Taking into account such matters as potential merchandising and "mecha" -- the technology of the world being envisaged -- an idea or project proposal kicks off the process of making an anime. If the idea meets the approval of a film studio, then it moves onto the following stages.
The proposal is fleshed out into a script with a fully developed storyline, characters and dialogue, and this in turn is transformed by the director into "e-conte" or storyboards.
The individual frames are elaborated upon by a team of animators to create the anime. Originally these extra frames were sketched by hand, then transferred to celluloid film, but as of 2010 the whole process is achieved much less laboriously by the use of computers to fill in and color the gaps digitally.
This is the process of making the animation feel like a film, with the sense of a moving, observing camera. Again, this is now accomplished digitally.
While the animators are busy, another team works on the soundtrack -- the voices, music and sound effects -- adding them to a very crude first cut of the anime.