As part of Coldplay’s patchwork music video for ‘We Pray’, Balázs & Cátia turned to shadow puppetry to leave their mark in this visual smorgasbord. There’s a beautiful clarity in this approach, symbolically the hands connect to the act of prayer, while the story these hands tell also takes us to a moment where prayer is turned to as a last resort.

After ideating and developing with real hand shadow play, they turned to 3D to complete the piece. A bespoke system was built to configure characters entirely from hands, allowing them to be animated like any regular 3D character. The system was also smart enough to respond dynamically to camera movement, positioning each hand to maintain the correct shadow storytelling.

In the final piece, over a hundred hands move in unison to form the effect. An ancient storytelling device, translated into a 3D workflow and delivered on a tight turnaround: the segment feels both technically ambitious and deeply human.