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Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

690 followers 56 following 440 posts

Animator, animutator, evolutionary speculator, smellulator

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Andrew "TmsT" Kepple @theoddkepple.bsky.social · 4d

Alrighty it's time for 2025's #artvsartist meme! This wasn't the only art I made this year, but some of that other art is not yet finished. Stay tuned in 2026!

Top left: "Hayao/Tools" - a Cow Tools meme (Photoshop)
Top middle: "Dungeons & Comedians" - an animated intro for the titular podcast/show (Adobe Animate)
Top right: "Crogsquamblers, Deathcroissants, and Feldsparnacles, oh my!" - a spec evo illustration (Animate)
Middle left: "Crescents" - a spec evo illustration (Animate)
(Centre: Me poggersfacing at Tokyo Tower in July)
Middle right: "Tundraraffe" - a spec evo illustration (Animate)
Lower left: "McGruntled" - an animated short using a Ronald rig by Mukpuddy (Animate)
Lower middle: "Dorkus Malorkus" or, "SPRING BREAK!" - an animutation/YTP (Animate, Davinci Resolve)
Chaotic Evil: "Stimped Hams" - a Simpsons/Ren & Stimpy meme (Photoshop)

Lucky I did all those spec evo illustrations in late December or I'd've had to fill those spaces up with (more) Simpsons memes or something! Phew!

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Here's my first art of 2026: "Alien Skyscape: High noon at Podvine Canyon"
Click image for lore dump in the alt text!

#specevo #alienplanet #skywhale #speculativeevolution

Ridged vines clutch buoyant, golden sacs, connected in series like pearls on a necklace. While they may resemble gently-swaying seaweed pods, they are not underwater; this world is coated in a gaseous atmosphere whose high density has seen many, many more forms of flight independently evolve than just the two examples in view. It doesn't take much to take to the air when said air is extra thick.

These podvines, anchored to the ground, sway in a wind that roars through the shallow canyon. Membrane-flying critters flit from vine to vine, while above them all drifts a titan of the skies. Too large to be preyed upon by any existing predator, and too restricted by this largeness to devote energy to chasing down prey, it simply floats across the heavens uninterrupted for the majority of its life, inhaling whatever biomass it encounters -- be this swarms of tiny creatures or clouds of seeds wafting up from the fields below. (Yeah it's essentially a skywhale. You didn't think I'd do an alien skyscape without the obligatory skywhale did you?)

The dense atmosphere, swirling with clouds of both life and moisture, makes for a hazy world where sunlight is diffuse for most of the day. At this particular location it is high noon, with exceptional visibility under the glare of a sun much brighter than ours, although the passing overhead of the colossal creature quickly shades the canyon, agitating the small creatures that dwell herein. Storms on this world are often violent, and although life has adapted to such conditions, one such adaptation is that these purple-membraned critters know better than to stay out in the open for long when the sky darkens with gathering clouds. But that's not on today's weather forecast, and soon the titan passes, leaving the podvine garden bright and warm once again.

January 2, 2026 at 1:02 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Alrighty it's time for 2025's #artvsartist meme! This wasn't the only art I made this year, but some of that other art is not yet finished. Stay tuned in 2026!

December 31, 2025 at 11:19 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Hans Moleman Productions presents:
#simpsons #robotics

December 29, 2025 at 2:24 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

I spent a bit more time on this one, which meant I had more time to think of an elaborate description of the behaviour of crogsquamblers and deathcroissants.
As a result it's a bit tl;dr for Bluesky but it's on the Deviantart page!
www.deviantart.com/smorgasbored...

#specevo #specbio

Alien Landscape: Crogsquamblers et al by Smorgasboredom on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

December 27, 2025 at 12:45 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

I spent a bit more time on this one, which meant I had more time to think of an elaborate description of the behaviour of crogsquamblers and deathcroissants.
As a result it's a bit tl;dr for Bluesky but it's on the Deviantart page if you're interested: www.deviantart.com/smorgasbored...

#specevo

The segmented ground at the edge of a lake on this alien world provides a feast for the three-eyed crogsquambler, which busily spends its days squambling for crogs in tiny holes and fissures, sucking at the ground with its squamblesnoot. For these "tiles" of ground are not rock formations but biological structures, constantly being built by tiny aquatic organisms; as a tile protrudes through the surface of the water, its inhabitants move downward, leaving the abandoned structure to be set upon by tiny land-dwelling worms - crogs. The routine of the crogsquambler is not merely one of squambling crogs out of these micro-islands - no, indeed - there is method to their monching. Certain micro-isands are left alone, allowing crog infestations to completely invade the structure, overwhelming its builders and ultimately causing it to collapse back into the liquid depths. By choosing which micro-island will survive and which will fall, crogsquamblers deliberately cultivate enormous and complex structures such as land bridges, dams, and even strategic terrain of varying elevations that they can use to their advantage when their gradual progress across a lake meets with another such structure from a competing tribe. Turf wars between rival crogsquambler tribes are rare, as it can take many generations for rivals to intersect, but when they do, violent disputes over which micro-islands to squamble crogs out of and which ones to leave alone are inevitable.

The other creatures are covered in the Deviantart page's description - see link in main post.

December 27, 2025 at 11:22 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

In 2026 let's bring back the olde-timey puritan trend of hortatory names (first names like Prudence, Praise-God, Sorry-for-sin, etc) but for more modern aspirations. Consider naming your kids:
Feed-not-the-trolls
Like-and-subscribe
Such-Well-Behaved-Many-Virtuous-Wow
Thou-shalt-not-download-a-car

December 27, 2025 at 7:16 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Here's another #specevo #speedpaint based on the world of @biblaridion.bsky.social's "Alien Biospheres" youtube series. Rather than pick some actual species from a particular time period I just went mostly on vibes and artistic license.

December 26, 2025 at 4:27 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Been drawing some spec evo illustrations for fun lately.
The first is an "alien landscape", the second a seascape that may or may not be on Earth, and the third is decidedly Earth from some unspecified time period.

Click the pics for more detailed descriptions/lore in the Alt Text
#specevo #specbio

Curved, rocky structures emerge from the ground like trees, resembling gigantic ribs not only in shape but also in how they often grow in roughly symmetrical pairs. The green blobs that sit atop them are swarms of creatures that climb the crescents to hang those dangly things down from above as they huddle together. Are the danglers egg pods? Are they for catching prey? Or are the green critters merely drying their laundry in the neverending breeze as it sweeps filamentous clouds across the sky?

As the crescents emerge from the ground as seedlings, two of them inevitably pick a future reproductive partner - a complex decision negotiated by all the neighboring crescents through chemical signals - and adjust their growth to physically connect at the optimal collision point. If such a meeting is interrupted by damage or disease, a crescent can change its shape by abandoning a portion of itself and slowly regrow to a new curvature, after picking a new partner elsewhere.

Consequently, some crescent pairs can be very old by the time they collide, such as the connected pair that looms over the rest of the grove, resembling a giant diamond ring. Their "fruit" juts out above the point of contact, ascending as it ripens. The rest of the "ring" begins to disintegrate as it expends its resources on maturing the fruit, and over time, scavengers and weather will contribute to the whole structure's inevitable collapse. Only upon impact with the ground will the fruit shatter and release its countless seeds. Seed-eating creatures that lurk too closely will be crushed in the collapse, and while many surrounding crescents will likely meet a similar fate, the dispersal of so many seeds makes this a worthwhile price to pay for the success of the species. Nature is often cruel, but rarely wasteful.

This buoyant, purple critter is actually several individuals that have fused their vine-like protrusions together above the water after floating in the ocean until adulthood. When at least four "legs" have joined together this way, one of said appendages may be nominated by the group to become the "head", and after a long, radical transformation it finally sits atop the connection point, allowing it to act as sail, defense, reproduction, and higher decision-making for the colony. The legs continue to feed as normal (not pictured: their long, underwater feeding tendrils that also function as ballast) and provide the head with moisture and nutrients.

Here we see two colonies negotiating a mating ritual, after one of them has challenged and decapitated the unfortunate nearby party. While the lost head will soon die, this defeated colony still has enough remaining members to nominate a new head after a lengthy recovery period, during which time it may take on new individuals that are looking to join. Due to the highly specialised bonds between a head and the rest of its colony, only a headless group will accept new members.

In the distance, more colonies drift past on the breeze and ocean currents, on their way to who-knows-where.

Christmas is a time for fantastical but familiar ruminants, snowy imagery, and family, so today I've illustrated a family of "tundraraffes" making their way through the frozen wastes.

The tundraraffe might be related to the moose. They might be descended from the reindeer, or maybe even the giraffe. They might be a creature of the past, the present, or some glacial maximum yet to come. The sky's the limit in spec evo, baby! Season's Greasons!

December 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Inspired by the videos made by Dankmus, I made my own surreal musical remix of a Simpsons episode - but with a dash of animutation flavour, of course.
So sit back, put your brain on cruise control, and have the best spring break ever!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Aw...

#simpsons #remix #springbreak

Dorkus Malorkus (SPRING BREAK!)

YouTube video by TmsT

www.youtube.com

December 9, 2025 at 10:10 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

"Bestselling author" ✋😒
"Bestsmelling author" 😀👍

December 8, 2025 at 8:14 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

A spokesperson assured concerned consumers that the product would be back on the shelves once their engineers had ironed out all the kinks.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Nov 20

Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives

Sales of AI-enabled teddy bear suspended after it gave advice on BDSM sex and where to find knives | CNN Business

Sales of an artificial intelligence-enabled plush toy have been suspended after it was found that it engaged in conversation around sexually explicit topics and offered potentially dangerous advice.

www.cnn.com

November 20, 2025 at 9:55 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

We're just trying to have a good time, LeoNARCo!

Relevant video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajy...
#simpsons #tmnt

November 6, 2025 at 1:37 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

[Dramatization: May not have happened]

November 5, 2025 at 10:10 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

#simpsons #cheney #saytheline

Further context: https://frinkiac.com/caption/S09E15/865463

November 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

I don't have a Cow(, man!) Tools meme for Cow Tools Day, but thank you everyone who's following me because of my Cow Tools memes, and extra big thanks to @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social for putting not just my Cow Tools memes but the Cow Tools memes made by EVERYONE in front of such a big audience. 🐮🧰Moo

October 28, 2025 at 2:09 PM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Far Side 2077

#cowtools #farside #cyberpunk #hightech #futurism #tron

Based on The Far Side's "Cow Tools" cartoon, this version depicts the cow as a cyborg bedecked in high-tech enhancements, standing behind a table upon which rest four tools that loosely resemble the four iconic cow tools without giving away much in terms of their potential utility, while incorporating visual markers of sci-fi aesthetics. The barn in the background also looks like it belongs in a cyberpunk city of tomorrow rather than on a farm's hillside.

The caption reads: "Project C.O.W.T.O.O.L.S.: Cybernetic Ox With Techologically Operated Objects Lacking Sophistication"

October 17, 2025 at 7:22 AM

Andrew "TmsT" Kepple

@theoddkepple.bsky.social

Inside you there are two wolves doing their best to support your skin and organs because your skeleton is outside of you, wearing sunglasses and lots of bling and riding a motorcycle while making a rude gesture with one hand and wielding a pistol with the other and speaking in like 6 different fonts

October 15, 2025 at 1:34 PM