 Animation was handled overseas in South Korea at Rough Draft Studios . In 2012 , Nickelodeon produced and debuted " It 's a SpongeBob Christmas ! " , the first full @-@ length episode of the series that was produced in stop motion animation . Mark Caballero , Seamus Walsh , and Christopher Finnegan of Screen Novelties animated it , and Caballero and Walsh also served as its directors . Production on the episode began in October 2011 at Los Angeles , California . According to Finnegan , it took about five months to shoot , with a couple of months on either end for research and development and post . Animation directors credited with episodes in the eighth season included Caballero , Andrew Overtoom , Alan Smart , Walsh , and Tom Yasumi . Episodes were written by a team of writers , which consisted of Alexander , Banks , Luke Brookshier , Nate Cash , Marc Ceccarelli , Cervas , Sean Charmatz , Andrew Goodman , Derek Iversen , Mr. Lawrence , Michaeli , Richard Pursel , Aaron Springer , Paul Tibbitt , and Vincent Waller . The season was storyboarded by Alexander , Brookshier , Cash , Ceccarelli , Cervas , Charmatz , Springer , and Waller . 
