This is a crosspost from my Substack newsletter.

Welcome back to The Hydromecha Monthly! Here’s all the stuff I was working on in January. For a quick rundown on the headlines, you can check out the video edition below:

(The following two headlines are copied from an update post I made on the Hydrosite when it was updated.)

The Cloudburst Comic Reader

The comic reader finally has a proper name! I've decided to call it The Cloudburst Comic Reader. Cloudbursts are huge amounts of rain that happen in a short period of time which is sorta fitting since the reader procedurally loads up a whole bunch of stuff when it starts. It's also a cool sounding word that's got something to do with water so it's on-brand. :^)

I've made a bunch of changes to the reader (some of which I talked about in the September 2024 Hydromecha Monthly) and to the website overall. We'll start with the comic reader changes.

As always, if you aren't seeing any of these changes, trying clearing your browser's cache.

Chapter & Page Hashes

Previously, the hash in the comic reader's URL only included the name of the comic. This has now been expanded to include chapters and pages, giving you direct links to any specific chapter or page. The new hash format looks like this: #[Comic Name]#[Chapter Number]#[Page Number] where page 0 is the cover, usually. If you want to try it out, clicking on this link should take you to chapter 2, page 5 of Bugalo.

Procedural Comic & Chapter Buttons

Buttons for different comics as well as the chapters of the current comic now fill in procedurally based on the comics' information. I had the comic buttons hardcoded into the page's html file in the previous version but now they all fill in automatically. I also set this up on the Comics page of the website.

Other Changes

There were a few other changes under the hood that should make adding comics easier than the previous iteration. I've also made a few aesthetic changes that you can take a gander at below.

Old

New

Website Updates

I made some pretty big changes to the homepage along with some smaller ones across the board. Check out the before/after below:

Dithering Upon the Horizon

I’ve been messing around with some dithering effects in Krita. I find it looks better using lower-res images (so you can see the pixels more clearly). You can achieve this look by adding a Filter Layer and setting it to Palletize.

I’m planning on using this look for some website assets (first image) and for an animation I’m working on (second image). At some point I’d like to overhaul the Hydrosite using this fancy schmancy new look. I’m also thinking of adding a landing page with a zoomed-out view of the monitor.

Dithered website updates and the animation will be out when they’re done.

Bugalo

As is tradition, there’s a new Bugalo (Wonderful and Fancy High School Bait Club) page out with this new Hydromonthly. Check it out on the Hydrosite by clicking here. If you don’t see it, try clearing your browser’s cache.

I wanted to try out some new screentone brushes I had downloaded (from here) and I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. I’ll probably stick to this sort of style for comics in the future. The final image file on the Hydrosite is scaled down from the original resolution, which helps get rid of some weird artifacting that occurs when you zoom out on the full-res image.

Scorpion Scratchbuild Progress

Here are some progress pictures of the giant robot scorpion scratchbuild I revealed last time. The pattern on the interior of the mouth (purple thing in the last two pictures) was made by spraying wet paint with isopropyl alcohol.

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

Have a good one,

-Hydro