The choice of the right toy(s) for your animation project is important and must not be taken for granted.
A wrong choice of toy can result in any of these problems: 1) the toy fails to catch the attention of the viewer; 2) the toy loses the viewer's interest somewhere in the middle of the show; 3) the project takes longer than necessary; 4) the stop-motion photography needs to be repeated from the beginning; or worst of all, 5) the animation is not completed.
The toys used in an animation must at least be: 1) appropriate for the character; 2) beautiful and well-crafted; 3) durable; and of course, 4) poseable.
The animation must connect with the viewers as soon as possible after it starts. It can not do this if the toys used in the animation are not striking enough to catch their attention. And in case they do get the attention, they must be able to keep it until the end of the video. This is difficult to do if the character being played by the toy doesn't match the toy playing it. Thus, the toy must be appropriate for the character. For example, a mean character must be played by a mean-looking toy.
When doing an animation that involves movie characters, using the movie's officially licensed action figures eliminates the problem of finding the appropriate toys to play the parts. After all, these toys were designed to look like the actors in the movie itself. Based on our experience, substituting another toy for well-known movie characters can reduce viewer interest.
The appearance of the toy chosen also plays a major role in making the animation interesting. The best toys for animation are the finely-sculpted ones - those whose face and body features were meticulously crafted until everything looks great. The paint work done to 'finish' the toy must also be of very high quality in order to enhance the details of the sculpting. Action figures from 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy are examples of great-looking toys. Toys that have great details project well in videos, helping retain viewer interest.
Toys used in animation must be durable. Animating a toy subjects it repeatedly to stresses in different directions. The last thing you want to do is to accidentally break the toy apart just when the animation is almost finished. Try to avoid brittle toys and go for toys that are made of rubbery plastic material. Also, try to choose toys with joints that feel sturdy but not difficult to move. Unfortunately, the joints of even the best action figures eventually become loosely fitted. That's just natural so try to minimize unnecessary movements of the toys' joints during animation.
Lastly, the more poseable a toy is, the better it is for animation. A high level of poseability allows the toy to assume more interesting poses and make more realistic movements. Poseability is determined by a number of factors but the three major ones are: 1) the number of points of articulation (the higher the better); 2) the range of the movement of each point of articulation (the wider the better); and 3) the number of directions in which an articulation is allowed to go (a joint that can go in any direction is best).
See also:
