Sample of Style Too

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Revision as of 10:59, 23 July 2006

The motion capture suit

Sample of Style TOO! The Animationing! is a live action bonus video that appears in strongbad_email.exe Disc Four. Mike Chapman referred to it as a "follow up" to Sample of Style at the talk at New York University. More "industry secrets" are revealed as The Brothers Chaps parody "motion capture" technology.

Cast (in order of appearance): Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman, Ryan Sterritt

Running Time: 4:38

Transcript

{Cheerful intro music begins to play. The words "Sample of Style" appear on screen, followed by "TOO!" stamped on like a rubber stamp. Finally, "The Animationing!" appears in an inkblot-style font.}

{Video begins to play showing Mike in a red "PACERS" shirt.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Hi. {dodges a roll of duct tape thrown at him} I'm Mike Chapman. People all the time coming up to me on the street and asking me, "Mike, how do you do the animation for your characters on homestarrunner.com?" I tell them...you guys, we're about to go film something with the character Strong Bad being animated and I will show you how, to answer your question. Come on! {gestures with his hand}

{Cut to next scene where Matt is wearing an off-white mask currently flipped up on his head and he is wearing a "motion capture" suit. Behind him is a solid green screen}

MIKE CHAPMAN: All right, we're set.

MATT CHAPMAN: We're ready to go. {As he says this, Matt flips down the mask he is wearing, which is textured like Strong Bad's face} Let's do this. {He begins to wave his arms as the camera zooms out}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Rolling! {Matt makes motions in his suit} That's good.

{Cut to scene where Matt and Mike are sitting down holding video game controllers}

MATT CHAPMAN: You know, so a lot of people think it is just straight-up Flash animation. Which is—

MIKE CHAPMAN: —A lot more advanced than that.

MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah, which is far from the truth. Far from it.

{Cut. The brothers are facing a dry erase board}

MATT CHAPMAN: {Draws an arrow from a ping pong ball to a stick figure} —We get this. {Quickly circles the stick figure twice}

MIKE CHAPMAN: What about a cord— I mean, are you going to need to be plugged into anything?

MATT CHAPMAN: Looks like this is the wall, right? {Draws an electrical cord coming out of a grid wall}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Oh, okay, so it's coming straight out of the wall.

MATT CHAPMAN: Right, yeah, and then it's like— {Draws an electrical outlet}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Little smiley faces.

MATT CHAPMAN: That's the— That's a... outlet.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Outhouse. Too scar—

MATT CHAPMAN: Well, I d— I— That might be— That's probab— That's better. No, I think that's better. I think that's better, you know? {Draws arms and legs on the electrical outlet} I think that's better. I think that's going to get results.

{Cut. Matt's face is now obscured by the mask. Mike's back faces the camera}

MATT CHAPMAN: So tell them some more, Mike.

{Matt waves his arms as Mike suddenly turns to face the camera.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {gesturing to the suit} This is our motion capture suit. {Matt gradually lifts up the mask} On it, we have ping pong balls that are all the time sending out electronic messages {Matt laughs} through Bluetooth reactors into the air, then they bounce off this pretty green wall which is represented and sent to the computer here. {As he is saying this, camera pans to show a laptop computer showing an image of Strong Bad}

{Video cuts to show a divided screen. On the left, Strong Bad is waving his arms up and down. On the right, Matt is waving his arms in an irregular pattern; his movements and Strong Bad's don't match.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {offscreen} K, now, Homestar's on your left, Homestar's on your left. Good. Good. Good.

{Cut to Matt and Mike standing near the computer.}

MATT CHAPMAN: So how does the computer talk to the suit, Mike?

MIKE CHAPMAN: Well, these ping ping balls... can talk to the computer.

MATT CHAPMAN: {laughs}

{Cut to show close up of Mike sitting at the desk with the laptop. An image of Strong Bad waving his arms up and down is displayed.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {looking to the right at Matt (offscreen)} Keep it up, we just got a few more sec— {The right arm of Strong Bad's image flickers and then disappears entirely. His left arm continues to move up and down} Whoa, hey hey hey hey. Hold on, hold on.

MATT CHAPMAN: What?

MIKE CHAPMAN: We lost an arm.

MATT CHAPMAN: What?

MIKE CHAPMAN: We lost an arm.

MATT CHAPMAN: {denyingly} No.

MIKE CHAPMAN: One of his arms is— {he gets up from the desk} One of his arms came off. {Camera pans to the right to show Matt making motions. His face is obscured by the mask.}

MATT CHAPMAN: I got it! I got it!

MIKE CHAPMAN: Hey hey. {he taps on the mask} Wake up!

MATT CHAPMAN: Ahh! Ahh! I got it!

MIKE CHAPMAN: {lifting up the mask} One of your arms came off. What happened?

MATT CHAPMAN: {stretches out his arms and examines them} They look good to me.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Take a closer look. They don't look good to me.

{Matt studies his left arm and starts to grin.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {grabs Matt's right arm and holds it up} What is this? What are these? {rips the irregular balls off of Matt's arm} This is the problem right here. {repeatedly hitting the two balls together as Matt grins}

{Matt puts his mask down}

MIKE CHAPMAN: These are— {laughs, lifts up the mask} These are wiffle golf balls. We need ping pong balls.

MATT CHAPMAN: {pointing to the balls on his suit} These— I got—

MIKE CHAPMAN: Table tennis balls. It's an Olympic sport.

MATT CHAPMAN: {assuredly} I got ping pong balls.

MIKE CHAPMAN: No, yeah, on everywhere else except for this part. That's why his arm disappeared. {holds the wiffle balls} These things have holes all over them.

"Processing" the data

{Cut to show Matt sitting down and drinking a bottle of water}

RYAN STERRITT: {offscreen} How's the shooting going today?

MATT CHAPMAN: {drinks more and then lowers bottle} Rough.

{Cut to the green screen room. Mike is in front of the camera and Matt is behind him closer to the screen, cowering on the floor.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Don't do that again! {throws ball at Matt}

MATT CHAPMAN: Oww!

{Cut back to Matt sitting down}

MATT CHAPMAN: We hit some snags—

{Cut back to scene with Mike attacking Matt}

MATT CHAPMAN: Why would you do that?!

MIKE CHAPMAN: What if Strong Bad was getting pelted with a wiffle golf ball?

MATT CHAPMAN: Wha—? {gets hit by a wiffle ball} Ah!! Jeez!! {Mike throws another ball at Matt.} Hooh!

{Cut to Mike and Matt standing in front of the green screen.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: I told you to go... pick up some lunch, and some ping pong balls and duct tape.

MATT CHAPMAN: I d— I did.

MIKE CHAPMAN: You didn't get lunch, and you got these. {taps wiffle balls together}

MATT CHAPMAN: I got me lunch.

{Cut to show Ryan Sterritt sitting at a computer when Matt talking to him}

MATT CHAPMAN: Remember the other day I, uh, asked you to go get, go get some ping pong balls for the...motion capture suit.

RYAN STERRITT: {nodding head} Yes.

MATT CHAPMAN: {cut to close-up of a package of wiffle golf balls} These are wiffle golf balls {cut to previous shot} so, if you could go ahead and... take the blame for all of this, that would be— that would be great.

{Cut}

MATT CHAPMAN: Cool. Thanks man. {drops the wiffle ball package in Ryan's lap}

RYAN STERRITT: {picks up the package, exhales exasperatedly}

{Cut to Mike sitting at the laptop with Matt in front of the green screen.}

MATT CHAPMAN: {holding the end of a cord that is attached to his suit} I need you to plug this in.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Plug... this? {grabs the cord unsurely}

MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Where does this go?

MATT CHAPMAN: That's our main input.

MIKE CHAPMAN: This— I don't have a plug this big. This is—

MATT CHAPMAN: In the back.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Mm, {sticks the end of the cord behind the computer, humoring} There we go.

MATT CHAPMAN: {laughs}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {humoring} We're all set. Okay.

"You don't want to know"

MATT CHAPMAN: All right. {Pulls the other end of the cord out of his pocket} I mean, this is supposed to be—

MIKE CHAPMAN: {humoring} Do your thing.

MATT CHAPMAN: —tucked in my pocket anyhow.

{Cut. Matt is in front of the green screen, doing running motions. Strong Bad is in the top-left corner, running.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: {offscreen} Bubs' Concession Stand, there it is, {Matt looks and points to his left; Strong Bad continues running.} yeah, yup. Here comes The Stick. Watch out for The Stick. {Matt jumps; Strong Bad doesn't.}

{Cut. Mike is sitting at the computer. Matt is standing in front of the green screen. Matt no longer has a Strong Bad mask, and is holding Puppet Marshie behind his back.}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Are we cool here, me and you?

MATT CHAPMAN: {nods} Totally.

{Cut}

MIKE CHAPMAN: And... rolling.

{An animated Marshie is in the top-left corner. Matt has Puppet Marshie in his right hand and a black mask with a ping pong ball is covering his face. Matt does random motions, while animated Marshie shakes back and forth a tiny bit.}

{Cut. Matt is standing in front of the green screen.}

MATT CHAPMAN: Oops, we're out of time. You may be asking, "How do you guys animate the Homestar Runner character?" Well, I've got an answer for you: {holds up black underwear with two ping pong balls attached} You don't want to know!

{Freeze frame. Fade to black.}

Fun Facts

Inside References

• An object is also tossed to Mike in "Sample of Style," except in that instance, he catches it (a football).
• In one portion of the video, we can see pictures of Dolph Hauldhagen and Sir Loodabert Comma.

Real-World References

• Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks first developed by Ericsson, later formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Related Links

• strongbad_email.exe
• Sample of Style Too: Some Outtakes