Designed for ai product teams building a companion with a persistent identity.
A companion can feel unresponsive when the model is working but the interface gives no feedback. Design listening, thinking and speaking as distinct behaviors, with a neutral resting state between conversations.
What we can build
- Conversational expression library.
- Reusable face and body rig.
- Interruption and recovery transitions.
The final deliverables are agreed during discovery. Source files, implementation support and additional platform variants are included only when explicitly scoped.
A clear control contract
Plan the animation’s public controls before producing a full motion library. A starting specification might include:
- state: idle / listening / thinking / speaking.
- intensity: normalized expression strength.
- interrupt: return to a safe resting state.
These are proposed control names and behaviors, not an existing Rive asset. The final file determines the actual property and state names.
Integration considerations
Connect application events to the character; do not infer conversational truth from a looping animation. Lip-sync-ready controls can be scoped separately from audio analysis.
Review the behavior
Test a delayed response, cancelled turn and interrupted playback. The companion must return to idle without getting stuck in speaking.
From brief to handoff
- Define. Review your audience, key events, platform and asset requirements.
- Design. Approve the visual direction, key poses and transition rules.
- Build. Rig the artwork and author the agreed state system.
- Validate. Review an export against the acceptance sequence and target runtime.
- Handoff. Deliver the scoped assets, control map and integration notes.
Questions before we start
Can this include lip sync?
A mouth-shape or amplitude control system can be included in the scope. Audio analysis, phoneme extraction and speech generation require a separate implementation.
What should I include in the brief?
Share the target platform, screen dimensions, existing artwork, desired states and any runtime restrictions. A short recording of the current product is useful.
How are timing and cost agreed?
Scope depends on the artwork, state count, platform validation and revision needs. A defined brief comes before a project estimate.