I wasn't happy with my first animation test.  The camera moved under the pressure of my finger every shot, resulting in a jittery clip.  To fix the problem, I constructed the set up pictured below: I made a new "tripod" out of wood that is connected to the "set" in one piece (so if the camera moves, the set moves with it).  I used clay to secure the camera solidly.

The video below contains 3 test shots.  It includes the very first (jittery) test shot, a second test shot with the wood tripod, and a third test using a video camera (instead of a still camera).  The video camera is left on the whole time and later edited down to a few select frames - this way I never touch the camera at all, but it's a lot more work to edit it later.