To make a “short animated movie” in any 3D-program requires practice and the ability to be creative.The key is practice and learning to use your tools, it does not matter what program you use, as long as it is a reasonable good and mainstream program.You need to learn a lot of stuff, more than can be covered in one Quora answer, but you can basically learn of the internet, and thereby with practice and passion make a short animated movie.Just search for tutorials on your particular 3D-program, on YouTube or similar.You can learn the necessary skills to make a short movie from the internet, i am talking from experience, you just have to stick with it and don´t give up.Just don´t expect to be able to make a animated short movie, after a couple of tutorials on YouTube, otherwise you will be very disappointed and might loose interest in 3D, which would be sad. But you should still have ambitious goals.Stay creative, and keep learning, and you will eventually achieve your goal, and more!
I like to look at sites as http://www.udemy.com for tutorials at first. They have a bunch of tutorials and a lot of starter tuts. They also have tutorials from http://3dmotive.com/ which don't cost you a lot. Then there is http://cgi.tutsplus where you can find some free tutorials.The websites John McNeal describes are also very good points to startBut nowadays you can find multiple free tutorials on Youtube.com if you just search "Maya Modelling" or Last free tip: just start a project! Try the program, see what you can learn by doing. This always worked for me (doesn't mean it works for you can always try). It takes time of course to be an expert you need a lot of practise. I'm still learning everyday. Try to start with something you want to model something not to difficult. So don't try and model Iron Man the first time. But make like a tree or a wooden box a simple glass. Try to start small and then just let the creative juices flowing (that sounds creepy). You will encounter some problems, but you can find every answer with Google nowadays. Well I think you get my point, And its not that different from John McNeal's answer =)Hope you can use some of my advise =)
I have been working in the industry close to a year, as of 2017 the primary layout used (most commonly) is as follows,Blender— for rough modeling and sculpting, export as an object (.obj) where it is then sent toMaya—Refining and displacement. then the same .obj is transferred toMudbox—For super realistic textures and bump maps.After effects—Composite the finished .obj into the video file. *NOTE: THIS STEP IS DONE BEFORE COLOR CORECTION. ESPECIALLY WITH .R3D FILES FROM RED.* Color correction and keying is done here as well.Adobe Audition—Syncing audio with video and mastering in a 7.1 channel system .WAV editor.Premier Pro—Physical clip editing and splicing, audio synchronization and refining.Adobe media encoder—Encoding the finished product. H.264 at default compression and highest color bitrate setting for Windows systems and standard DVD. H.265 (HEVC) set at default compression and super high bitrate for Blu-Ray and 4K HDR or up to 8K video encoding.This is the general layout of some major film companies. ON A BUDGET> You CAN achieve cinematic quality CGI using the latest update of Blender. But to do it you need a computer that’s pretty much unaffordable to most. (mine has 14TB Memory, 128GB RAM, 750 Cores of processor and 40 GPU processors custom build that ran about $20K, even this can barely handle it when it can handle 8K RED files effortlessly) So… Now that the layout of pro studios is available publically, if you have a computer that can handle the files, has the memory, and RAM and power, have access to RED, ARRI Alexa, or otherwise professional cameras, you can make Hollywood quality films. Assuming you can afford it. (To this day, film companies prefer RED or ARRI Alexa) MOST independent companies use this same setup but film in either 4K or 1080p on BlackMagic. I hope this brief description helps! Happy Filming!
Depended on your definition of “animation”. Blender is not the easiest animation software in the world. Its a 3D graphic software.The fastest way to create animation is to use animation software.FYI : Scratch is not an animation software, but its a programming teaching software, however certain creative individual used it to create popular animation series (on Youtube) called BFDI (battle for dream island)So.. back to my original answer. I depend on your definition of “animation”Bouncing ball probably 6 minute to 1 day (depending on your skill)Game cut scene ? Probably 6 month to a year.My suggestion is to start not from blender.
There's a lot of work in modded versions of conventional software like Maya. There's also an in-house animation system called Presto:Watch A Rare Demo of Pixar’s Animation System PrestoThere's another one called Marionette which I don't think has ever been seen 'off campus'.