open to your recommendations regarding the most suitable production approach, particularly if you can achieve a convincing 3D appearance without requiring heavy real-time 3D rendering inside the application. ## Ideal Candidate - Proven experience designing 3D mascots or characters for consumer brands. - Strong portfolio of polished, expressive character designs. - Experience creating lightweight animations for mobile applications. - Understanding of character consistency, rigging and reusable animation systems. - Ability to work from visual references while developing an original design. - Strong attention to detail and ability to deliver production-ready assets. Experience with **Rive, Lottie, Blender, Cinema 4D or After Effects** would be advantageous. ## How to Apply Please include: 1. Examples of mascots or 3D characters you've personally designed. 2. Examples of character animations, preferably used in apps or websites. 3. Your recommended approach: full 3D, 2.5D or another technique. 4. The software and animation formats you would use. 5. Your estimated timeline and fixed-price quote for the initial character design and 10 animated states. 6. Whether you can provide editable source files and full commercial IP rights. **Please start your proposal with the word "MASCOT"** so we know you've read the project description. We will share our existing character concepts and references with shortlisted candidates. We're looking for someone who can help create a memorable character that users genuinely enjoy interacting with, not just another generic AI illustration. There is potential for ongoing work as we expand the mascot's expressions, animations