Be sure not to touch them but also make sure they are firmly in place. Something sticky may be in order. Most people here swear by Blu Tac but I personally find simple modeling clay an easy and clean way to hold things down.
Good luck with your film!

Well, your name is Push-over.

I have this problem A LOT. One solution is to keep anything that's not securely connected to a stud out of the set. Period. (Unless it can be anchored by clay, but then you have to keep that invisible.)

Also, you can use certain Lego elements to animate characters without sticking your fingers down into the set.
If you need to pull a guy's hand up, grab one of these, and then position the handle in his hand. (Well, not IN it, but get the sticky-out-y part on the handle below his "fingers") You can then pull up on the sword blade, and the bottom part of the hilt will catch on his "finger" thus bringing his arm up. For pushing down, just put the sword hilt on top of his finger and push down.
And if you need something with a longer reach, and you're pushing his arm down, get a jousting stick.

You can also get one of these, and it'll make turning his hand 10,000 times easier when you put it into the hand and pull-up/push-down.

Those are a few tricks that I learned, and for other things, just keep props secure, be careful, and pray very, very hard.

Last edited by Pritchard Studios (January 24, 2013 (07:29pm))

If you animate using a webcam or some other camera connected to a computer, you could try using a frame capturing software such as Helium Frog that has onion skinning and makes spotting bumps and knocks much, much easier. Personally I couldn't live without it!