Even DreamWorks struggled to do what we're trying to do....

Yep, the issues me Alec and Tom are having are not easy to solve. Trying to achieve a stop motion look with Maya is a hard task and by the looks of things, even the best struggle. DreamWorks spents almost a year trying to recreate Aardmans Stop Mo look for Flushed Away using CG. This article I found explains the exact same difficulties they encountered that we are having. Read it guys.
http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/Putting-a-Stop-Motion-Look-in-the-CG-Film-Flushed-Away_7478.html

We are a team of 3 2nd year animation students, all with basic knowledge of Maya, and a project duration of 8 weeks. We can hold our heads high if we complete this.