Read the script and have a clear vision of how the animation will look. In doing this, you can determine what animation format and workflow suits the project best. The most crucial aspects to consider at this early stage of the production are the animation technique to be used and the order of steps to be used in making the animation. With many possible animation techniques available, weighing which one is the best choice depends on the best look to the story and your available resources for the project.
For instance, if you want to make an classic animation look like the old Disney movies, use the traditional (hand-drawn) animation technique. If you want to create a 3D animation like popular animated movies in Hollywood these days, use 3D animation. If you are new to animation and you don't have a powerhouse computer to use for a 3D project, you may want to use Flash animation. If you want a more organic look to your animation like in "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Corpse Bride," you can shoot puppets or clays shot frame-by-frame using stop-motion animation.
Make initial character sketches, then finalize the character design for each of your character. Complete it with all attributes including the colors and texture of the face, hair and body, the wardrobe and other important details to show the character's right look and personality.
Complete all character materials you need for the animation. Based on your character design, make a character turnaround to make it easier for animators to visualize the look of the character in different angles. A basic turnaround shows the front, sides and back of the character on a single document so all details become consistent during the animation process. You also need a character design comparison sheet, which is a single document similar to a character turnaround, but it features different characters on it. It serves as reference guide to ensure that all characters seen on the animation have accurate heights and body sizes, especially when they interact together on screen.
Make backgrounds, sets and props that the characters will use for the animation.
Make a storyboard based on all the art materials you have.
Record the characters' lines using voice actors. These are called the scratch voices, which may become a guide when animating talking characters or they may be kept as the final voices to be used for the completed animation.
Make an animatic, a moving copy of the storyboard. It allows you to project how the animation would look like in terms of visuals, timing, pacing and editing. The animatic uses improved visuals from the storyboard to create a video with rough music, sound and scratch voices. This is a very important material for the animation project because going straight to the animation is not practical. Correcting mistakes during the animatic stage prevents you from doing all the hard work required in the animation process, then wasting all these efforts because of mistakes that could have been seen early on in the animatic.
Gather and import all primary visual and audio elements to be used for the animation in your chosen animation program.
Start animating the characters, then place the props and backgrounds to create the final look for each scene. Follow the animatics and base the movements of the lips from your scratch voices. The more specific steps and order of how to animate depend on your chosen animation technique and the animation program you use. Yet, they have a common denominator, which is creating start and end keyframes to mark every change of pose or movement in your character or a moving object in a scene. The program creates the in-between frames during the animation process.
The exception to this would be traditional animation where you have to draw every single frame of the animation, which is typically 24 frames every one second of footage, and also stop-motion animation, which requires you to shoot every single frame using a camera.
Make finishing touches on the visuals, then render and composite the final animation to combine all elements and apply all special effects used for the project into a single video.
Turnover the animation to the editor and those who will work on the project's sound requirements. The sound department completes all sound effects, re-recording of voices, if necessary, ambient sound and musical score. The sound mixer or engineer finalizes all sound elements, then the editor lays in the final audio track to the animated video's final edit.
Export the animated video in your preferred video file format. Make a master copy, then duplicate this with other formats. You can burn a copy in Blu-ray or DVD, make copies for your iPod or for web streaming or make a high-resolution copy meant for theatrical screening.