In order for me to make an animation I typically do a few extra steps before opening up any 3d animation software, so I thought I'd share some of that with a project I am currently working on. First I find some audio or an idea, then I take that and act out a scene for me to use as reference for when I animate. That way I can make sure I can focus on the acting aspect of the animation. Then I try to do some thumb nail sketches or a rough 2d pass to try and take the reference video a made and push some of the poses to make more interesting. Once that's all done I finally start making my 3d animation, first blocking and then I start doing different passes to see what works and what doesn't.