Okay - newbie question here. (Though I’ve got a 3-d graphics and photoshop background, I’m not at all familiar with the 2d animation workflow process.)
Question: what’s the best workflow process, once there’s a finalized script?
From what I’ve been reading, I’m guessing that it’s something like this -
1) Record soundtrack first
2) Work out major poses
3) Do tweens
Can anyone comment? I’m actually a bit surprised, because my first instinct was just to start animating from frame one (with no sound) and work through to the end, and THEN record the sountrack. But now that I’m reviewing the process, the workflow above seems to be more efficient, and more often used? Any info would be greatly appreciated, since this is my first crack at a full blown animation.
Quick second followup question: any books that are recommended for understanding the process best?
Thx…! 
–Janet (GG)
Here is a sample work flow starting with a finalized script.
Story Board: break the script down into scenes and shots and create a panel for every storytelling shot in the script.
Sound: create a working sound track
Animatic: Marry the sound track to the story board panels and slug out the timing of each shot and scene.
Layout: work out the layout details for each shot including backgrounds and props.
Replacement: this is where you go in and actually begin rough animating your shots and replacing the associated panels from your story board with animated sequences.
Refinement: this is where you refine and finish each rough animated shot until the entire cartoon is finish animated.
Post: this is when you finalize the sound and any effects that remain to be completed.
There are many ways to produce an animated film this is just a typical approach. -JK
Hey - thanks for the information!
Hi. I’m a newbie too, so I’m totally new to the whole workflow thing as well. You mentioned creating a soundtrack as one of the first steps. I was just wondering: when you say soundtrack, do you mean the dialogue, or everything, including any music?
The sequence in the workflow concerning the creation of the sound track depends on how that sound track will be used and what it contains. A vocal dialog track should precede animation due to lip sync considerations. The musical part of a sound track may or may not be used to establish a beat that is followed by the animation. The individual SFX type sounds can be recorded and applied in post production. -JK
Got it. Thanks!