Well its not really help with animation it's help me start animating. Does anyone know a free preferably (but not required) like this exept I can take pictures from a seperate camera and insert them onto the program.
Its all about a nice fixed boom on your camera. You dont even want to press a button on it as it will make the finished product look choppy.
A webcam works great. Set on a rig and then go to town. Frame by frame.
Search out some of the lego movies from youtube. Its time consuming but easy to do.
I use a video camera and do my thing, then I upload it to the laptop and use pennicle to grab frames from the video...put them on the timeline and change the duration to what is desired and enjoy. This is just what worked for me. There are a LOT of ways of doing it. Something will come to you. Also, if you haven't even heard of this...dry erase animation can be a really good time waster. I do this stuff for a church.