I just want to start off saying im new to this web site and New to stop motion,Im not a college film student or work for some movie animation studio, Im just a guy starting a new hobby and having fun with the kids.
I started last weekend did some looking around and bought a microsoft lifecam studio webcam to take my pictures,It looks like the logitech c920 is the favorite among webcams, I was just wondering why? They both seem to have similar specs and the biggest difference I seen was the logitech takes 1080 vid while the lifecam only vids in 720,but both take pics 1080. Plus I liked the mount for the lifecam being tripod ready,also when I shopped for it at my local store is was on sale putting it $30 cheaper,so I went for the lifecam.
When I had it up and running on the regular webcam interface I snapped a pic and it came out really nice and clear,But when I make a movie I try to put everything in manual and get it as about as good as I can,but it still doesnt come out as clear as a standard pic using the webcam interface? Like I said im no film student or have any camera knowledge so if someone could maybe enter a tip about setting up the manual setting,like maybe is there a sequence to follow? It seems like a puzzle if you get the brightness right then go down and adjust the contrast then you throw the other 2 settings out of wack and vice versa.

I know lighting has a lot to do with the pic quality for right now I thrifted a nice table clamp down lamp "those ones that move all around with the magnifying glass in them" its fairly bright for my little area,im not sure if the bulb is interchangeable for a brighter light "I'll check into it" but it has a 22w cool white plus light in there,What type of light am I after?

Now on to Software,Is anyone familiar with iKitMovie Software? I looked around and ended it up buying this software because I like the fact that it had voice over,a large data bank full of sounds that you can just drag and drop in place and chromakey ability. I used it for a week now,as im just still experimenting with everything and It works good for the most part but it has some bugs for sure,lots of freeze ups and losing signal with the camera here and there,and I cant get a decent green screen effect "Im not sure if its me or the software" Im just wondering if anyone uses this program or is this considered to be the bottom of the barrel software full of gimmicks and nothing more? I already bought it,im just looking for a honest opinion on what I have.

Im not sure about this but when im starting my movie it asks for the resolution setting,so im assuming 1920x1080 is the best "plus I set my camera to that setting in the webcam interface" so if I want the clearest pic this would be the setting I want,correct?  Now when im done with the movie and wanting to export it,it asks about the size it gives 3 options youtube Normal size, youtube Small size and custom and you have to actually enter some numbers,So would I choose 1920x1080 or is that not what it is referring to? I thought maybe this is where im losing some of my sharpness and clarity? Im also filming at 15fps

Here is a small vid of my first clay man just testing some stuff out,im showing this just to show you what kind of quality im getting,and what you think of it,should it be better or think thats about what it should look like with my current setup? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCRnX9kF … ature=plcp
I know this is a lot of random questions,but if you have some tips of suggestion,please let me know,Thanks