Hi Adam, Believe it or not your script is the most important element. Before you start any animating you should finish your first draft, second draft and third draft. Once your script is as good as it can be you can begin story boarding. Story boarding is very important because it will let you see how scenes and elements will fit together. In essence it lets you edit the film before you start "shooting". We have a saying in flim production; "Every hour of pre-production saves you five hours on the set". The same is true for animation, the better prepared you are at the outset, the easier your job will be. A good script writing program is "FinalDraft", it's not cheap but it automatically formats your writing into script form and makes it very easy to write a coherent script. You should work with your actors and record your voices first before animating characters. Afterwards there are a couple of good lip sync programs you can use to match voices to lips. One of them is offered for sale at www.curiouslabs.com, I can't remember the name of it. I hope that helps get you started, remember though "the script is the most important element". Good luck!