i have an Idea?

Are there any characters outside those three? They're all essentially well-rounded extroverts, it seems. Not a lot of opportunity for conflict or communication.

Well, when you're preparing a film concept that you want to pitch to production companies, or organizations that offer funding for films, then you have to prepare what's commonly known as your "bible".

In this bible, these things are usually included...

WRITING

- First off, there's the script. Usually, the way many people write a script for a film or animated film, is one page per minute. So one page represents one minute of animation.
Unless you're already an experienced writer, or can get help from a friend who'se an experienced writer, it's often a good idea to have a professional writer go treat your script, and format it professionally. Finding the right writer is crucial. It's worthwhile getting the names of good writers, and taking the time to meet with them for a coffee and chat...get to know them personally. You want someone who can understand your vision, and someone who'se willing to help you, and not take over your project. Many writers with a bit of bully in them might try to take over your project. You don't want that. You want someone who will help your script shine, but still remain yours.
You also want to find someone affordable, so do your research.

Once the script is to its liking, which can take some time, then you'll want to write up a one-page synopsis of the entire script. Basically, like the written trailer of your film...you want it to be good as well, cause this is what'll sell a production company.

Then you'll want the breakdown of the film. Length in time, characters involved, targeted audience. The financial and legal details of your film are often taken care of by the sponsoring company that you're hooking up with, so don't sweat that too much. It is worthwhile however to do your own research, to make sure that you know the rules as well. There are many great documents written towards film production that'll give you the whole rundown on details and legalities...very much worth reading, otherwise, considering yourself a prime candidate for getting royally screwed.

ARTWORK

You want to have all of your character designs, nice and appealing, but not necessarily final. Remember that time is money...you want the visuals of your bible to be worth looking at and considering, but you don't want to have everything final...that's reserved for pre-production, when you're already being financed by someone. (Unless of course, you have a large reserve of cash of your own).
A good way to lay out your characters, and the designs, is to work out a few character pages, which consist of a nice illustration (color or not), with a paragraph or two describing the character. Try to make the layout nice on the eyes.
After that, you can have character model sheets, with a good full page of different poses of your character, paying attention to conveying the character and personality of the character. Putting the character in a little environment or scenario is a good way to get that message through..(ie..a little girl who'se sitting lonely on a tree swing). Environment helps alot with getting to know the character. One page per character is enough, you don't have to overdo it. And try to have many, but not so many that the drawing have to be tiny and unreadable. A good tip is to draw full page sketches of teh character, then in photoshop, shrink them down and place them nicely on the page. Shrinking them down helps refine details and hide little flaws as well.

It's also worthwhile doing a little short of your film, with full environment, music if you want, sound effects, and character animation conveying the mood, setting, style and main characters of the flim. It can be 5 minutes long or 30 seconds long...that depends on your time...Remember though, quality over quantity. It's better to have 30 kick-ass seconds, full of detail and oomph, then 10 minutes of crap.

This is the basics of it, although I'm sure there are many details that I'm forgetting, it'll be worth calling up a production company and ask what they require in a pitch..it often varies.

FINALLY, THE PITCH!

What you need to do is present your idea to companies with the funds to produce films. Sometimes there's promotions from TV stations, sometimes animation studios are looking for new ideas, sometimes you have a friend that's hoping to get a good film concept to get their studio into production..it's up to you to make lots of phone calls and do alot of travelling around town.
A good reliable production company will take the "bible" that you've put together, and pitch it to financiers...people with cash. You have to get a certain number of approvals from different financiers and production houses, and get their conscent and confidence into your film, stating that they'd be willing to fork over some dough to produce your film. Whoever you're working with on your film will take those documents and present them to a TV station or production house, and hopefully, that'll get you the gig. Once you've gotten your gig, you'll most likely take on the role of Chief Animation Director, where the company that you're working with will be the producers. This is all conditional of course, so like I said, do your homework.

LEGAL

Before you present anything to anyone, you have to make sure that your work is protected legally, otherwise, anyone can steal your work, and there's jack that you can do about it. You can huff and puff, while the crooks accept the academy award, and it'll be a hard lesson for you.
A "letter of non-disclosure" is a good place to start before presenting your work to someone. This should state that whatever you show belongs to you, and in no way can they take that work and present it as their own, or without your concent. It's your stuff, you're just showing it. It should be signed by both parties.
If you decide to sign a contract for a period of time with this company, then more detailed legal documents must be signed first. These documents state that X company has legal rights to your work for the purpose of pitching and producing for X amount of time. Lots of reading and discussing and bargaining will have to be taken care of first.

So get to work!
And good luck.

Adam

Before you find an agent, people can visit your site and see what you do :D

*buzzer* I'm sorry, the correct answer we were looking for was, "butterfly net." Butterfly net. But we have lovely consolation prizes.

In all honesty, it's not hard to change that. Why not make a website?

The other main alternative I know about is Dreamweaver.

Personally, I code by hand and keep it simple.

You could also do a site in Flash. It won't index well with search engines but you're trying to showcase work to direct traffic anyhow.

Almost every major host has a proprietary miniature website building program as part of the account you get. Paid places and free places alike.

You can click on my name on this page and then hit "Send e-mail to..." Anti-spamming being what it is =)

if you have photoshop, you can reduce the image size or quality to decrease the file size

I had a very nice person designed my site, it really didn't cost that much.. and saved me a l lot of time...well take a look may be you would considerate this way ;)
http://www.animationfreak.com/newsite/
The total cost:$300

Compressing video is one of my problems,I couldn't get it any less then 2MB.... :(

You need to stick it to whoever is providing you e-mail service. If I can get full-size 4x6 photographs to be less than 100k in size, it's doable. Most free e-mail services online let you upload up to 5 meg. Who do you use for e-mail?

Hey Echi,

It's nice to have you aboard. I wanted to offer a word of caution though, seeing is how you might want to take this project of yours all the way.

Be careful when it comes to discussing your ideas. Remember that a spontaneous idea, and a great idea is something very hard to keep to yourself sometimes. If you are serious about this project however, before you tell anyone about it, make sure you cover your butt legally. Although it's not a pleasant thought that there may be thieves out there willing to steal someone else's idea, it happens all the time.
Make sure the idea belongs to you, and you own the rights to it before you let out valuable information...even basic film concepts. This is your baby.

If you do need advice however, keep your questions and comments about your film very general...llke "I'm preparing a pitch for a film, but I'm not sure about the length of scripts or synopsises...how can you tell how much writing represents how much time in film length.."..

something like that. You'll get loads of great advice, without having to suffer the surprise of seeing your film on screen, written and directed by some other bloak.

but good luck my good man, I hope to see your work on Cable or bigscreen one day.

Adam