Stop Motion - Puppet Head Turns

This week I was given the task of making a puppet's head turn. It may seem simple, but there's a lot to think about, such as the rotation of the shoulders in relation to the head. Also small details like consistency in the movement of the clothing.

  

My first attempt went ok in terms of the movement, however I found that the back of the puppet slowly bent as I animated so by the end the puppet was a couple of centimeters lower than where they had started. Additionally, I started off animating with a few fairings, but in the middle of my 6 head turns I had added more so the head turned slower than earlier. I didn't want this inconsistency so I decided to try again to make the movement consistent and to make the head stay at the same level at the start and end.

With this attempt I used the draw feature on Dragonframe so I could mark where the top of the head was. The head still dipped down a little, but not as extreme as the previous attempt. I also used more fairings and kept this consistent throughout the animation. I took 4 frames for the positions at the very end of each head turn for a more natural appearance. Unlike the first attempt, I make the shoulder action more extreme to give the impression that the puppet was looking both ways before crossing a road. However, I think I should attempt a version with less extreme movements.