I think your answer lies in the "animation pallette". By default the system uses Bezier curves to ramp motion. If you have a keyframe at frame 1 and want the hand to move at, but not before, frame 120 you need to place a control keyframe at 120 which mimics the frame at 1. those two keys should be made "linear" so that the movement doesn't ramp before you want it to happen. Hope this helped. If a clearer explanation is needed you can reach me off-line at visionquest3d@mindspring.com. Visque