Season 4/production (early episodes)

Pre-production

Conclusion on production of the third season, transition to the first movie

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Stephen Hillenburg cheering on as production on the main series is shut down, moving on to work on the feature film. Posted by Kaz, on his Facebook.

On October 8, 2001, cartoon historian Jerry Beck announced on Cartoon Research that SpongeBob SquarePants would be cancelled after 60 episodes, its entire cast and crew was laid off, and multiple other Nickelodeon cartoons were in danger of cancellation, amid tensions of fair pay between Nickelodeon and its cartoon writers. This statement would quickly turn out to be false, as on the following day, it was revealed by an anonymous animator at Nickelodeon Animation Studio that the show was put on a contract for a limited 4 season run, and when Stephen Hillenburg was approached about further episodes, he declined, wanting to move on other projects. Craig Bartlett, creator of fellow Nicktoon Hey Arnold!, clarified the show's supposed "cancellation" as a production hiatus on October 10, stating, "Spongebob's production is coming from creator Steve Hillenberg's_[sic] personal choice, not ratings or money issues. Nick would make more if they could, and are calling it a "hiatus" and waiting to see if Steve'll change his mind and agree to do more."

Hillenburg's decision to not renew the show became public on April 13, 2002, and wouldn't re-sign when the current contract ended, saying that he needed a break, and wanted to try something new. Nickelodeon spokeswoman Nicole Mazer stated that the show would "go on hiatus for a while." Hillenburg did say that the show could possibly return a later date, similar to Rugrats went on hiatus between its third and fourth seasons, although he was ultimately not sure what he would do.

On December 9, 2001, a movie based on the series was announced to be in the works, with rumors of a series' film having been swirling since the show proved to be a success on Saturday mornings in 1999. According to an interview with Paul Tibbitt, the movie began production during late September or October 2001, and multiple members of the crew had been brought over from the series to the film. Despite this, a movie deal had not actually been confirmed with Nick by April 2002; however, Hillenburg said that he would like to make a film, and thought that Nickelodeon would to. He stated that he "wouldn't want to try and work on the series concurrently with the film." Many news articles covering the show during the following month misinterpreted Hillenburg's words, stating that the show had gone on a hiatus because of the unconfirmed picture.

In the 2010 article "The Oral History of SpongeBob SquarePants," multiple crew members recalled when the show originally came to an end. Layout artist Kenny Pittenger stated, "Many people were astonished when SpongeBob ended after the third season. "It's at the height of its popularity!" "But it's so funny!" "Aren't you guys getting great ratings?" "Has Steve gone crazy?" Steve had several reasons for ending it when he did, but even though I don't know any specifics, the movie undoubtedly factored into his decision." Head writer Merriwether Williams said "The show ended. I didn't leave the show—the show ran its course. No one knew if they were going to do any more [episodes]. It seemed like it was over at that time. Steve and Derek were leaving to do a movie for two years, and it was like, "SpongeBob is over—go get a job". And Derek, especially, has always encouraged me: "You did that—do other things." And I've done a number of other shows since then. But I do feel that people remember those shows from the first three seasons more than some of the others." Sam Henderson, a storyboard artist on season three, said that the choice of choosing to end the show was done to prevent it from "jumping the shark". Vincent Waller spoke of the situation with a fan on Bluesky from his perspective: "Steve worked very hard on the first three seasons, and when he received his first check for his [percentage] of the merchandising money (It was a much bigger check than most could ever expect) he realized he could easily step away from the show." Using an analogy, Waller stated "I think most of us, if we won a lottery would need to do some serious soul searching over whether or not to continue working 9to5. Even if you love the work. Steve put in 3 [seasons] working long hours, away from his family. He did not just give notes on pitched storyboards. He and Derek would work into the night to try and plus up boards they felt needed help. A sudden and substantial cash wind fall, opened the door for him to spend more time with his family and to decide what else he wanted to do."

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On May 23, 2002, it would be announced that production of the series would conclude in July. The final episode of season 3, "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler" / "Pranks a Lot," was completed on August 2, 2002. Rough storyboarding for the film was expected to conclude that same month, meaning the show would be out of production by the time the film got into any deeper phases of work. the To deal with the series' hiatus, Nickelodeon planned to ration out the last batch of episodes produced over the next few years, initially planned to scope out from 2003, later 2004 up to the first film's release, and initially, 2005. Executive producer Eric Coleman said that "It was a long hiatus. I believe Nickelodeon programming stretched out the programming for the third season as long as they could to cover the delay, but there certainly was a delay and a built-up demand."

Production on season four's early episodes

After the third season, Paul Tibbitt was kept around as Nickelodeon "had a couple of things in mind," in case something had popped up. Originally, Nick wanted to do a few specials after the third season concluded, and Tibbitt shadowed Stephen Hillenburg and Derek Drymon, going to a lot of recording and editing sessions, not realizing he was training for his what would eventually be his job on SpongeBob. Tibbitt recalls as he was wrapping up on the movie, Stephen Hillenburg was asked if he wanted to do more episodes of the series, who refused, as he wanted to complete the movie and still wasn't sure if he wanted to continue with the series. Tibbitt said he would do it, and when the network asked again the next day, he said he was sure. Quoting Tibbitt, he called it "being in the right place at the right time." Uncertainty did arise, as Hillenburg was "the leader and the creative soul of the show," according to Eric Coleman. "So when the show went on hiatus so he and the crew could focus on the movie, although Nickelodeon would have loved to continue producing the series and have new episodes earlier, everyone at the network respected the fact that this show came from that creator and this crew, and we're not just cranking out widgets here, where we can put a different crew on and punch the clock. If you want that magical show, you need to get it from that magical crew. So we understood that we needed to take a break and focus on the movie." After some thought, Hillenburg agreed to continue with a new batch of episodes.

Series' continuation announcements via the crew

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A Canadian listing for "Ugh" from November 4, 2002; the episode aired on the following day in Canada, and far later on March 5, 2004 in the United States.

By May 2004, nearly all of the 60 episodes produced for the first three seasons had aired, excluding "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler" / "Pranks a Lot," with many of these episodes airing long ago internationally, with countries such as Australia and New Zealand, South Korea, and Canada airing episodes as early as October and November 2002, alongside being released ahead of time on DVDs. News on fresh, newly-produced episodes seemed sparse, instead focusing on episode premieres in the US, merchandising, and the upcoming film in November. Rumors had come into fruition believing that the series had been cancelled, with "Save SpongeBob!" petitions reportedly popping up over the internet after it was announced that the show wouldn't continue in April '02.

However, on May 16, this would all change in an email sent by SpongeBob writer and storyboard director Jay Lender to a member of the defunct SpongeBob Area fansite, Barnacle Head, where he stated that new episodes were possibly being made: "I believe Nickelodeon is making a handful of new episodes right now, 10 or fewer. Steve's involvement is limited, but the show is in good hands with Paul Tibbitt." Despite concerns over a possibly similar situation over what happened with The Ren & Stimpy Show and its creator by fans, Lender said "that's not what's happening here" and assured that "Steve and Derek are exactly as involved as they want to be with the new episodes," in a response on May 17. Former writer Sam Henderson also stated that the show was back in an email on the 16th: "I know that SB is going back into production, but I'm not involved (at least I think). I know that Paul Tibbitt is in charge and Steve Hillenburg & Derek Drymon are not." In an email from the following day, he theorized that as to the reason of why these new episodes were being made was "that they want to be able to have an even 65. The real money in television is when a show is rerun in syndication, and 65 is the minimum amount to be eligible."

Kaz was called up by Paul Tibbitt to return at some point as well, responding to an email the 17th: "Paul called me a few weeks ago to work on a SpongeBob or two. He said he wouldn't be ready for me until late June and July. Of course I said YES. He told me that Nickelodeon ordered four new half-hours. Ten makes more sense -- ----, why not do one more whole season? I believe the characters are strong enough work out 24 more stories." In an addendum, he stated "I'm not sure what Paul Tibbitt is thinking about. I know that Carl Greenblatt (my second writing/storyboard directing partner) did a freelance storyboard for one of the new episodes under Paul Tibbitt. There's no gag order on information as far as I know." However, by July 2004, he never got the call back. In an email from July 14, he said he was working on an upcoming Cartoon Network show created by Joe Murray, that show ultimately being Camp Lazlo.

On July 5, 2004, Jay Lender responded to two emails about a new season he had gotten from both of SpongeBuddy Mania's moderators, now confident that there would be new episodes, and (as Kaz said) there would be four half-hours. As far as he was aware, the show would still be staffed by series veterans, production began a few months before, and these episodes were likely part of the fourth season, although he said that season designations were ultimately meaningless. It was likely that these episodes weren't coming before the movie, (although stranger things had happened) and it was possible that they wouldn't even come at all (Lender said "Nick would be crazy not to make more but I wouldn't bet my life on them following through---they're famously fickle about these things.")

Head honchos

During season four, Paul Tibbitt took over the position of showrunner from Stephen Hillenburg, who went into semi-retirement. Tibbitt's job involved "supervising all the day-to-day productions, all the artwork that's done, all the stories that come in." He "[tried] to maintain the quality and integrity of the show." Hillenburg felt he had "reached a point where he felt [he'd] contributed a lot and said what [he] wanted to say," believing the show need new blood. Tibbitt was ultimately appointed, "totally [trusting] him" as Hillenburg "always enjoyed the way he captured the SpongeBob character's sense of humor." He also wanted to move on, and develop new projects. Tibbitt recalled words of advice Hillenburg gave to him while serving in his new position: "think of producing these shows like shooting a shotgun, they come flying out of the barrel, some of them hit the mark, some miss. Just reload and don't look back[.]" Hillenburg took the position of executive producer during season four, reviewing each episode and delivering suggestions. In a 2009 interview, he said "I figure when I'm pretty old I can still paint. I don't know about running shows." In terms of approach and vision to his position as showrunner, Tibbitt's was very different although he tried his best to keep it the same. Over time, however, the process changed as "the show became the juggernaut it is". He always took his job as essentially an "editor," listening to input from everyone and molding it as best as he could to the demanding schedules.

Eric Coleman states, "It was crucial that Steve remained as executive producer and blessed the transition to Paul. And Paul was very focused on living up to the high standards of the show. He never took it for granted, never felt entitled about having that position. He took very seriously carrying the show forward, not only because it was a ratings hit for the network. I think much more so, as an artist, he wanted to maintain the integrity of the show. He's very talented and very serious about his work. He's also serious about being true to the original vision of SpongeBob. He's not someone who came in at a later season and said, "OK, now that I'm behind the wheel, I’m going to put my stamp on it." [After Steve's departure] I played the same role I had played while Steve was there. Paul had been there for years, and when I talk about the notes I gave Steve, that really means to Steve and the board artists and the writers and the whole creative staff. Everyone would be in those meetings together."

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A picture of Paul Tibbitt and Vincent Waller playing the game SpongeBob SquigglePants together in 2011.

Vincent Waller usurped Derek Drymon's position as a creative director in April 2004, although he was credited as a technical director for a majority of the season. Drymon completely left the SpongeBob franchise after the film: "I went into the movie knowing it would be the last work I did for SpongeBob. I started the show with Steve, and throughout the series we had a very close relationship. Work intermingled with our personal lives—we lived near each other, we were both married with young children, and our families spent a lot of time together. We ate dinner together, took vacations together, spent holidays together…it was ridiculous, but we enjoyed each other's company. I don't know if I would have stayed on if he decided to do more. I was creatively burnt out on SpongeBob when we finished the movie, but I never considered doing it without him. SpongeBob was a lot of different things to different people, but for me it was about working with a friend of mine. I wasn't interested in doing it alone."

Previously serving as a storyboard writer and director near the end of season 1, Waller was initially brought back for season four as a storyboard director and writer, and recalls at some point being kicked up to the creative director position. "I left SpongeBob and did more directing and supervising, and when I came back, they started me again in storyboard writing, but as the show was getting picked up again that [fourth] season, they asked if I would do more supervising. They know that I've been around animation long enough that if anyone has a question, I'll generally know how it works." Waller's job involved working closely with Tibbitt as "the show-runner's right hand", "supporting him and assisting him as needed in writing meetings, animatic editing, retakes, recording, storyboarding, character and prop design, as well as supervising all aspects [of] production." He communicated directly with the crew and makes sure the show's teams and departments are working well together, approved designs, and acted as a second set of eyes in storyboard pitches. He did things that the show-runner didn't have time to do, including directing records, communicating with the overseas animation studio Rough Draft Korea, and more, saying that "the job was different everyday." Tibbitt spoke well of Waller during his time on the show on his Linkedin page: "Vincent's vast animation knowledge, both technical and historical, and incredible drawing skill are an invaluable asset to any production. He also has one of the most deeply ingrained senses of humor you may ever encounter, and is probably the most personable human being on this planet. If you need help making a cartoon, Vincent is a godsend."

Writing

For SpongeBob, a group of writers create the premises and outlines for an episode. A premise is one page, and after it is approved, an outline is created, which is about two pages. These set up the basic structure of an episode and give an idea of how to get from the beginning to the end of a story. Season four's initial writing crew was composed of Paul Tibbitt, Tim Hill, Kent Osborne, and Mike Bell. Both Tibbitt and Osborne had served as storyboard writers, having worked together as one of the main storyboard teams throughout season 3. Osborne also previously wrote the outlines for the episodes "Chocolate with Nuts" and "Krusty Krab Training Video," from that season. Hill helped develop the series and its pitch bible, writing premises for early episodes such as "Help Wanted" and "Jellyfishing." Bell, while only working on the series as an actor up to that point (playing Santa Claus in "Christmas Who?"), had served as a story writer on the early days of another popular Nicktoon, The Fairly OddParents!, and was a writer and storyboard artist on various other series. Hill wrote the stories for "Fear of a Krabby Patty" and "The Lost Mattress," and co-wrote the story for "Krabs vs. Plankton" with Mike Mitchell. Tibbitt wrote the stories for "Shell of a Man" and "Have You Seen This Snail?" Bell solely wrote the story for "Good Neighbors." Extraneously from the main writing team, Kyle McCulloch, a friend of Tibbitt who had worked on South Park, provided the story for "Skill Crane."

At the end of the third season, there were no real leftover ideas for the series; there was a backlog of half-baked ideas that may been used, but nothing was fully realized. For the fourth season, the crew realized soon after the movie that the characters needed to be stretched out as more and more episodes were produced, with Tibbitt saying that while the first three seasons comprised of "simple stories and gags," the characters needed to be given "more depth in order to widen the pallet."

In a 2019 interview, songwriter Andy Paley recalls that the story for the episode "Have You Seen This Snail?" was birthed at the hands of executives, who wanted to create an episode where Gary gets lost. A decent portion of the musical number from the episode, "Gary's Song," was written by Paley by the time he got home from work, and he called Tom Kenny to share the song with him. The two completed the song in an hour. Tibbitt says he loved doing that episode, and still gets a tear in his eye when he listens to the song.

Storyboarding

• A storyboard from "Fear of a Krabby Patty," by C.H. Greenblatt.
  A storyboard from "Fear of a Krabby Patty," by C.H. Greenblatt.
• A storyboard from "Krabs vs. Plankton," by Vincent Waller.
  A storyboard from "Krabs vs. Plankton," by Vincent Waller.
• A storyboard from "Have You Seen This Snail?" by Aaron Springer.
  A storyboard from "Have You Seen This Snail?" by Aaron Springer.

After an outline is completed, the storyboard directors do the rough drawings on the storyboards, all the dialogue writing and most of the visual jokes, expanding the story from the text. Paul Tibbitt said that almost every studio had different titles for this position, but SpongeBob's storyboard directors were really "storyboard writers." "They direct how the show is going to look in its visual form, and then that gets handed off." Tibbitt says the series' storyboard artists get far more input than they do on most jobs at other shows. These storyboards are then pitched to the entire crew. Vincent Waller states "Everybody has a different style. There are people who are very quiet about it. They still do some amazing voice interpretations and acting, and some people are bigger and are much more broad when they're doing the acting out. Some people are very quiet and subtle, and then you have guys like Mike Bell, who sometimes during his pitch would do back flips. Here's a guy who's like six-foot-three and about 300 pounds doing a back flip!" Waller says that after the board was pitched, "sometimes half to three-quarters would change, but [the] deadline didn't change," still having another week to turn it around, doing a lot of writing in a very short amount of time. Waller says that the characters are all pretty simple in terms of personality, and things really get entertaining when one brings their own experiences to them -- "it's like they're all taking turns being some little slice of you."

The first episode of season four, "Fear of a Krabby Patty," was a freelance storyboard done by C.H. Greenblatt, finished by at least May of 2004. After SpongeBob initially went out of production in 2001 or 2002, Greenblatt was out of a job for a year and a half, resorting to random freelance work. Eventually, he got a job as a writer and storyboard artist on Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and worked on this episode in between his time on that show. Tibbitt said that Greenblatt did the storyboard as a favor for him, and there was no real talk of him staying.

The rest of season four's initial four-episode order would be storyboarded by Aaron Springer, Waller, and Bell. In terms of drawing, Waller cites Squidward as being a difficult character to draw: "He has a very odd-shaped head. Fortunately, his emotions are pretty even, but to get a whole lot of big emoting out of him is a challenge. His nose splits everything in half, so it's always like, "OK, how am I going to work this and still make it read?" On the other hand, Bell has cited Jay Ward as a major influence on his drawing style. Each of them worked on a solo episode respectively ("The Lost Mattress," "Krabs vs. Plankton," and "Have You Seen This Snail?") while also working as paired teams on others ("Shell of a Man" paired Waller and Bell, "Skill Crane" paired Springer and Waller, and "Good Neighbors" paired Springer and Bell.)

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• Erik Wiese
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• Ted Seko
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Three of the returning storyboard artists on SpongeBob: Zeus Cervas, Erik Wiese, and Ted Seko.

Storyboard plussing would be provided by Zeus Cervas, Brad Vandergrift, Erik Wiese, and Garrett Ho, William Reiss, John Magness, Tim Parsons, Ted Seko, and Clint Bond. Unlike the prior three seasons, where many episodes had storyboards cleaned-up by the original rough board artists, season four marked the permanent switch to a full-on plussing team, people dedicated to cleaning up the storyboards. Waller says the crew "[ships] very detailed boards to Korea. You could pretty much blow them up and use them as layouts, along with [exposure] sheets, design, color." Rolling off of the first film as a revisionist, Cervas was already a long time board artist on the show, having worked on the series since season 2 in 1999, even storyboarding the "Fly of Despair" sequence in "Shanghaied." Cervas provided work on the show prior to July 2004, being front credited for the episode "Fear of a Krabby Patty," for after which he would temporarily leave to storyboard an episode of Family Guy, "Jungle Love."

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Storyboards from "Skill Crane" by Erik Wiese.

Wiese and Seko also came from the production of the first movie, being in the positions of character layout artist and storyboard revisionist, respectively. Wiese previously worked on the show as a writer, storyboard director, storyboard artist, and animator throughout the series' history, while Seko had served an assistant storyboard artist since the middle of season 3. Wiese provided plussing on the episodes "Shell of a Man," "Krabs vs. Plankton," "Have You Seen This Snail?," "Skill Crane," and "Good Neighbors." In an Instagram post from nearly 18 years after the episode's debut, he said that the storyboards from "Skill Crane" brought back a lot of fond memories for him after the official SpongeBob Twitter account shared them, and that the season 4 crew was great, as they had so much fun.

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A cleaned-up storyboard from the second half of "Have You Seen This Snail?"

Brad Vandergrift joined Nickleodeon Animation Studios in 2003, and begun storyboarding on the series with "Shell of Man," since becoming one of the show's longest standing crew members, still working on the series to this day. William Reiss temporarily returned to the series to storyboard on either "The Lost Mattress" or "Krabs vs. Plankton." Garrett Ho provided storyboard punch-up from episodes around "The Lost Mattress" through "Good Neighbors." John Magness storyboarded on SpongeBob from around "Skill Crane" to "Once Bitten," eventually leaving Nickelodeon Animation Studios in February 2006. Tim Parsons, another artist who began working on the series the "Skill Crane" / "Good Neighbors" pair, would only provide more work on the subsequent half-hour, before leaving to work as a prominent director on American Dad! Clint Bond begun working on the franchise via illustrations for children's literature, providing drawings for SpongeBob-themed books as early as 2001. He would later start on the show during this season as a prop and character designer, before becoming a storyboard artist on the same episode pair as Magness, Seko, and Parsons. Bond eventually became a longtime board plusser like Vandergrift, working on the series until the twelfth season.

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A production drawing of SpongeBob and Gary from "Have You Seen This Snail?" by Sherm Cohen.

Storyboard supervision from the beginning of season four to "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture" was provided by Sherm Cohen, returning to the same position he was in during season three, and also returning from the movie's production as a lead storyboard artist. Cohen talked about working as a storyboard supervisor on another show, Fish Hooks, a show with a similar production cycle to SpongeBob -- he "[looks] for ways to pump up the staging, and to find ways to plus the acting and make everything as clear as possible before the storyboard gets turned into animatic." In a class hosted by Cohen during his time on season four at the animation studios, he provided methods on how do to this, such as pushing character movement and poses, clarifying silhouettes, emphasizing roundness and depth, and using asymmetrics and angles to create depth and interesting compositions, via character drawings of the series' main cast created for the storyboard crew. An animation director then slugs the board to give it proper timing between the dialogues and animatic.

Casting and recording

After an episode's storyboard is cleaned up and finalized, a script is created for the actors to read from. A recording date needs to be scheduled for the voice actors to come in and record all of the dialogue.

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Behind the Scenes: The Voices of SpongeBob & Friends video featurette, featuring Tom Kenny, Bill Faggerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, and Clancy Brown. The video features recording session clips from "Have You Seen This Snail?"

Casting direction was provided by Sarah Noonan, taking up the role from Donna Grillo Gonzales. Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown and Carolyn Lawrence were all initially confirmed to work on the fourth season, although Lawrence wouldn't provide any voices for the initial season four batch. In the Behind the Scenes: The Voices of SpongeBob & Friends featurette on the first volume of the fourth season DVD, Kenny said the most important thing to remember about SpongeBob is his hyperactivity, sweet and open personality, and lack of malice. He enjoys going to the studio and being "this nice, positive, hyperactive freak for four hours." Fagerbakke compared Patrick to the best friend one would have during second grade. Bumpass viewed Squidward as an "artistic, self-important curmudgeon" and loved the character because he is able to portray a wide range of emotions, from quiet sarcasm to apoplexy with SpongeBob and Patrick. He says that Squidward's voice is influenced by his own, saying that "[he is] Squidward," with no acting involved. Brown loved Mr. Krabs, as his personality tied into the idea that he is a crustacean: "he's very tough on the outside, but very soft on the inside."

Other significant cast members such as Doug Lawrence, Lori Alan, Thomas F. Wilson, Dee Bradley Baker, Sirena Irwin and Jill Talley would all return in various different roles throughout.

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Voice-over demo video for Mark Fite, a new addition to the SpongeBob side cast.

Mark Fite joined the series' cast beginning with "Fear of a Krabby Patty" as the patty from SpongeBob's dream, and eventually became a recurring actor for various minor or one-off characters throughout the Paul Tibbitt-run seasons of the series. For the episode "Have You Seen This Snail?," Saturday Night Live cast member Amy Poehler voiced the character of Grandma, and musician Stew provided vocals for the aforementioned "Gary's Song."

Animatics and animation timing

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Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi, the two animation directors of the first batch of fourth season episodes.

With the storyboard complete and dialogues recorded, an animatic is created to present a black-and-white slideshow version of the episode, giving opportunity for an episode to be reworked, decidedly keeping and removing scenes. During this season, the animatic editor position was taken up by Justin Baker, replacing Brian Robitaille. A track reader listens to the dialogue heard in the animatic, writing out phonetically what each word sounds like.

The animation directors of early season four consisted of Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi, who switched roles for each 11-minute segment in packaging order, with the other original animation timer, Andrew Overtoom serving as a sheet timer for the first two segments of the season. During the animatic meeting, the director, producer, and supervisors attempt to lock the episode at 12 minutes, with an extra minute left as "cushion for the post-edit." Episodes are subsequently timed, putting action on exposure sheets -- each has 80 lines per page, representing a frame of a film, with 24 lines representing one second of movement. Poses are drawn to make scenes work, mouth movements are matched with dialogue using info from the track reader, and camera movements and special effects are indicated by them. The timers essentially tie the show together to prepare episodes for animation in Korea.

Production design

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A character design made for the episode "Shell of a Man," drawn by Clint Bond.

Following the timing process, the episode enters the design process, with new character models, prop designs, and layout backgrounds being created when necessary, which are subsequently painted and color keying. Todd White continued his role as a character designer during early season four, and Clint Bond provided a few character designs for the first two episodes of the season. Bond also took the role of prop designer from Thaddeus Paul Couldron. Layout designs were initially provided by Paula Spence, continuing her role from the previous season, although she left the series after the first half-hour, with layout supervisor Kenny Pittenger supervising background designs throughout the entire batch.

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A background painting from "The Lost Mattress," done by Andy Clark.

Art direction would be provided by background painter Peter Bennett, taking up the role from Nick Jennings following his departure from the show. Bennett would take up the role until Season 14's "Firehouse Bob," being replaced by Shane Richardson. He, alongside Andy Clark and Kit Boyce would form the background painting crew. Color keying for designs would be done by Teale Reon Wang.

All of the production work completed is then shipped to Rough Draft Korea, the overseas animation studio, where the material is used to help animate the episode, as it goes into post-production.

End of production

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A model sheet for "Good Neighbors," dated December 21, 2004.

During mid-November 2004, around the release of the film, it was confirmed that the series cast and crew had completed four new episodes that would begin broadcast in early 2005. The final episode produced from this episode batch, "Good Neighbors," had model sheets shipped out to Rough Draft Studios in December 2004. The first half-hour of season four, comprised of the segments "Fear of a Krabby Patty" and "Shell of a Man," was completed on January 9, 2005.

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Completed slate for the pair "Fear of a Krabby Patty" / "Shell of a Man," dated January 9, 2005.