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!
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I have a slight problem whenever I want to turn a figure's head.( or arm ) I'm sure there are ways to get around it, because I've seen other brickfilmers solve it. How do you turn the head, without jerking the whole figure so that when you playback the clip, the figures seems to unnecessarily move, or jerk around when they turn their heads, or move their arms. Is there a way to make the heads slide easier?
Thanks!
Just grab the rest of the minifig with one hand and turn the head with the other. 
It helps if you use a head that is loose on the torso so you can turn the head easily.
It helps if you use a head that is loose on the torso so you can turn the head easily.
^This.
It also goes for any and all joints on the minifigure. Make sure they're all in the nice middle ground of being movable, but still staying where you put them. Pulling the head (Or arm) on and off, and then spinning it around some helps a lot.
I find holding the rest of the figure to usually be just as bad as not holding it, but again, the stiffness of the joints plays a huge part in that.
Taking arms on an off can be dangerous to the figure and make it too lose for animation, so be careful with that. Avoid it unless you really want to risk it for some different arms.
It you need the head less stiff, just spin it around several times. Do it until you like it, and it should be good. The same goes for arms.
When I animate, I usually take the figure off the board and hold it by the torso, twist the head, then replace it in the exact same position.
I used to stick a scissor in the hole of the minifig figure and spin it around to make it a bit bigger. Worked really well for animating because you could make really smooth headspins 
I find holding the rest of the figure to usually be just as bad as not holding it, but again, the stiffness of the joints plays a huge part in that.
I found this totally true. Conversely, one thing I did when a joint was too loose (actually an antenna), was to stuff blue sticky tacky stuff inside .
A lot of parts, (Antennae/Switches, the ball joints, click hinges, Ect... ) can be too loose, but I've only come upon that in minifigures rarely. Well, loose legs are a big problem, (But I've never over-loosened any legs, those were used yard sale legs and came that way.) but there are ways of sorta fixing that, and I've got plenty of extras.
I do take arms off...a lot. Both for loosening, and for MOCing. And in over a decade of Lego building, I've only broken one arm. Not saying that is normal, but I find the benefits of variety and looseness far outweigh any risks. And since printed arms are so rare, it's really easy to find a better arm in the same color to replace any broken piece.
You do have to be quite careful, and doing that may be what keeps my stuff from breaking. 
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