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 It’s based off of a very outdated model of Helicoprion from the 19th century that I think looks really funny.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.