3D Generalist: Modeling, Rigging & Animation (AI Evaluation)
Listing checked November 6, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Key details
- Pay
- $70–120/hr
- Location
- Remote · United StatesUnited States
- Job type
- full-time
- Openings
- 20
- Posted
- November 6, 2026
Overview
Mercor places 3D artists inside a leading AI lab's GenAI team, and this seat puts real production judgment at the center of model training. You will design demanding 3D tasks pulled from studio and client workflows, then judge what the models hand back, with Blender and Python (bpy) as your main instruments. The work touches modeling, rigging, texturing and animation, plus scripted checks for meshes, UVs and rigs. Expect 40 hours a week on weekdays. Cincinnatus LLC employs you as a W-2 worker and places you with the lab's extended workforce.
What You'll Do5
- Steer research teams toward the gaps that hold model quality back in modeling, texturing, rigging, animation and 3D product work.
- Write challenging assignments that mirror studio and client pipelines, then ship reference deliverables in editable formats: .blend, .fbx, .glb and .step or .stl when CAD enters the picture.
- Review AI-generated assets in writing and name the exact faults: broken topology, stretched UVs, wrong scale, bad skin weights, rigs that misbehave, loops that pop.
- Build rubrics, guidelines and QA gates for 3D output, including Blender Python scripts that check meshes, UVs and rigs.
- Sync with other subject matter experts so training data stays consistent and accurate.
Requirements11
- 5+ years of shipped 3D work at a game, animation or VFX studio, a product-visualization or e-commerce 3D team, or a creative agency. Crowd rating, data labeling and solo projects do not satisfy this.
- Blender at production level every day, with Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Substance Painter or Houdini as supporting tools.
- Enough fluency to open a stranger's .blend file and diagnose it fast.
- Python scripting inside Blender with bpy: batch, validation, rigging or export tools you wrote yourself and can share.
- Clean quad topology, retopology from sculpts or scans, UV unwrapping and packing, high-to-low baking, and PBR metal-rough texturing at 4K.
- Skeletal rigging and skinning: joint placement, weight painting, IK/FK controls, shape keys, and looping animation exported to .glb or .fbx that plays correctly in a real-time engine or web viewer.
- Comfort with editable source formats: .blend, .fbx, .glb/.gltf, .usd/.usdz, .obj and CAD exchange files (.step, .stl, .3dm, .iges).
- Hands-on use of generative 3D and image tools such as Meshy, Tripo, Hunyuan3D, Rodin, Luma Genie, Midjourney or Flux, plus the eye to separate a strong result from one that only looks plausible.
- A public portfolio or reel of shipped work on ArtStation, Sketchfab or your own site, with a code link for scripts where you can. Expect to walk through both.
- Availability for at least 40 hours each week on weekdays.
- Written communication strong enough to explain creative choices to researchers.
Preferred Qualifications1
- CAD modeling in Rhino, Fusion 360, SolidWorks or FreeCAD
Who Should Apply
The role fits a 3D generalist with five or more years of shipped studio work who treats Blender and bpy as daily tools. Rigging, skinning, retopo and PBR texturing should already be second nature, and you should have firm opinions about where generative 3D still falls short.
Salary Insight
Pay runs $70 to $120 per hour as a W-2 employee of Cincinnatus LLC, which handles payroll, benefits and compliance while you work inside the client team. That band sits well above typical freelance 3D generalist rates and covers a wide spread, so the figure offered will track your shipped-work history and the depth of your scripting.
Pay and demand for AI Training roles
Market estimates from live NearSkill listings — separate from this job's published terms.
This role · as published
$70–120/hr
Taken from the listing itself.
Typical pay · estimated
$70/hour
Median of 1,311 similar roles that publish pay · 303 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Most AI Training roles pay $40–$95 per hour. This role's pay falls inside that range.
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
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Hiring most right now: micro1 (407) · SME Careers (256) · Mercor (232)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- ai evaluation13%
- llm evaluation12%
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