Just finished making a video going over the building process for The Plague Machine. Check it out here:

This is a crosspost from my Substack newsletter.

The Hydromecha Monthly continues its foray into the world of moving visual media, this time with even more movement! Check out this month’s video edition below:

I gotta get those animations set up properly in the Non-Linear Animation editor later. I copypasted things across the timeline as I needed them like an ape xd. I’m also thinking of rendering the lip sync separately so I can just composite it over prerendered body animations. That could make the overall render time a lot faster. Currently the backgrounds are prerendered stills while the Hydro model is rendered separately (along with the table) with animations/lip sync. I’m also thinking of changing the dimensions on the monitor so 16:9 footage fits in it better.

The lip sync is done automatically by feeding audio into Blender, which changes the Value of a Shapekey depending on the volume of the input. If you want to learn how to do this yourself, check out this video (it’s the same one I followed to make my stuff):

Comic Reader Updates

The comic reader on Hydromecha.Website got a major overhaul recently. Instead of needing to go to a separate page to read each comic, everything now lives on a single .html file, using JavaScript to swap what comic is loaded. Individual comics can be linked to thanks to the hash system in the URL. I still need to get individual page URLs set up (so you can link to specific pages), among other things. I still have to go back through a bunch of stuff to swap out links to the old comic webpages.

Stay tuned for a Github release of the comic reader’s code once I get things cleaned up and a bit more user-friendly. If you really want to you can always trawl through the JS by Inspect Element-ing on the page. Check out the comic reader by clicking on the above image. Be warned, the site isn’t optimized for mobile browsers. That’s something I’ll have to mess with later.

ANTARCTICA MUST FALL Grayboxing

ANTARCTICA MUST FALL has been on ice for a little while now. I was messing around with the first map and started getting some ideas for things, which resulted in an expanded graybox. I have a playlist of progress videos, which are just uncommentated gameplay footage for now. Click here to see it. If there’s demand, I can do a video that goes into detail on stuff. I want to make another monster for this mod, so I could also do a video going over the process of going from a Blender model to sprites and such.

The video below is the latest progress showcase for MAP01:

I’m planning on grayboxing all the maps before even thinking about decorating stuff to make sure I can solidify all the gameplay. An even longer while ago I had started mapping with way too much focus on small details and making things look nice instead of trying to make a good Doom level. There are definitely things I’m thinking of changing in the current version of MAP01 which’ll be easier to do with a bunch of simple shapes.

Completion of The Plague Machine

The Plague Machine is done! I’m planning on doing a making-of video for this build sometime next month.

Bugalo et al.

I’m gonna talk about Bugalo along with a few projects that didn’t get a ton of progress this past month.

As is custom in these lands, Bugalo (Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club) got a new page this month. Check it out here. In a shocking twist of events, Bugalo may be starting a coherent plotline. The horror.

I made a little bit of progress on the Hazardous Materials Script and the Table Knight module but not enough to warrant talking about them in detail.

I also messed with a couple of Jank Fighter animations I had made last time, but I’ll show those off when I get more of them done.

Closing Thoughts

That’s all for August. The Plague Machine and my own nebulous time management took up a lot of my free time. I gotta try getting a better system in place to get more things done, especially on some of my more writing-intense projects. I usually struggle to get started on stuff like that but once I get into the swing of things it flows pretty quickly.

As always, I’ll see you next month with another wrapup.

Have a good one (that’s an order),

Hydromecha

This is a crosspost from The Hydromecha Monthly Newsletter.

I’ve made an amazing new breakthrough in technology this month: video! That’s right, The Hydromecha Monthly now exists as an audiovisual production you can consume with both your eyes and ears without having to undergo the strenuous task that is reading! Check it out here:

As the description says, this was an incredibly rushed production slapped together over a weekend. I had some semi-ambitious plans that had to be cut down a bunch. You’ll notice pretty quickly that my model doesn’t move or have lip sync. I originally wanted to go for a super limited, early Adult Swim sort of look, like Space Ghost CTC or ATHF, but instead I went even more limited. Perhaps even the superlative limited.

I’ll do a deeper dive on behind the scenes stuff in next month’s post. A lot of the models used here were things I had laying around with textures I also had laying around. The same thing can be said about the music. I had the soundtracks to Cruelty Squad and Baba is You on my computer and they fit well enough, I think.

If you’ve already watched the video, the following information should be very familiar:

Helicoprion Portrait

Last month was Shark Week. To commemorate the occasion I drew this: A Portrait of a Rather Dapper Fellow. It’s based off of a very outdated model of Helicoprion from the 19th century that I think looks really funny.

Helicoprion is technically only shark-like (according to Wikipedia anyways), but I remember seeing it in shark books as a kid, so it’s a shark to me, dammit!

Table Knight Module Progress

With all the major story beats outlined, I’ve started writing more detailed descriptions of things for the one-shot module. Below is an excerpt describing King Moe Narch’s castle:

The castle makes the word opulent look like it works minimum wage in a low-income housing environment. Its bricks are carved from lustrous marble with intricately inlaid gold patterns accenting the frame around the drawbridge door. Polished steel chains glisten in the sunlight as they hold a magnificent bridge made of petrified wood etched with the Oldhaven coat of arms.

Bugalo Page

As always, there was a new Bugalo page this month. You can check it out here.

Hazardous Materials Progress

I got a bit more done on chapter 2’s script this month, with more of my effort going into sketching some character designs. As-is they’re pretty rough and I definitely want to go back over these to futz with the proportions and whatnot, but they should give you a good idea of what the characters look like.

From left to right we have: Asbestos, Coal Dust, Lead, Ms. Chicken Wire, Dr. Concrete, Mr. Glass, Amber, Titania, and P.I. Periscope. Periscope’s design goes hard and I think I’ve peaked with him. All future designs will pale in comparison to his ocular majesty.

Jank Fighter Animations

You’ll have to check the video to see these. I finished the rest of Cubeguy’s standing normals so now he’s got a full set for all four buttons (A/B/C/S).

Plague Machine Progress

The Plague Machine saw a lot of progress this month, starting with something incredibly riveting: rivets! They take the form of tiny hemispherical beads I had to painstakingly glue all over the model. This was followed by a prime and zenithal highlight and then some basecoats. Check the newsletter for more pictures in higher resolution.

Closing Thoughts

I should’ve been in bed half an hour ago so I’ll keep this quick. Making the video was pretty fun despite having to cut a lot of corners. Hopefully I can make it look nicer for next month’s Wrapup.

I briefly showed this off in the video, but I also finally got back to making pizzas this month. Below we have a pesto, chicken, sun-dried tomato pizza along with a plain pizza.

I’m gonna keep on keeping on with the things I’m working on and I’ll see you in the next Wrapup.

This is a crosspost from Hydromecha.website

A lot of my time this past month was taken up by travel and putting together a new 3D printer/enclosure but I was able to get a little bit done across a bunch of projects. I’ve also updated the about page on the website with the statuses of my major projects alongside some more website buttons of fellow Neocities users.

Plague Machine

Finally made some more progress on this scratchbuild. I still need to finish the terrain paste and I also want to try adding physical “rivets” to the thing using some small hemispheric beads. Previously I used an allen screwdriver to press some hexagonal divets into foam panels for bolts (see Kaiser Hedd Kannon) which are okay but don’t stand out all that well. It’ll be a grueling, tedious task to glue a crap ton of tiny beads all over this thing but it’ll definitely be worth it.

Jank Fighter

I should probably announce the name of that SECRET PROJECT I talked about last time. As written above, it’s called Jank Fighter, a 2D fighting game that’s super early in development so I won’t tell you too much about it. It’s a 4 button fighter (light/medium/heavy/special) being made in Godot. I’m working on the models/animations while a friend is in the gamedev mines.

Below are a couple of animations for Cubeguy, a playtesting character. Depending on how well he plays we might keep him in as a secret character. The first of the animations below is an old 5C (standing heavy) that I thought was trying to cram too much movement into too short a timeframe. It reads much more clearly when I scrub through it in the later part of the video. I do like the way the move looks so I’ll probably gonna recycle it into a super.

Next up is the new 5C. I’m a little iffy on the way the animation ends but other than that I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

I like how this move plays around with Cubeguy’s weird “anatomy” so I’d like to go back and redo the old 5A and 5B I showed off last month to be more like the below image.

I’m tempted to redo the walk cycle and other things but I’ll save that for after I’ve finished everything.

Hazardous Materials

HazMat (click here for more info on the comic) saw a bit of progress this month. I finished writing another scene for chapter 2 but I need to go over it with some friends since I’m kinda iffy on it. I feel like it kinda kills the tension I had been building up from the previous scenes but we’ll see.

Table Knight

I got a little bit of progress done on the Table Knight module I mentioned in last month’s Wrapup. More info on that on the Goblin Base website.

Time to Dye

Just yesterday (yeah that wasn’t June but whatever) I began dabbling in dying plastics for customized Transformers figures. The process involves boiling the plastic you want to recolor in water with dye. Some plastics took to the dye a lot more easily than others and I’m also going to have to go back and re-boil some parts in just water to try and undo some unintentional warping. Dying should help prevent paint chipping on parts like ball/friction joints, things that plug into other parts, and other tightly-toleranced stuff.

New Bugalo Page

As is tradition, Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club got a new page with this Wrapup post.

Closing Thoughts

Last month I said I wanted to try and fix my sleep schedule and read more and uh yeah nah I don’t think I did either. I definitely want to get more animations for Cubeguy done this month alongside stuff for the Plague Machine.

Sometime last year I uploaded a recording of a labyrinth sorta game I made on a microcontroller. It was unlisted and only shared with a few friends but I figured I might as well share it to the public. It was made during a summer camp a good 7 or so years ago. If you want to take a look at the code let me know and I’ll throw it up on Github.

I gotta get back to doing more electronics projects at some point. I’ve got a funny microphone I need to finish and I also wanna try making animatronics. It would be really cool to make a big scratchbuild that can move around on its own but I gotta get some other stuff done first. I’ve got a massive backlog of stuff I’ve started and I’d like to start knocking things off that list.

This is a crosspost from Hydromecha.website

A good chunk of my hobby time this month was spent on the new Tankman action figure I talked about in the last Wrapup. I got a new 3D printer recently and a lot of my time these past few days has been spent putting it together. I also need to assemble an enclosure for the thing which'll take some time. Most other projects kinda took a seat on the backburner except for one of the SECRET PROJECTS I've talked about previously. You'll get to see a sneak peak at that below.

Tankman Figure V2

Last year I made a 3D printed Tankman action figure for Pico Day. This year I made a new one that I think looks a lot nicer. I kinda rushed it in a few places and there are definitely things I wanna change. I plan on making those changes sometime later this year.

SECRET PROJECT

Hey look it's something from one of the SECRET PROJECTS I mentioned in the March '24 Wrapup. This is the Cubeguy, a demo/playtesting character for a game I'm working on with some friends. I'm handling the modeling/animation side of things. I have few other animations for this character finished that aren't in the above video and I've got a lot more I still need to get done. That's all I'll say about this project for now. More news to come as progress is made.

New Bugalo Page (COMING SOON)

I did finish drawing a new Bugalo page recently but I'm just waiting for the words and such to be added to it. That should happen sometime this week. If you're just tuning in for the first time, Bugalo (Wonderful and Fancy Highschool Bait Club) is a comic where I draw pages and then a friend adds all the dialogue, narration, etc. afterwards. You can read it by clicking here. Do be warned, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Closing Thoughts

This month I plan to mainly work on the Cubeguy animations along with the script to Hazardous Materials (more info on that comic here) and a one-shot module for Table Knight (more info at Goblinbase.com). I want to take a break from doing big printed/painted projects after finishing the Tankman figure (plus I wanna get my new printer up and running).

Last time I talked about how I wanted to spend less time on the computer and read more. I haven't done a lot of that but I did finish reading The Time Machine in a book I have of H.G. Wells stories. I should probably put a hard stop on how late I end up staying on the computer so I can get some reading done in bed and hopefully also go to sleep earlier. I've been up way too late this past month. The funny thing is I'm writing this up at almost a quarter to 11. I'm gonna go to sleep after I post this.

If you want to be notified whenever I post these Recaps, consider signing up for the Newsletter.

This is a crosspost from Hydromecha.website

I didn't end up finishing anything this past month, but I did make some pretty good progress on stuff. I started listening to Symphony X recently and holy shit do they make good music. I'm not sure how I hadn't heard of them before. I've also been rewatching Tentai Senshi Sunred, which I had forgotten about till I found out there were Figmas made of some of the characters a few weeks ago. The figures released in 2012 but I originally saw the show back in 2017/18. It's fucked up that I was a high school senior then. I'm not sure who thought it'd be okay for me to be an adult with a job now. I definitely don't feel like an actual adult but here I am a couple years out of college. I'm also starting to become rather unfond of that aforementioned job (I'll save you from my extended kvetching), which I'm told is also a part of being an adult. The passage of time needs to be stopped.

Anyways, you're here to read about stuff I'm working on, I think. If you're here to listen to me complain about work see me after class :^)

Plague Machine Progress

(You can see more angles on my website)

I posted a WIP pic of this thing last month, and here are some more. I said I'd probably have it done last month which, uh, clearly hasn't happened. I am pretty happy with how this is turning out. I need to finish up on the terrain paste (made from sand, glue/mod podge, paint, and a whole bunch of junk plastic from my 3d printer, among other things) and then glue a whole bunch more foam panels to The Plague Machine itself. I also have a thing of hemispherical beads I've been meaning to use for rivets/bolts. I also gotta paint it, of course. No clue when this'll be done seeing as the next thing I'm gonna talk about is taking priority this month.

Tankman Figure 2.0 Progress

Like I mentioned last month, I'm working on a new version of the Tankman action figure I made for Pico Day last year. So far I've got all the joints printed out and assembled. I also have a rough block-out of the figure itself in Blender. These new joints are made of Pro PLA (a more durable blend of PLA, pictured above in dark gray) and TPU (a flexible plastic). The old figure is printed entirely in PETG, and its joints have almost entirely gone loose over time. I've heard other accounts of 3d printed friction joints that're made of the same kind of plastic go loose over time for seemingly no reason. I'm hoping to avoid that by using different types of plastic in these joints and using tighter fits. I've also given myself way more time to work on this than last year's figure so I was able to print all of these parts with a smaller layer height (more precision). I've got a deadline for this, so it'll definitely get finished this month.

New Bugalo Page

As is tradition, Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club got a new page with this Wrapup post.

Closing Thoughts

I did get a couple more animations for one of the SECRET PROJECTS I talked about last month, but then I shifted gears to focus on the Tankman figure. I'll probably get some more progress done on that after the figure is complete. I didn't really get a chance to work on a lot of other stuff.

In unrelated news I want to try and spend less time on the computer so I can catch up on my reading backlog. I find I end up wasting a lot of time on the computer and won't actually start reading any of the comics/novels/etc. I keep getting unless I turn the thing off. Right now I'm bouncing between The Illusion of Life (book on classic Disney animation), a collection of H.G. Welles' short stories (just finished The Time Machine), Mind Fields (Jacek Yerka/Harlan Ellison), and Chainsaw Man. There are a couple other books I started and need to get back to at some point.

In plastic robot news, I got the new Magmatron figure (pictured below) recently and it is probably one of my favorite things in my collection. I've been wanting to get some version of Magmatron ever since I saw his design in a comic when I was a kid. Now over a decade later I finally have my hands on it. If you don't think the idea of three dinosaurs (yes I know pterosaurs and plesiosaurs aren't actually dinosaurs but calling them all prehistoric reptiles doesn't have the same zing to it) combining into a giant evil robot isn't cool as fuck, I don't think we can be friends.

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As per usual, this is a crosspost from my website, Hydromecha.website.

Another month, another Wrapup. I've been watching a lot of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist lately. It's all up on Youtube so it's pretty easy to find. I also found Robotomy, a show I loved as a kid, on Youtube as well. In other news, I started playing 4D Golf this past month. It's a really interesting game, but I sometimes feel like Sisyphys rolling a boulder uphill while playing it. Anyways, let's get into this month's Wrapup:

Hydro Model Update

If you've been following my work for a while you've probably seen this model before. In its previous iteration, the Hydro model used some generic brushstroke textures that were procedurally applied to it. Now the textures are almost entirely hand-painted. Check out the art post for more info.

I'm planning on using this model, plus some other stuff, for a SECRET PROJECT. I have a bad habit of announcing projects way too early in their lifespans so I'm only gonna say what this is when it's really close to release. If I know you, there's a chance I've already told you what this is.

The Plague Machine

I haven't done a scratchbuild in a while, mostly because I wanted to clean up the space I use to make these things before I started a new one. I finally got that done so now I can make another cool robot creature. I've been wanting to make something out of a gallon jug with spindly legs and a proboscis for a little while and now I get to make it a reality. This should be done before the end of the month.

Hazardous Materials Progress

I didn't finish the script to Chapter 2 this month, but I did make some good progress. I'd say I'm a little under halfway done with it and have the rest blocked out pretty well.

If you don't know what this project is, click here for more info.

Parts for Crankcase

I started modeling/printig some new parts for Legacy Crankcase (a Transformers figure for those of you without plastic crack addictions) this month. They're mostly basic, blocky shapes at present so I didn't feel it was worth taking a picture of them. If I make significant progress (or finish them) this month I'll have some pics in the next Wrapup.

Bugalo Continues to Live

As is tradition, Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club got a new page with this Wrapup post.

Closing Thoughts

On top of all of this, I've also started working on another SECRET PROJECT with some friends. I'll be doing a whole bunch of animations for it, but I won't say anything else about it till later. Like with the other SECRET PROJECT, I might've told you about this one if we know each other.

This month I'll probably focus more on completing The Plague Machine, working on the animations for that second SECRET PROJECT, and getting started on a new version of the Tankman action figure I made for last year's Pico Day.

If you want to be notified whenever I post these Recaps, consider signing up for the Newsletter.

As per usual, this is a crosspost from my website, Hydromecha.website.

February was definitely an interesting month. I started dabbling with making music some more and actually made some decent-sounding stuff. I also gave the website a pretty major update, got another Transformers custom done, and made a little bit of progress on ANTARCTICA MUST FALL.

In other news, I've been listening to a lot of Devin Townsend's live recordings recently. It's really interesting to hear him play his earlier stuff, with different instrumentation and whatnot. I'm no expert in music and I won't pretend to be, but I'm really liking what I'm hearing. I know he's got a few new projects in the works right now, but the attosecond he goes on tour in the states again I need to get tickets. If you've never heard of Devin Townsend (or Strapping Young Lad) you really need to check out his music, especially if you're into progressive metal. I started listening to SYL early-ish last year and quickly got hooked on it and Devin's other works through the rest of 2023.

Tangent aside, let's cover the stuff I've been working on:

Website Updates

I made a pretty big overhaul to the way the website works this month. For more details, check out the 2/20/2024 and 2/21/2024 update posts. The quick rundown on things goes like this: The website now stays on a single html page for most things, changing what's loaded into the central iFrame as you click on the nav buttons or on links within the iFrame itself. There's a TV static animation that plays whenever you click on one of those. The website tracks what page it's supposed to load into the iFrame using hashes in the URL, letting you take direct links to these iFrame'd pages. Opening things in new tabs should now work for all links across the website (this is a new feature for this update). Let me know if something is broken. As always, try clearing your browser's cache first if something doesn't seem to be working.

A whole bunch of project-related pages have been updated/created. The main features include text that shows up for things like comics or Doom mods when you mouse over relevant links/etc. There are now two new nav buttons below the iFrame: Plastic Robots and Downloads. Plastic Robots is for Transformers related stuff (still need to finish up a few things there) while Downloads should be pretty self-explanatory.

The About page now includes a small table showing my current major projects (currently Tablespess, Hazardous Materials, and ANTARCTICA MUST FALL) along with where to find more info on them. I've also added a couple more buttons for friends' websites and a whole bunch of buttons for other cool Neocities sites.

The comic reader also saw a small update this month. Pages now have a short fade-in on page turns. My Comic Reader Template on Archive.org has been updated to include this feature.

Music-ing

I've been trying to mess around with LMMS for a little while now, and made some decent-sounding stuff this past month. Currently the only song I've finished/published is called Catacomb March, which you can listen to by clicking on the above link. It and the other songs I still need to finish are all using the GZDoom soundfont (which I'm pretty sure is just the default Windows soundfont) and are things I'll probably end up using in ANTARCTICA. I'll have a page for music up on the site maybe by next month's Recap.

G2 Scourge

This wasn't published in February, but I had gotten a good chunk of it done then and also posted it before this Recap went live so I'm counting it. It's been a while since I've gotten a TF custom done and it feels good to get another one knocked out. I've got a massive backlog of stuff I wanna make which you can go gawk at over on the Plastic Robots page. This particular custom is based off of Scourge from G1 and from RiD01. I'm planning on making a whole crew of G2 Decepticons for Scourge here to lead, so stay tuned for that and other stuff. I still need to design/print some stuff for Toxitron and I also got started on designing some parts for Legacy Crankcase, which look like they'll be much simpler.

Hazardous Materials Progress

Unfortunately I didn't end up working on the HazMat script much. I'm gonna see if I can just focus on working on it this coming week. I just need to sit down and actually work on it and not get sidetracked by other stuff. I did do some more character sketches for HazMat, including a couple new headshots of the two protagonists. The HazMat about page has been updated to include these.

ANTARCTICA MUST FALL Progress

I got started reworking the first level this month. I want to try blocking everything out first before giving it all an art pass later. I've been messing around with portals a little and have also started changing the default swimming mechanics. I wanna include an underwater level using a diving suit that changes your movement in the water, so I gotta get that stuff sorted out.

The Continued Adventures of Bugalo

As promised, Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club got a new page with this new Recap post.

Closing Thoughts

I've been wanting to do another scratchbuild, but I also want to at least finish up those aforementioned parts for Crankcase and that Toxitron custom first. I've got a few other WIP TF customs but those can wait. The new scratchbuild will probably be another rusted up robot-looking thing, maybe with some organic elements thrown in. We'll see how it ends up. I need to get better about my time management in general. I was able to finish G2 Scourge in just a few days and I want to be able to use that sort of focus more often. At the same time I also don't want to stretch myself too thing between work, hobby stuff, and just generally taking care of myself. I've finally been able to keep a consistent workout schedule which is nice. I had some short, intermittent stretches of doing so during college and a little bit after graduation, but couldn't keep it up for more than maybe a month. The real trick is that I started in December last year so it technically wasn't a new year's resolution, which you're legally required to give up on at some point into the new year if it has anything to do with exercise. The realer trick is that I told some friends I'd post a message somewhere every time I was gonna work out and kept at it till it became a habit.

If you want to be notified whenever I post these Recaps, consider signing up for the Newsletter.

As per usual, this is a crosspost from my website, Hydromecha.website.

Man, January felt like it went by really quickly. I didn't finish anything this past month, but I made some good progress on a couple major things, plus a couple smaller things. I'll start with those smaller bits first.

Minor Comic Reader Update

While I was getting things set up for this month's update I noticed the Back/Next buttons in the reader weren't staying highlighted when they were supposed to when you turned a page. This was caused by the stuff I had implemented last time to gray out the Back/First or Next/Newest buttons if you were at the start or end of a comic. It didn't account for keeping a button highlighted if you still had your mouse over the left/right side of a page. This should be fixed now. If you're still encountering the issue, try clearing your browser's cache. The reader template on Archive.org has also been updated with this fix as V1.2.

The Return of Bugalo

Wonderful & Fancy Highschool Bait Club (better known simply as Bugalo) was removed from the site a little while back, with promises of returning it as an archive when I updated the comic reader. It's back now and this time it'll be receiving new pages on consistent schedule. Expect at least one new page per recap post (There are two new pages this time!).

For some context, Bugalo is a weird sort of collaborative comic. I'll draw a page (without text) and then a friend adds dialog, narration, etc. afterwards. I have no idea what he's going to do and have to try and make the next page make sense with what was added and then the cycle repeats. What's resulted from this is definitely a comic. One could even call it one of the comics of all time.

I decided to bring back this deranged nonsense as a way to get myself to draw something every month. I tried doing a solo weekly comic before for the same reason (this hasn't been posted publicly anywhere and is arguably worse than Bugalo), but it just wasn't sustainable (it didn't help that I also ran out of ideas for it xd). I can't promise Bugalo will be very polished or make much sense, but it will definitely update consistently. If you want to see an actually coherent comic with better art, go yell at me to finish Hazardous Materials over in the Guestbook. I did get some progress done on it this past month, more on that in a moment. If you want to give Wonderful & Fancy Highschool Bait Club a read, check it out under Comics.

Hazardous Materials Progress

Wonderful & Fancy Highschool Bait Club (better known simply as Bugalo) was removed from the site a little while back, with promises of returning it as an archive when I updated the comic reader. It's back now and this time it'll be receiving new pages on consistent schedule. Expect at least one new page per recap post (There are two new pages this time!).

For some context, Bugalo is a weird sort of collaborative comic. I'll draw a page (without text) and then a friend adds dialog, narration, etc. afterwards. I have no idea what he's going to do and have to try and make the next page make sense with what was added and then the cycle repeats. What's resulted from this is definitely a comic. One could even call it one of the comics of all time.

I decided to bring back this deranged nonsense as a way to get myself to draw something every month. I tried doing a solo weekly comic before for the same reason (this hasn't been posted publicly anywhere and is arguably worse than Bugalo), but it just wasn't sustainable (it didn't help that I also ran out of ideas for it xd). I can't promise Bugalo will be very polished or make much sense, but it will definitely update consistently. If you want to see an actually coherent comic with better art, go yell at me to finish Hazardous Materials over in the Guestbook. I did get some progress done on it this past month, more on that in a moment. If you want to give Wonderful & Fancy Highschool Bait Club a read, check it out under Comics.

Toxitron Custom Progress

Back in the September '23 Recap I posted a WIP pic of this custom, explaining that I had messed up the stock figure's hands and needed to make replacements. I just recently finished up some models to do just that. Toxitron now has nozzles in place of his previous lack of hands along with some toxic sludge claws that can be plugged into them (the nozzle has a 3mm peg on the end so it's also blast effect compatible). The picture above shows some test prints using older versions of the models. Below are a few screencaps of the finalized models from Blender. I have those versions printed out, I just need to do some post-processing on them and paint them. I also want to make a fluid tank for Toxitron's vehicle mode that can turn into a turret or something in botmode.

Closing Thoughts

Looking over the footage I had taken of making the Magma Wyrm scratchbuild I finished a couple months ago, I don't know if I'll actually want to make a video on it. I didn't really record much of the actual process of putting it together and the camerawork wasn't very good. I also feel like I could make a more interesting model for something like that. Recording that stuff for the Wyrm was definitely a good learning experience, so it was still a useful thing to do.

ANTARCTICA MUST FALL, the Doom mod I'm working on, didn't see any progress this past month. I've got a lot that needs to be done for it, but other projects took priority. I would like to get back to it at some point, it'll just take a while. If I see a sudden influx of interest in it (you can show that in the Guestbook) I'll definitely get back to it sooner.

I'm considering writing some more blog post types of things (these would be on my website) about various games/shows/music/books I've been playing/watching/listening to/reading. There are a couple albums I've been listening to a lot lately I want to talk about, among other things.

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I usually post these recaps on the first Sunday of each month, but I wanted to get this one out sooner. I was able to finish a few art projects this month, and made a bit of progress on HazMat and Antarctica along with some additions to the website. I also finished reading the original Edlund run of The Tick (I highly recommend it) and started playing Everhood. As with every month, below be projects.

The Hydromecha Monthly (Newsletter)

I now have a newsletter! If you sign up you'll get these recap posts sent straight to your inbox every month. Check it out here: https://news.hydromecha.website/

Website Updates & Guestbook

The general website UI got slightly changed and there are now two new navigation buttons (see screenshots below for comparison). The bright versions of the buttons also got changed slightly. One of those new buttons goes to the aforementioned Newsletter while the other goes to the brand new Guestbook! If you really want to see any of my longer-term projects get finished sooner, let me know there! Before now I didn't really have a good way for the website's visitors to leave feedback/comments. With the advent of this amazing new technology, such a thing is now possible.

Website UI V4

Website UI V4.1

Idol of Sorcery (Dominions 5)

I'm pretty torn on this model. It's a secret santa present for a friend, and it's also my first foray into sculpting a model entirely from scratch. It was definitely a good learning experience, but I feel like I definitely could have done a better job on it, especially with the paintjob. I ended up rushing it out because I was getting frustrated with how much I was messing up the paintjob, and I also wanted to get a couple of other things finished. The Idol of Sorcery is from a game called Dominions 5 (I don't play it but that friend is a big fan of it) and it's supposed to be made of wood. I didn't really capture that well here. I might want to try redoing the paintjob at some point before I actually hand this off to my friend.

Magma Wyrm

The funny worm monster I posted last month is done now! Like I mentioned then, I recorded my progress making this and want to turn that into a video later down the line. I'll have to get some other stuff done first since I also want to include animation in that video. The NG post includes a whole buncha worldbuilding I wrote for the monster. Looking back on it now, I feel like I could've added some more to the terrain to make it look more like magma, but I'm decently happy with how this turned out overall.

Asbestos Drawing

Like I mentioned in last month's recap, this was a nice way to get back into digital drawing and figure drawing. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, especially in the shading department. I've always liked how harsh/stylized shading looks and wanted to give it a swing. I definitely want to practice with it some more, so expect some more drawings like this in the future. I'm going to be drawing Coal Dust next to round out the HazMat duo.

Hazardous Materials (Comic) Progress

I got a little bit of progress done on the chapter 2 script this month and also made a few changes to the previous chapters. Most of my HazMat-related focus this past December went towards the drawing you just saw above. I might change Asbestos's hairstyle back to having it cover one of her eyes after getting some feedback from a couple of friends. I keep saying I want to get more of the script done in these posts. I should put my money where my mouth is and actually do that this month.

ANTARCTICA MUST FALL (Doom Mod) Progress

I just barely got started mapping this month. I might try blocking everything out using scifista42's Blank-TX textures before detailing things with proper textures and whatnot. I also finally gave the Snowdemon its own ice gib sprites and its own fireball (I just recolored something from the Doom2 IWAD). I'd like to have some proper monster showcase videos out by next month, but we'll see. I do still need to give the Surprise Elemental a death animation (gonna make it explode into confetti) and make one more monster. I also still need to make Antarctica its own page on the site. Lots of things to do.

Closing Thoughts

I probably won't be starting any new scratchbuilds until I actually finish that Toxitron custom I showed off all the way back in the September '23 Wrapup. If I can get that done decently quickly maybe I'll try to finish another TF custom. Unless I get a massive influx of comments asking me to work on it, Antarctica might take a seat on the backburner this month while I focus more on HazMat and painting plastic robots.

Last year I made a 3D printed Tankman action figure for Pico Day. I talked about making a V2 in that Newgrounds post, and I intend to make that a reality this year. The one I made in 2023 was kinda rushed and clunky. It really wasn't optimized for printing and the joints are all really loose now. I wanna try to get started on the new version earlier, so expect to see progress on that in the coming months. I'm going to try using TPU for ball sockets/hinge clips to hopefully prevent the joints from getting loose in the long term.