My animation equipment

 I use the Logitech C525 for my stop-motion animation, it's light-weight, can turn 360-degrees from a static position and can produce 720p HD photos, the highest possible quality for this device. I also own a SLR camera but they heavy and bulky things to move around and could easily bump into any set pieces, which is just my opinion.

Logitech C525 HD webcam

The first project that I used this was in "Blown to Bits"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwl_MFmUTA.

 I remember how difficult it was to handle because it's obviously light-weight and the slightest touch could push the camera away from your target. Luckily, this stop-motion exclusive PC program called Stop Motion Pro allowed me to correctly re-align the camera when this happens.



Onion-skinning, is a useful guide within Stop Motion Pro that shows you where your characters BEFORE and AFTER you've moved the camera. This is instant relief for anyone who's made a mistake or to anyone trying to make their animations smoother. But, one advantage of filming a battle scene is it's okay to make your camera shake a little to show the chaos, just don't overdo it.

Moving on, I've made some home-made equipment that might interest some of you. First is a wooden dolly, picture below of the top view and several more photos of what it's made of. Quite simply a dolly is something that makes your camera slide across a flat surface.Here are more pictures showing the dolly already set up for filming a demonstration.

Materials

The underside of the rail track

1. Inserting the screw where the trolley will go through

2. Followed by the trolley

3. Topped by a turret ring

4. Mount the Platform where the webcam will be mounted

Here is my result, a tank crushing an army man, it was a fun little video

My second home made equipment is a tripod extension arm. An extension arm is useful because it allows me to adjust the camera's angle. Because I'm filming small army men I need something that will give me a face-view of my characters.

Here are a few pictures and steps on how I assemble it.

Materials

1. Tripod only

2. Attaching the extension arm using the tripod's screw

3. Securing the camera

Here's another test video.

Finally I end this post with me finishing up the test.