Just like any other project, the most important and crucial step when animating is conceptualization and planning. Since most animation teams consist of a multitude of people from a bunch of different departments working together on a final piece, there needs to not only be good communication, but a good working plan that will ensure a smooth working environment for the animators. Animating is a notoriously tedious and underpaying job, often resulting in many animators being overworked and underpaid. The reason for this usually resides in deadlines set by production or showrunners. This is where the actual concept work starts, with the producers, who develop a script and storyboard to outline the plot, which is then forwarded to what is usually the animation lead, who oversees the animation department.
Once the idea for the show or movie has been conceptualized, and all of the sketches, setting, character designs and themes have been finalized, the voice actors will actually start recording around this time, as the animation team and voice actors need to work together to make sure the lip-sync is accurate. For the animation team, this means they would start developing the storyboards into fully animated scenes. Focusing mainly on 2D animators, this is when they’d first draw the keyframes, which basically define the main poses, with the in-between frames (in-betweens) being added afterward to smooth this out and create more fluid motion. Each scene is usually worked on over several drafts, as timing with physics and expression is really difficult to pull off.
Now for the final stage, the post-production stage. This is mainly where editors (still animators) will polish up the scenes—basically just making sure all of the timings are correct with the sounds, and ensure the flow between the key and in-between frames is smooth. Sound being the most crucial focus here, like background music and sound effects, timing is everything.
Most importantly, the lip-syncing with the voice acting must be perfect, so there is usually a division in the animation team that will go over and make sure the voice acting is synced with the animation—and that is their only purpose in the project. Most eastern animated shows or movies, while originally voiced in their native language, will almost always have different language dubbings. This is where this team would shine, as you need the lip-sync to match up in every language.