Helping Hand

This animation was done to speak out against physical abuse by showing the positive uses of one's hands in raising a child.

http://www.nexusproductions.com/wall

The animation begins with a child's head in the center of the screen. A pair of hands combs his hair and puts a scarf on the child, and the child walks off screen. The scarf is a rainbow, and it waves in the background as a child begins walking across the screen. The ground that the child is walking on turns into a hand that the child walks along, who then jumps to another hand on the other side of the screen. Colored rain drops begin falling, and the child runs onto a grassy area and under a hand that is sticking out of the ground for shelter. The child then continues to the right, and the hand rotates into place to be part of the steps that the child climbs, another hand filling the spot of a different step as well. The colors shift to black and white, with the child on a hill under a tree. The child jumps for an apple in the tree, and the tree is revealed to be made of hands, which lower the apple to the child. The child then jumps and then lands in a swing held up by two giant hands. The hands fly off screen and the child walks along the line that was part of the swing to the right, a toy dog following him. He runs down a hill shaped like a hand, jumping from finger to finger and hand to hand to get down. A hand catches him and lowers him onto a bike, while another hand puts a helmet on the child. As the child rides his bike, the hands walk alongside him. The child dismounts the bike and jumps between two hands, which each take one of his hands and hold him in the air. They then swing him up into the air, and he falls down into the palm of a new hand, which joins with another hand to form a heart shape with the child in the center. The message then pops up, Hands should Nurture not Punish. The camera then pans down to the question, "Are you hands Weapons of Love?"

The transitions of this animation were amazing. Many times I was caught by surprise by the ways the hands blended into the environment until they were moved.