CRITICALFailure Reference

OpenAI Sora Hand & Finger Artifact — Pre-Generation Risk Reference

Technical Classification

Hand-Anatomy Topology Failure

Sora 2 improved hand coherence over Sora 1 significantly, but Hand-Anatomy Topology Failures still occur on close-ups, gesture-driven prompts, and any clip where hands are the visual subject. Finger count drifts within a single clip; knuckles bend laterally; fingers fuse during rapid motion. The failure rate is elevated on prompts involving hand manipulation (cooking, crafts, instruments, sign language) where temporal consistency requirements are highest.

How to identify this failure

✕Finger count changing between frames in the same clip
✕Knuckle bending in non-anatomical direction
✕Thumb merging into adjacent fingers
✕Hand orientation flipping between palm and back
✕Hand geometry collapsing during rapid motion

Real generation examples

Prompt used

"Hands typing on a vintage typewriter, close-up"

Failure observed @ 0:02

Fingers fused into single mass at 0:02; right hand showed 6 fingers at 0:04

Prompt used

"Magician performing card trick, hands in foreground"

Failure observed @ 0:03

Thumb pointing backward at 0:03; card geometry merged with finger geometry at 0:04

Documentation strength

If you need to escalate

VERY HIGH — OpenAI support treats hand failures as a recognised critical mode under their Anatomical Topology escalation category. Refunds routine with timestamped evidence.

AVA is a pre-purchase prevention tool, not a post-purchase recovery tool. Platforms generally do not guarantee credit refunds for output-quality failures; goodwill credits are at each platform's discretion. The strength rating reflects how well-formed your support ticket can be, not a promised outcome.

Prevention + documentation steps

01
Score your prompt before you generate
Run your prompt through AVA's pre-flight scoring against the Hand-Anatomy Topology Failure pattern. Green light = generate. Yellow/red = rewrite using the suggested fix before you commit credits.
02
Capture Generation ID + timestamp if it failed anyway
Find the Generation ID in the URL or share link. Note the exact time when the Hand-Anatomy Topology Failure first appears (e.g. "failure first visible at 1.2s"). Timestamped evidence is significantly stronger than a general complaint.
03
Use the correct technical term in your support ticket
Describe this failure as "Hand-Anatomy Topology Failure". This term maps to a recognised internal workflow in the support system and routes the ticket to the right team.
04
Submit via the correct support channel
Runway has no direct email intake. Pro+ plan: open the in-app AI Assistant (help widget bottom-right of app.runwayml.com), describe the failure with the technical term, attach evidence. Free/Standard plan: human support isn't available — your channel is Discord #community-help with @On Call - Moderators.

Frequently asked questions

Does Sora 2 refund credits for hand artifacts?

Yes. Submit the Generation ID with the technical term "Hand-Anatomy Topology Failure" and a timestamped screenshot of the impossible geometry. OpenAI support refunds documented hand failures under their Anatomy category.

Are hand failures still common on Sora 2?

Less common than Sora 1, but still elevated on close-ups and manipulation prompts. Hands are anatomically dense but statistically sparse in training data, so the loss function under-constrains hand topology relative to faces.

How do I avoid hand failures on Sora?

Frame hands further from camera. Avoid prompts where hand motion is the primary subject. Keep clips ≤4s when hands are visible. AVA's pre-flight scanner flags hand-risk prompts before submission.

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