BUCK ☺︎ 2025

At BUCK, we created Notion AI Assistant, an expressive, quirky character designed to bring warmth and personality to Notion’s otherwise minimal productivity platform. The challenge was making motion that felt intentional and charming while keeping it light enough to actually live inside the product. We went with cel-style, hand-drawn animation focused on subtle stuff like eyebrow twitches, blinks, and tilts that brought the character to life without being annoying. The result got some love from Fast Company ("like Clippy grew up and started drinking martinis") and won a 2025 Webby Award for Best Use of AI & Machine Learning.

As Lead 2D Animator, I guided the team in bringing Roman Muradov's illustrations to life through expressive, real-time motion. Since this was our first time with Rive for interactive animation, I prototyped workflows and solved technical challenges to keep the team focused on animating rather than troubleshooting. I built the pipeline to integrate cel and After Effects animations into Rive and developed the interactivity logic by connecting emotional states through a system of transitions. This allowed the state machine to respond fluidly to user input.

To keep everyone aligned, I created a visual mapping system that broke down each animation state, transition, and in-product context, streamlining communication across animation, design, and creative tech while giving the client clear visibility into how the assistant would behave. As the lead, I kept the project moving by balancing creative exploration with product functionality, ensuring the assistant felt both alive and seamless inside the Notion experience.

Credits

BUCK Group Creative Director Michelle Higa Fox Creative Director Kendra Ryan Art Director Thea Glad Executive Producer Kim Stephens Producer Rusty Van Riper Production Coordinator Jacklyn Reid Hemmings Animation Lead Paola Chen Li 2D Animators David Stumpf, Diego Abad, Emanuele Colombo, Laura Yilmaz, Lauren Kittle, Meitar Almog, Nick Brown Lead Creative Technologist Charlie Whitney Creative Technologist Matt Kenefick

Notion Head of Creative Rob Giampietro Art Director/Illustrator Roman Muradov Product Design Lead Ryo Lu Product Operations Eric Sandabal Creative Studio Operations Lila Murphy

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