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The Production Process of Spongebob

Karen

By Karen
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Karen Newbie

Karen

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If you haven't heard, it takes 9-11 months to make a 11-minute episode of Spongebob. Our main question is, "How on Earth does it take that long JUST to create a cartoon?" Well here is our answer:

Before anyone can make an episode, the writers must come up with a premise and then an outline. (Example: Spongebob Enters the Krusty krab). In short, they have difficulty creating fresh ideas and story direction for the episode(S).

Once the outline is approved by the Executives, the Storyboard Directors are next down the line in the production process. This phase is part of what sets SpongeBob apart from other cartoons (for simplicity, IÔÇÖll just call those other shows ÔÇ£undesirablesÔÇØ from here on) because Storyboard Directors are expected to not only make the first ÔÇ£thumbnailÔÇØ drawings of an episode (usually done on post-it notes), but also to write the majority of the dialogue. This gives the storyboard directors both artistic and creative influence over every episode of the show.

Once the storyboard directors have finished creating the first draft version of the episode, it's up to the Storyboard Artists to take those thumbnails and polish them into beautiful diamonds of wonder. In addition, the storyboard artists must adjust the board for timing, staging, cuts, and a host of other technical aspects that 4 years of college and many more years of student loan repayment can teach you.

Now several months has passed on the production schedule even with the board in a presentable condition aesthetically, there is still plenty left to do. For example, once they have a ÔÇ£cleanÔÇØ version of the storyboard several things need to happen:

1): They need to have a script written for the voice actors.

2): They need to schedule all the voice actors to come in and record the episode.

3): They must take the recorded dialogue and have our Animatic Editor create an Animatic (A storyboard that has been made into a black and white slideshow) and allows us to get an early idea of which sections are funny and which need to be rewritten or cut from the episode.

4): They need to have a Track Reader listen to the recording and write out phonetically what each word sounds like.

5): The Animation Director needs to take that information and start timing how long every single action takes to happen (i.e how long it takes Squidward's hand to reach SpongeBob's face when he's angry)

6): Their Character Designer, Prop Designer and Layout Supervisor must create any new designs or backgrounds the show has never seen before, which must then be either painted by our Background Painters or colored by our Color Key Supervisor.

7): Their overseas studio must take everything we have done so far and use that to animate every single frame of animation (meaning, draw every single individual pose that every character makes).

8: Lastly, each episode must then be submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society and sent to camp Anawanna for digitization.

Actually, I just made that last part up to see if you were still paying attention. The show really goes into the post-production phase at that point, but by now you should be getting a general idea of the immense amount of time, effort, and amazing talent it takes just to put together one episode of SpongeBob funny enough to face the ruthless judgment of children aged 2-11 (and every other age group that loves the show).

Hopefully, you found this brief explanation (yes, this was the brief version) of an episodeÔÇÖs production process at least somewhat less confusing than last week's episode of Lost. If not, don't worry; I don't really understand anything that happens on Lost either.

For more information, visit http://spongebob.nick.com/backstage/blog/crew-blog/crew-blog-entry-15/

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Karen Newbie

Karen

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He knows what a script is, he doesn't understand why you say they don't write their own scripts. Frankly, I don't either.

Well, It didn't say they write scripts for the episode, but it did say they write scripts for the dialogue.

And how is that not understandable?

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