# Creating and Gathering the Content

The first step in the animation process is to create and gather your content. You can draw all of your character, props and backgrounds, or you can use templates, bitmaps and other multimedia files.

To create and gather content, you perform the following tasks:

- Add element layers to your Exposure Sheet or Timeline.
- Draw the contents of your animation layers. Drawing tools help you create vector images that are key to producing high-quality, small size, animation.
- Import images, like photos or image sequences from videos, into your element layers.
- Import multimedia, such as complete Macromedia® Flash movies, Adobe® Illustrator® and audio files. Toon Boom Studio provides a unique system of content management that can help you re-use animation elements.
- Scan bitmap backgrounds or hand-drawn animations that you want to vectorize.

See Also
Adding the Sound Track
Drawing Line Art