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Hey everyone, I'm new to animation.

When professional animators make a short-film using TvPaint, what is the drawing process for things that have motion that have a lot of detail and color and shading and stuff? Let me explain:

Let's say you want to animate an apple rolling from point A to point B. Are you supposed to sketch the animation frame by frame, then once that's done, GO BACK to the 1st frame, and go through each frame by frame coloring the apple red? Then once that's finished, GO BACK AGAIN to the 1st frame, and go through each frame shading it and giving it some shiny touches? (To make the apple more realistic, instead of flat).

OR

Are you supposed to make the apple look as it should all at once as you go along? Instead of having to go back to the first frame and go through the whole thing again.

Or is there an easier way to do this on TvPaint?

Thank you

Basically you're right about having to go back to frame one. There are other ways to do it, but the purest* way is how you describe it. What you'll want to do it separate each process out into layers. So you have a layer with the line, a layer with the colour and a layer with the shade. What software like tvpaint will enable you to do is perform the processes more efficiently, and in some cases, faster.
Here's a video that was posted on the board that will help you understand how tvp can help you with the colour and shade layers: http://www.cartoonmonkey.com/lazybrush-demo.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perfect, thank you so much! Very helpful