Hire a Rive Animator for Your AI Companion, AI Robot or AI Toy

Are you building an AI companion, AI robot, AI toy, desktop AI companion, voice assistant, educational robot or smart device with a screen?

Your AI may already be able to listen, think and speak.

But what does the user see while that's happening?

I'm Praneeth Kawya Thathsara, founder of Mascot Engine, and I create interactive animated faces and characters for AI products using Rive.

If you're searching for a Rive animator for an AI robot, AI companion face animator, robot face animation service, or someone who can create a developer-ready interactive character for your AI device, this is exactly the type of work I specialize in.

Give Your AI a Face That Feels Alive

Imagine talking to an AI device.

You start speaking.

The character immediately changes from:

Idle → Listening

You finish your question.

Listening → Thinking

The AI generates its answer.

Thinking → Speaking

While the response is playing, the mouth reacts to the audio.

The eyes blink naturally.

The character looks around occasionally.

Its expression can change depending on the conversation.

That small screen suddenly feels less like a display and more like a character.

That's what I build.

AI Robot Face Animation with Rive

I use Rive animation and Rive State Machines to create interactive character systems that developers can control from their applications.

Instead of delivering only MP4 videos, GIFs or fixed animation loops, I can create a .riv animation system designed around your product's states.

A typical AI companion could include:

• Idle / Ready
• Listening
• Thinking
• Speaking
• Connecting
• Happy
• Surprised
• Concerned
• Sad / Empathetic
• Error / Offline
• Sleeping
• Celebration
• Notifications
• Custom reactions

The exact states can be designed around your AI product.

Lip Sync for AI Robots and AI Companions

If your AI talks, its face shouldn't continue looking static.

I can create lip-sync animation for AI characters using different approaches depending on your software architecture.

Audio Amplitude Lip Sync

Your application sends an audio value such as:

audioLevel = 0.0 → mouth closed
audioLevel = 0.5 → mouth partially open
audioLevel = 1.0 → mouth fully open

This provides lightweight, responsive mouth movement while TTS audio is playing.

Viseme Lip Sync

For more advanced systems, the character can have multiple mouth shapes controlled through a viseme input.

For example:

viseme = 0
viseme = 1
viseme = 2
viseme = 3
viseme = 4
viseme = 5

Your TTS or speech system can then control the appropriate mouth shapes.

This can work well for AI assistants, conversational robots, AI avatars and voice-first devices.

Eye Tracking and Gaze Control

Eyes make a huge difference to whether a digital character feels alive.

A character can support inputs such as:

lookX = -1.0 ... 1.0
lookY = -1.0 ... 1.0

Your developer can connect these inputs to:

• Cursor tracking
• Touch position
• Camera-based face tracking
• User position
• Random idle gaze
• Application events

I can also create natural automatic blinking and random eye movement so the robot doesn't look frozen when idle.

Independent Emotion Control

Conversation state and emotion don't have to be the same thing.

For example:

activity = Speaking
emotion = Happy

or:

activity = Speaking
emotion = Concerned

The mouth can continue responding to speech while the eyes, eyebrows and other facial features communicate emotion.

A possible developer interface could look like:

activity
emotion
audioLevel
viseme
lookX
lookY
blink
celebrate
reset

The final inputs depend on your product.

Developer-Friendly Rive State Machines

Good character animation isn't enough for an interactive product.

The implementation also needs to be understandable for developers.

For example, an AI companion might use:

activity = 0 → Idle / Ready
activity = 1 → Listening
activity = 2 → Thinking
activity = 3 → Speaking
activity = 4 → Connecting
activity = 5 → Error / Offline
activity = 6 → Sleeping

Your application changes the input.

The Rive State Machine handles the visual transition.

This approach can make the character easier to integrate into applications built with technologies such as Flutter, React, React Native, Web and other environments supported by the selected Rive runtime.

Runtime and hardware compatibility should always be confirmed before production.

What About ESP32 AI Robots?

I'm also interested in the growing market around:

ESP32 AI companions

ESP32-S3 AI robots

ESP32 animated faces

ESP32 robot displays

AI desktop pets

DIY AI companion robots

For constrained embedded hardware such as ESP32-S3, running a complete Rive runtime directly may not always be the best production approach.

One possible architecture is:

Microphone
    ↓
ESP32-S3
    ↓
Wi-Fi / AI Backend
    ↓
STT → LLM → TTS
    ↓
ESP32-S3
    ↓
Speaker + Animated Display

The visual system could use states designed in Rive and then be adapted to the capabilities of the target embedded environment.

For example:

IDLE
LISTENING
THINKING
SPEAKING
HAPPY
SLEEPING
ERROR

Lip sync can potentially be simplified into several mouth positions controlled by the audio amplitude.

The best implementation depends on the exact display, MCU, memory, rendering stack and software environment.

Raspberry Pi AI Companion and Desktop Robot Faces

More capable hardware can provide additional options.

If you're building a:

• Raspberry Pi AI companion
• Raspberry Pi robot
• Desktop AI assistant
• Touchscreen AI companion
• Smart display
• AI kiosk
• Voice-first hardware product

we can review the runtime and decide on an appropriate animation architecture before production.

What Types of Products Can I Help With?

My animation service is suitable for founders, developers, startups and hardware teams working on products such as:

AI Companion Robots

Friendly conversational devices designed to interact with users.

Desktop AI Companions

Small devices that live on a desk and communicate through voice, animation and expressions.

AI Toys

Interactive toys where personality is an important part of the user experience.

Educational AI Robots

Characters that teach children, languages, STEM subjects or other educational content.

Kids' AI Companions

Friendly screen-based characters that listen, respond and react.

AI Voice Assistants

Voice-first products that need visual feedback for listening, thinking and speaking.

Smart Displays

Devices where a character can replace a traditional static assistant UI.

Customer Service Robots

Characters that visually communicate while an AI system handles the conversation.

Healthcare or Wellness Companions

Screen-based characters where friendly visual communication is part of the product experience.

AI Hardware Prototypes

Early-stage products that need a convincing animated face for demos, investors or user testing.

Already Have Your Robot Face Design?

That's fine.

If you already have:

• Character artwork
• Robot concept art
• Figma designs
• Illustrator vectors
• SVG artwork
• PNG references
• Existing Rive files

send them to me.

I can review the artwork and determine how it should be prepared for animation.

Don't Have a Character Yet?

You can still contact me.

Send me your device, screen and product concept.

We can determine what kind of visual character would work for the product before building the interactive animation.

My Standard AI Robot Face Package

A default setup starts at approximately:

$1,200 USD

For a typical $1,200 project:

$600 USD upfront

I begin designing, rigging and building the agreed animation system.

You then receive the agreed build for testing.

Once the agreed tests pass and the work is approved:

Remaining $600 USD

This means you don't need to pay the entire project amount upfront.

Projects requiring more characters, complex artwork, many custom states, advanced lip sync or additional animation systems may need a custom quote.

What Can Be Included?

Depending on the project scope, a default system may include a selection of:

• Character/robot face rigging
• Idle animation
• Automatic blinking
• Random eye movement
• Listening animation
• Thinking animation
• Speaking animation
• Audio-reactive mouth animation
• Viseme-ready mouth shapes
• Expressions
• Emotion controls
• Eye/gaze controls
• Smooth state transitions
• Rive State Machine
• Developer-friendly inputs
• .riv delivery
• Integration guidance

We define the exact deliverables before starting.

Looking for a Rive Animator?

If you found this article by searching for:

Rive animator

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Rive State Machine developer

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Rive AI avatar

then feel free to contact me even if your project isn't a physical robot.

I also work on interactive mascots and characters for apps, websites and AI products.

Building an AI Companion or Robot?

If you searched Google for something like:

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Raspberry Pi AI companion

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— then Mascot Engine may be able to help with the character and animation side of your project.

Work With Praneeth Kawya Thathsara

I'm Praneeth Kawya Thathsara, a Rive Animator and Interactive Character Specialist and the founder of Mascot Engine.

My focus is creating characters that aren't simply animations users watch.

They react.

They listen.

They think.

They speak.

They blink.

They look at the user.

They express emotion.

And developers can control those behaviors from the actual product.

Have an AI Robot Idea?

Send me:

1. A photo, prototype or concept of your AI device
2. Screen resolution and dimensions
3. Hardware/platform — ESP32, Raspberry Pi, Android, Linux, Web, etc.
4. Your existing character artwork, if available
5. Required states — Idle, Listening, Thinking, Speaking, etc.
6. Lip-sync requirements
7. Your approximate budget

I'll review the animation requirements and tell you what kind of setup makes sense.

Contact Mascot Engine

Website: https://mascotengine.com

Email: [e-mail]

WhatsApp: [phone]

Service: Custom Rive Animation for AI Companions, AI Robots & AI Toys

Default package: Approximately $1,200 USD

Payment structure: $600 to start + $600 after agreed testing and approval

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Your AI already knows how to think.

It may already know how to speak.

Now give it a face people can connect with.

Mascot Engine — Interactive Characters for AI Products.