3D animation is the art of using motion to bring characters to life. There is a lot of software available that you can use to animate your first character. But before starting it, there are some other processes or other departments involved.

1. First you need to have one rigged character or prop with all the controllers available. With the controllers, you will be able to move the body parts as you want and then key that value into different frames.
2. You need to have an environment where the character is present. There are a lot of free rigged characters and environments available in the market which you can download and start working for personal projects or training.
3. When we talk about the production/studio pipeline, it is a lot more complex. There are a lot of departments involved in the process and it is time taking.

If looked at it in short, the process goes like this:

StoryConcept> ArtModeling> Texturing> Rigging> Animation> FinalLighiting> Rendering> FX> Composting.