 Approximately 50 people work together in animating and producing an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants . Throughout its run , production of the series has been handled domestically at Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank , California , while the finished animation has been created overseas at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea . Storyboarding for each episode is done by the crew in California . The storyboards are then used as templates by the crew in Korea , who animate by hand , color cels on computers , and paint backgrounds . Episodes are finished in California , where they are edited and have music added . Every season , character designs are updated or modified to solve technical issues in the animation . 
