Intern - Animator and Rigging Artist

Human Computer Lab • San Francisco, CA

19h

About The Position

Human Computer Lab is a research lab building character robots that feel alive and responsive. Our first robot, LeLamp, explores a new category of consumer robotics where everyday objects become interactive and help us reshape our attachment to technology. Our goal is to push the frontier of human-robot interaction by making technology more legible, emotionally intuitive, and human-centered. We are building the foundation for a new generation of robots designed for everyday environments. We're looking for a technical animator to rig LeLamp, our first robot, and own the animation pipeline that brings it to life on physical hardware people will actually live with. This role sits at an unusual intersection: the technical depth to build a rig that maps onto real joint constraints and actuator limits, and the creative sensibility to design motion that feels intentional and warm, shaping whether the robot comes across as alive or mechanical. You'll work closely with the CEO and engineers to translate design intent into motion that runs on the robot itself, not just in a viewport.

Requirements

• Professional experience as a technical animator or rigger with a strong rigging and animation portfolio
• Fluent in Maya, Blender, or similar DCC tools and can build production-quality rigs from scratch
• Understand animation principles such as timing, weight, anticipation, and follow-through
• Experience rigging mechanical or non-organic subjects with real-world constraints
• Strong intuition for what makes motion feel alive rather than mechanical
• Comfortable building pipelines in environments where they don’t yet exist
• Experience animating robots, mechanical characters, or non-humanoid subjects
• Exposure to procedural animation, motion graphs, or behavior trees
• Familiar with URDF, ROS, or simulators such as Gazebo, MuJoCo, or Isaac Sim
• Experience working in Unity, Unreal, or other real-time animation environments
• Experience collaborating with engineering teams on hardware or robotics projects

Nice To Haves

• Care deeply about motion as a form of communication
• See constraints like joint limits and actuator bandwidth as part of the creative process
• Take ownership of the robot’s motion language from keyframe to hardware execution
• Work well in small, collaborative teams across animation, engineering, and design
• Want to create motion for a physical object that lives in someone’s home, not just on a screen

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the robot rig, defining joint hierarchies, constraints, and control structures aligned with hardware limits
• Design and animate behaviors including idle motion, reactions, transitions, gestures, and interaction sequences
• Work with controls and firmware engineers to translate animation intent into real robot motion
• Stay aligned with mechanical updates and maintain the rig as the platform evolves
• Maintain a URDF-compatible or simulation-ready representation of the robot
• Help define the robot’s motion language and expressive vocabulary
• Build internal tools, workflows, and documentation for the animation pipeline
• Evaluate animations on physical hardware and iterate until intent translates reliably

Benefits

• We set ourselves and others to a high standard, and we respond with kindness when things get hard but keep everyone accountable.
• We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.
• Even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to apply.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed