#Rick Hoppmann - Blog

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Fairy Wing

Recently I grew fascinated by tree seeds and young trees. Both their aesthetic value and their symbolism makes them stand out for me - they turn from very small, to big and old and then back to dust - for new seeds to grow from. This is a maple seed I found in the garden of my appartment. My grandma thinks they look like fairy wings.

Forest Friday - a magical discovery in the woods Click here to discover more of this series.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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My favorite photos from 30 days of nature

Last month I participated in the annual #30daysWild project by the British organization "The Wildlife Trusts". The challenge was to make something in or with nature every day of the month. Here are some of my favorite photos that came out of this!

This is definitively my favorite photo of the month! I found this vineyard snail in my grandmas garden. As I touched it, I realized it's shell was really soft. I think it might have just grown it a bit, shortly before I found her.

This image was shot in my parents garden. My mother showed me how to collect seeds from those flowers on that day.

This was photographed on one of the first days. I just really liked the atmosphere in the forest on that evening, it just seemed kind of magical.

During the month I also made a new friend who is into nature. It's her hand holding the tiny frog on the left, we found it on our first forest walk we had together. She also showed me how to collect elderberry flowers that day and make tea from them.

This was not the only day I found frogs, here are two more of them. They were very agile, but when chasing them long enough (carefully) eventually they sit down for a bit.

Last but not least here is a picture from my mossgarden at my grandma's place again. It was really lovely seeing the two snails explore the moss. I really enjoyed this month! The 30DaysWild project was a great push to just get out and explore and learn more about nature.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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I really love coming here - 30 Days Wild Day 12

Join me on my visit to my grandparents and meet many wonderful animals with me.

My grandparents' pond

My grandparents pond is a place that keeps inspiring me. It's a little place of calm and wonder, with colorful fish, algae and waterlilies. Today I noticed a rarely seen visitor, an European Toad using the water for some refreshment on this hot day.

The toad is coming to the pond since years. In Winter to rest and in summer to refresh. Much like me. The pond is always also a place of inspiration for me and today it finally "clicked" for a game idea based on it. After seeing the fishes move the lilies in the pond as they swam by, I imagined how a player in a video game could use this to cross those "swimming islands". From that I developed the idea and ended up concepting a little folk that lives in the pond and worships the biggest fish in their rite of life and death, as well as the water lilies when they start to bloom.

A little snail

After some photos next to the pond, I checked my small patch in the garden and found this young vineyard snail. It shell felt really soft as I picked it up. From what I read, this may mean that the snail just grew a bit and their shell needs still time to harden out. I then took her for a quick photo session to my moss garden, which's result you've already seen above.

Bike trip adventure

Later that day, as my grandparents took their daily afternoon nap, I decided to go on a quick bike trip. I went to some ponds I knew, which grew really wild and full of wildlife since the last time I was there. I spotted two swans with a young one, a water bug almost as big as my hand and also some fishes.

As I went into the water of the pond, some of the fishes turned out to be really trusting when I stood still. They came a few centimeters up close and I could watch them nicely. I even spotted a little pike, I was able to see for the first time in real life.

Berries and a birdhouse

After returning from my biketrip, I collected some berries with my grandpa. The wild strawberries and the raspberries they have are great and I really just enjoyed doing something together with my family :) We also attached a bird-house later to one of the trees, my mom brought by sometime earlier. (left image is shot by my grandma)

I hope the birds will like it when they breed again.

Meeting hedgehogs

Even later, after dinner and as the sun was setting I went for a lost walk of the day. As I was stopping at a nearby meadow for horses to take a photo, I noticed an animal moving noisily moving trough the tall grass. Having seen hedgehogs here before, I immediately knew who was roaming around. I stalked it carefully and took some photos. It was really fascinating seeing those little creatures up close again. 

Conclusion

Visiting my family is always a wonderful time. Each time I go there the gardens and nature surrounding it got a little more wild and beautiful. May it be the rare visit of the toad in the pond or the trustful fishes in a natural lake. I really love coming here.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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How a woodlouse looks up close - 30 Days Wild, Day 8

I love woodlouses! They are such agile, little creatures and it's just fun seeing them scan the surroundings with their antennas. Thanks to some cheap macro rings adapter,  I was able to create a photo of one, with a bigger magnifaction than the eye can see. And I have to say I'm not disappointed :D

30 days wild - do something wild every day Click here to discover more of this series.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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Picoworld: How I found my game's artstyle

How I experimented with finding a good look for my game Picoworld.

Time to draw on my photos

When starting to make Picoworld one of my first ideas was to use my photos to make the ingame art! They would just fit so well with the idea of having this very real, tiny world. Adding something magical to the normal. And people seem to enjoy it!

I've experimented with this style for 2 other games so far- LEAVES and Our Little Island (which are actually 2 of my favorite games I did so far). An issue I head with Our Little Island was that I used static photos as background - yet motion is so important if you want a world to feel alive.

Screenshot from "Our Little Island" - only the drawn objects where animated

Luckily you can also record video with my camera, which I did yesterday and it also seem to work with the engine I'm using to make the game (Unity).

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TIP: TRY OUT THIS STYLE YOURSELF

All my photos on this site can be used freely for non-commercial use - when giving credit.

I also published a free cover photo pack, which people used before to draw over it.

Just load the photos in your program of choice and start painting!

If you want to have a character feel more like "it's in the world" consider things such as lighting.

Sometimes I make some parts of my sprite transparent to "fake" light bouncing back from the surroundings.

​Here is another little drawing I did for inspiration (if you want to try this style out yourself.)

Another experiment: flower worlds

I also did another experiment to find an artstyle. This was more for fun really, as I'm fairly certain by now I want to use the "photography" artstyle.

I made those little monsters and the world with plants I found on my travels here in Scotland (currently doing an exchange semester). I have the habit of drying some plants I find on the way in my pocket notebook :)

#element-5a0a014c-4557-430a-9d05-fafa19f4af5b .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

TIP: HOW I PRESS FLOWERS

I carry a pocket A6 notebook with me at all times to note down ideas and do little scribbles.

This notebook is also great to press flowers with! It's a softcover one, but it still works pretty great.

I just put the plant parts in between some of the last pages.

That's it for this update on Picoworld, thank you for your interest! Subscribe to my email thing if you want to keep updated on the game.

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This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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A TINY SPROUT MONSTER & ECO-SPHERES

Here is how I'm making a game about a tiny world in a terrarium

​A JAR IN SPACE

So as I wrote in my previous blogpost, I want to make a game about a tiny world in a glass jar. I thought about letting this jar float in space, to highlight the feeling of being a "self-enclosed world". This is inspired by real terrariums. Once you put the lid on one of those little worlds it will self-sustain, you don't need to add oxygen, water or food.​

Before I did this digital concept, I did some tiny sketches in my sketchbook to explore some ideas and create variations on the character.​

#element-a4c4cdd2-94f5-4301-8950-e46a771bb385 .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

TIP: My professor advised me to create physical prototypes! I think it's a really interesting way to come up with more unique game concepts. With "normal" brainstorming I feel like you end up creating a variation on something that has been made before, quite often. 

This little character was originally born from a sketching session with a classmate (who is doing an exchange semester at a different uni in Scotland now). I kind of fell in love with this little fellow and kept sketching it ^^

​3D MODEL of my little sprout monster

As I'm having some problems with thinking of my characters usually only from front-view, I wanted to also create a quick 3D model to get a better impression (and make sure the body shape is "readable" from all sides).​

#element-4083f3cd-63c3-4a79-92f0-8b3220a1f908 .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

TIP: I used Blender (free) for the basic model and then used the browser-based "sculptgl" (free) to add additional details.

​I then did a quick paintover to see how my monster would look like from the side,

Ecospheres and photos

​After I had finished some of the first concepts, I posted about the game/my process on my Twitter and this Blog. Luckily some of the artists following me gave me some interesting pointers.

​She is talking about the photo on the left. This was a mockup I did for fun some time ago. Recently I also participated in a gamejam (screenshot on the right) where I combined one of my photos with hand-drawn graphics. I think it's certainly and interesting, unique style to explore, that makes use of my photographic strengths. So eventually I'll just build & photograph a terrarium to use for the game scene.

I also got an interesting pointer for some more research.

I looked this up and found quite some interesting videos. People showed their terrariums that had not been opened since 1-12 years and were still alive with all the plants and animals inside.

The natural circles (nutrients, oxygen, etc.) in such an "ecosphere" could be an inspiration for the mechanics of my game.​

Next steps

build a terrarium (I already bought some nice jars for this - now I just need to drive to a nearby forest - thinking Tentsmuir Forest)

develop the game design - what do you do? What does the monster want? How can you help it?

I'll also have a talk soon with Mal from the ​http://ift.tt/2vU0uwx co-working space/game maker collective, to see if I'll work on my games there the next months. I'm gonna leave you with some pics of the jars I bought to build my terrariums!

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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3 Things that inspire me (as Artist)

Here are 3 things that I found really inspiring as an artist! Maybe they'll inspire you too :)

1. Concept Art tutorial

I recently stumbled over the channel "Every day I draw" thanks to Youtube recommendations. Maja has a really interesting approach to concept art and is good at teaching it as well (she works part-time as lecturer). Interesting if you do any kind of drawing. She also has videos on making money as freelancer.

More on her Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/2ndseele

2. Organic Generative Art

I found this duo called "deskriptiv" when searching for 3d printing inspiration on Behance. They use software to "grow" really interesting structures, that look organic, a bit like mushrooms often. On top of that they use advanced 3D printing techniques to create really impressive physical copies of their work!

More on their website: ​deskriptiv.com/

3. More Generative Art

When talking about this kind of software-driven art that looks like organic structures, I also have to mention the work of NERVOUS systems! They create really interesting 3D structures and functional items inspired by natural things, such as corals or fungi.

More on their website: ​n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/

That's it for now! I probably will turn this format into a series, as I often find inspiring things that most people may not know about.

P.S.: Do you have any things that inspired you? Found any new artists who's work impressed you? Leave a comment!

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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a game about a tiny terrarium

The next 3 months I'll make 3 games about nature & what inspires me.

making 1 game per month

I'm currently doing an exchange semester in Scotland at Abertay University. One of the courses I picked allows me to pick about ANY project which has to do with arts and computers and develop it over the semester. Immediately I thought this was a great opportunity to make a little game.

In our first feedback session my lecturer Ryan Locke advised me to consider: what if instead of 1 bigger game I made 1 game a month? While this sounded intimidating at first, I think it's a great opportunity to get better at making games. With all the prototypes I made before, I should be able to do this (hopefully)! So the next 3 months I will create 3 small games about nature & other things that fascinate me.

​FIRST PROTOTYPE: A TERRARIUM GAME

Terrariums are super interesting - they are like little, self-sustaining worlds in glass jars. Once you close put on the lid they need little to no maintenance. It's like a tiny ecosystem really.​

In my first prototype I want to make a little terrarium "toy", where the players actions affect the ecosystem as whole. I'm not sure how exactly it'll play out, but I'm thinking of centering the game around the needs of a little monster living in the terrarium. It wants a home and some food. You as player can help the little monster by exploring the world with your mouse, e.g. dropping seeds to grow new plants.

First Sketches: Cute monsters & the world

Here are some initial sketches to explore the design for the "monsters" living in the jar. I also did some sketches for the setting. Eventually I want to make a real-world terrarium and base the game world on this (I made quite some back in Germany, but none in Scotland yet).​

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TIP: If you want to make your own terrarium, take a look at this tutorial I made.

How I DO Visual research

Beside the sketches I also created a so-called "moodboard" to gather inspiration for colors, setting and mood.

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TIP: I use a private Tumblr Blog to gather inspiration for later projects (http://ift.tt/2xs7Coj Password: Treecave). This is a great tool to gather inspiring images and have them ready when you need them. ​ There are two principles I use with this:

tag-based: author name & keywords for each image ->  Makes it easy to find related art, e.g. all artworks related to "forest" or "water" (click on the little chain/link icon to see the tags of an image).

easy to post there: I use the Post to Tumblr extension for Chrome. It allows me to post images from anywhere by right-clicking on them.

That's it for now! After the sketches and the visual research, the next steps will be to develop those and turn them into a working game (for you to play)!

Thank you for reading!

Did you create a terrarium before? What fascinates  you about it? And if you could do any game (regardless of skill), what game would you make in 1 month?

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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THE MAGIC OF MOUNTAIN TOPS (Ben Vrackie)

About a week ago I climbed up my first mountain, together with my roommate. Going to the Highlands (or something close to it) was on top of our "must-do" things in the exchange semester in Scotland.

We decided to set out for "Ben Vrackie" (841m). Easy to reach with public transport from Dundee and equipped with a well-maintained footpath, it seemed like a good first mountain to climb. When we got out of the train, Ben Vrackie really didn't seem to big. But closer and closer as we got to the mountain, the more it seemed to tower way above the rest of the nearby landmarks. It was at this point, when we talked about heading back our climbing a nearby hill. It just seemed impossible to get up to the top. Already, we were dizzy and out of breath, without even being close to the bottom of the mountain.

But just heading back without hitting the mountaintop just didn't seem right. So we slowly kept approaching the mountain and when we were at the feet we decided to just do it - while being really, really careful. Despite being a relatively easy footpath, our hearts kept pounding as we got higher and I started to feel dizzy. I observed the people going a few hundred meters in front of us. They seemed to go very slow, but steady, so I urged my roommate to slow our pace too. This seems to have been a good decision, together with the often breaks we took. Soon after this moment, rain started to hit us. Changing directions with the wind, the raindrops soaked us from every side. Extra careful not to slip, we continued.

The next steps can be described as almost meditative. Going in the same pace, one foot after another, we continued up the mountain. The rain kept going and coming back, but I didn't really care. Setting one foot after another and looking after my mate we walked and walked. Eventually we realized that the peak was coming soon and a wave of euphoria started to roll trough my body. Trying hard to be careful and not to just run up the last few meters, we made the last steps until we reached the top.

The view from above was breath-taking. I found it hard to capture the scale we felt in an image, but I think it shows a bit in this picture, I took when climbing down.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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I'm here.

​On this beach I had my first "alone-time" since arriving in Scotland for my exchange semester. As much as I love being among people sometimes, I need time to unwind, time to be me with myself. It was a really beautiful beach. In fact it's a nature reserve - the "Tentsmuir Forest". I swam 80m away from seals for the first time and saw a young fox chasing some of the plentiful rabbits. He was was absorbed in his hunt, that he didn't notice me up until a few meters. It was a really beautiful day.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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Above the sea of fog

Something a bit different, I want to challenge myself as a photographer more. After my sister left for the airport I took a bus to a wild, beautiful beach. Once the rain started, the people started to get less and less, until I was alone. It was a beautiful time to ponder and explore the raw wildness. I felt a bit like the "Wanderer above the sea of Fog" (Caspar David Friedrich).

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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Tiny Mushroom flames

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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On the watch-out

The little fly found a lookout-tower!

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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My tiny Castle

A friend once said to me that dead wood reminds them at castles. I can totally see why!

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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Lost in the woods

I call this place the "forest temple" - I found it next to my grandma's home.

This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

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4 Months of Scottish nature and castles

Mystical lakes, mossy mountains and haunted ruins - I'll be staying in Scotland for the next 4 months!

I started a little, big adventure. Together with a friend we will spend 4 months in Scotland as an exchange semester. An experience that I hope makes me grow as a person and allow me to explore a lot of those mystical places in Scotland.

Blood drops in the bathroom

When we arrived in Scotland, someone from my home country was already there. My sister wanted to seize the opportunity and came to Edinburgh a few days before us. It was just lovely seeing her at the bus stop, it made the whole thing seem less distant from everything. Together we then drove to Dundee, which will be our place of residence and study during our stay. To me, Dundee is a two-faced city. On the one hand there seems to be a lot of poverty here, on the other hand the city's organizations do a lot to make this place livable and lovable. Something that you could also sum up our apartment with. It's shit but we will make it nice! We couldn't check our new home before leaving Germany. We just had to rent something from the photos  we saw. So there was a bit of a bad awakening when we arrived. The place was really rundown, in a bad part of town and dirty when we arrived, even with some dried blood drops in the bathroom. You can imagine we weren't so excited! But eventually we got some really aggressive stuff and cleaned the apartment together with my sister to make our place more livable (a big thanks in case you read this). We didn't really want to touch anything when we arrived! But the cheap Tesco supermarket was our "life"-saver. We  got some air mattresses and other important stuff so we didn't need to sleep on the floor at this temperature. As we talked to natives about our problems, many said that the housing situation in UK is generally bad. It's common practice of a landlord to never visit the apartment. Places are badly insulated (in fact our windows don't keep any heat in) and the repairman that visited us, told us that mold is a very common problem, due to the high humidity. It really gave me another perspective on the housing situation in Germany and how good it is! But enough talk about our apartment, we will make it work. Let's get to our first adventure to a mystical castle ruin!

CORPCORPscotland's most mystical Castle

Dunnottar Castle was on the "bucketlist" of both my sister and me as it looks just so magical. It's a castle ruin situated on a peninsula made from red sandstone, next to the town of Stonehaven. It was built between the 13th and 17th century and did see several wars and owners during it's lifetime. During the civil war in 1651, the famous crown-juwels of Great Britain were hidden here. But word got around and soon the castle was under siege. After the attacking Oliver Cromwell got cannons, Dunnottar surrendered. But the jewels we're gone! There a several stories to how it happened. Some say they smuggled them out between bags of goods, other said that they dropped a container covered in sea plants into the sea. Eventually the crown jewels were hidden under the planks of a nearby church and they remained there until they could be given back to the king.

Beside the castle we also checked out the nearby wild beach, which was just beautiful! I've been to the North Sea and Baltic sea before, but this really was my first time ever where I really felt like I was on the ocean.

We found a little cave and explored the rocky beach and it's tide-pools. Those little water basins where brimming with life. Beside the beautiful water plants I spotted little snails, mussels and also some fishes, which quickly hid as soon as they noticed me. I also touched, what I think is something like an anemone in one of the pools. It stung a bit, but I think I'm alright haha.

Before we left, I built this little stone tower. I was surprised not seeing them, hence there being so many fitting rocks around. I hope someone sees it and will imitate it :) Then it started to rain quiet heavily (heck it's Scotland) and we sought refuge under the roof of a nearby food truck and got some British chips!

P.S.: I stole this plant from the castle's compost! :D Someone just threw it away, but it's so lovely c: It got a new home in my kitchen now, I think it's a nice memory to this wonderful place c: If you want to keep updated on my adventures in Scotland, be sure to subscribe using the form below! :) There's gonna be a lot of nature and mystical places in the next months I hope :)

TinyScotland - adventures and impressions from 4 months in Scotland. Click here to discover more of this series.

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