Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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This is my 3rd video. It is a parody of a video with a human actor that I did. I am new here and new to stop motion animation. I need to work on lighting and camera shake. I am using a tripod currently but it tends to drift. Any ideas on making camera more steady?
First off, welcome to the Bricks in Motion community! 
Now, you might want to at least raise your framerate to 12fps or 15fps (that's what most of the other animators, including me, use) and I suggest buying a more stabble tripod.
-LASF
Okay, first of all, put all your camera settings to manual. Focus, exposure, everything. Having settings on auto causes flickering.
Are you pressing a button on the camera to take the picture? That causes camera bumps. You need to get a remote. It's important not to touch your camera at all while filming, or else you get camera bumps. The only time you should move your camera is when you want to do a moving camera shot. It could be possible that you have a flimsy tripod. You could get a webcam and some frame capture software to go with it.
The animation is very choppy. Try taking more frames. Do you have any idea how many pictures make up one second of your video? Most of us here use 15 fps (frames per second, picture=frame) Also , don't spin the minfig's hands around, it looks too unrealistic.
With lighting, you should be using at least 3 lamps. One above the minfig, one shining at the minifig, one pointing at the background. Don't use sunlight. The sun moves and clouds pass over it, making it inconsistent. That causes light flicker. Animate at night or cover the windows with black cloth so no light gets in.
One more thing, don't use the green baseplate as background. If you wanted a front yard set, you should build a Lego house on a green baseplate. Then, put some trees behind the house so the edge of the baseplate is covered. Put a big piece of blue paper behind that for sky.
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