diff --git a/README b/README
deleted file mode 100644
index 5dc21f01..00000000
--- a/README
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-
-Hi
-
-== contributors ==
-
-Nikita Kouevda
-Maksim Ioffe
-Dan Miller
-
-
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d6f1a573
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# LearnGitBranching
+==================
+
+LearnGitBranching is a pseudo-git sandbox and interactive series of tutorials / challenges to accelerate the understanding of how git commit trees work. It supports a fairly wide range of commands and dynamically visualizes the effects each change has on a commit tree visualization next to the command box:
+
+<img src="http://petercottle.com/miscPics/learnGitBranching.png"/>
+
+## Sandbox Mode
+
+Levels
+===============
+
+## Level Builder
+
+## Contributing Levels
+
+Contributing
+===============
+
+Helpful Folks
+-------------------
+A big shoutout to these brave souls for extensively testing our sandbox and finding bugs or inconsistencies:
+
+* Nikita Kouevda
+* Maksim Ioffe
+* Dan Miller
+
diff --git a/src/git.js b/src/git.js
index f5512ac1..1fe140e1 100644
--- a/src/git.js
+++ b/src/git.js
@@ -1051,7 +1051,7 @@ GitEngine.prototype.mergeStarter = function() {
     return;
   }
 
-  animationFactory.genCommitBirthAnimation(this.animationQueue, newCommit);
+  animationFactory.genCommitBirthAnimation(this.animationQueue, newCommit, this.gitVisuals);
 };
 
 GitEngine.prototype.merge = function(targetSource, currentLocation) {
diff --git a/todo.txt b/todo.txt
index 190ea6cf..404ce999 100644
--- a/todo.txt
+++ b/todo.txt
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ Big things:
 Medium things:
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 - gitEngine loads from tree immediately, not the weird thing we have now!
+- git help better (use option map)
+- help better
 
 Small things to implement:
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~