Sample of Style Too

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Current revision as of 21:40, 20 October 2025

The motion capture suit

Sample of Style TOO! The Animationing! is a live action video, a follow up to Sample of Style. More "industry secrets" are revealed as The Brothers Chaps farcically demonstrate their use of motion capture technology to animate the Homestar Runner toons.

Cast (in order of appearance): Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman, Strong Bad, Ryan Sterritt, Puppet Marshie

Date: July 25, 2005 (DVD); May 29, 2009 (YouTube)

Running Time: 4:38

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Four

[edit] 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: 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: All right, we're set.

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

MIKE: —A lot more advanced than that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MIKE: Little smiley faces.

MATT: That's the— That's a... outlet.

MIKE: Outhouse. Too scar—

MATT: 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: So tell them some more, Mike.

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

MIKE: {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: {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: So how does the computer talk to the suit, Mike?

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

MATT: {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: {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: What?

MIKE: We lost an arm.

MATT: What?

MIKE: We lost an arm.

MATT: {denyingly} No.

MIKE: 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: I got it! I got it!

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

MATT: Ahh! Ahh! I got it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MATT: {assuredly} I got ping pong balls.

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

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

MATT: Oww!

{Cut back to Matt sitting down}

MATT: We hit some snags—

{Cut back to scene with Mike attacking Matt}

MATT: Why would you do that?!

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

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

MATT: I d— I did.

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

MATT: I got me lunch.

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

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

RYAN: {nodding head} Yes.

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

RYAN: {picks up the package, exhales exasperatedly}

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

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

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

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Where does this go?

MATT: That's our main input.

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

MATT: In the back.

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

MATT: {laughs}

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

"You don't want to know"

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

MIKE: {humoring} Do your thing.

MATT: —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: {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: Are we cool here, me and you?

MATT: {nods} Totally.

{Cut}

MIKE: 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: 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.}

[edit] Fun Facts

[edit] Trivia

Sample of Style Too! was previewed at NYU in early 2005.

• An early cut of this video was shown during a presentation at New York University months prior to its DVD release.
• The YouTube description for this video is "Mike and Matt Chapman give a behind the scenes look at how they animate their cartoons."

[edit] Inside References

• The music heard while Matt motions for Marshie is the same music used for the introduction of Real Live E-Mails.
• 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, pictures of Dolph Hauldhagen and Sir Loodabert Comma are visible.
• As with the previous Sample of Style video, Mike uses the phrase "all the time".

[edit] Real-World References

• Bluetooth is a technology used to transfer data and information wirelessly between nearby devices.
• Matt spoofs a Hadouken motion while motioning for Marshie.

[edit] Fast Forward

• The music heard while Matt motions for Marshie is a recurring theme throughout Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

[edit] See Also

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

[edit] External Links

• watch "Sample of Style Too" on YouTube