Lost Pop Blog

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[lost-pop]

EGX 2014: Overview

Video games have been a huge part of our lives since forever. Walking into Earls court in London one thing was clear, videogames transcend age and EGX was the place you could fully geekout and appreciate this amazing artform.

EGX consisted of developer conferences and 2 show floors with playable pre releases, simply a Mecca for the modern gamer. We had 2 days and sampled as much as we could. Below is a short rundown of what we thought. 

The Show Floors:

Downstairs were the big boys (Nintendo, Playstation, XBOX) as well as the retro games area (which we loved). Upstairs housed the Inide games, with loads on display; we managed to chat to loads of indie developers and it was here where we had the best time connecting with small hardworking teams and learning about what it takes to make games.

Playsation had a huge presence at EGX. They had the marketing and momentum to make them the stand out company; people were flocking to their stands while XBOX had a smaller presence (but still a strong crowd). There was little XBOX advertising (which was suprising) while the blue glow of Playsation shone with confidence in one of their strongest markets. Sony hands down dominated the scene at EGX that’s for sure.

Nintendo had a good crowd with people flocking to the Mario Kart championships and lapping up the Pokémon merch. Nintendo defiantly had the under 18 market but they still lacked any killer titles on display. Hopefully time will help Nintendo as they continue to build the WiiU library. People still care about this brand and they will bounce back.

AAA Games we played (in no order)

-       The order 1866

-       The whitcher

-       See No evil

-       Driveclub

-       Valkire (Oculus Rift)

-       War Thunder (Oculus Rift)

-       WWE 2015

-       Farcry 4

-       Mortal Combat x

-       Alien Isolation

The AAA games that stood out for us were: Alien Isolation, Mortal Combat, The Order 1866. Some demos were better than others depending on development progress. The sleeper hit was Alien, shit scary and something worth checking out.

Indie Games we played (in no order)

-       Poncho

-       Never Alone

-       How to be a tree

-       Rive

-       Velocity

To be honest we dipped in and out of so many indie games that it is hard to remember, the list above is our standout games. Never Alone looks and plays amazingly and Rive is such a classic little game before it even comes out.

Verdict

EGX was amazing, not one of the biggest hitters (such as E3 etc) but for us brits it is great we get to see all these games. For us the Indies’ stole the show and we are firmly in the era of the indie developers. There is a real resurgence with simple, sun and creative games and we cant wait where this takes gaming.

This is a whistle stop tour of EGX 2014 and we plan on brining you more detailed analysis in the coming weeks once it has all sunk in.

Tweet us @lostpoprecords 

[buchanan-video]

Lucifer’s Beard ‘Cuddle Monster’ Post Production

I thought I would wrap up some of the principal techniques I used to make Lucifer’s beard’s music video. The shoot itself was lo-fi and consisted of a very small green screen so I had to shoot each person individually apart from a few set pieces. The main problem was making sure peoples limbs did not fly off the green screen; this would have made keying a issue.

Keying:

Using Keylight pro for Aftereffects, I simply keyed out the individually video clips from the shoot and then set the transfer mode to screen. This allowed me to place any image or video clip in the silhouette of the person on the green screen. Simple technique but this was the basis of the music video.

3D Space & Optical flares:

Coupled with kinetic text the use of 3D space was key to the success of this video. Placing everyone on individual layers and moving a 3D camera though the scene gave me the depth required to place text and elements within the scene. Because the band were mostly keyed to be pure black solids, they may have looked flat without 3D movement.

Adding Optical flares in 3D space gave a very nice feeling of a live scene. Putting flares in the corner of the screen with camera movement trailing past them allowed me to make use of Video Co-pilots Optical Flare ‘Dynamic Triggering’. Dynamic triggering is a complex tern but is a simple effect. When the camera passes the flare on the screen, I was a able to set different parameters to react, for example if I set the optical flare to trigger when it is in the centre of the screen I can make it brighter without having to do any key frame work at all! This saved me a lot of time on a very lengthy post production project.

8 bit scene:

The 8 bit scene was hard to get right. I saved still images of a band member on the screen and then manually key framed between them, (one stood still pose, one walking pose) this gave me the jerky 8 but feel in the movement. The backdrop was a jpeg repeated and moved to the right in time with the walking and jumping animation. This made it look like a side scrolling game.

The 8 bit look was simply a ‘Mosaic’ effect which is very commonly used when blurring out criminals on TV to hide identity. The 8 bit scene took the most time to get right, lots of pre comping and manual key framing to make it look real.

I have missed loads of detail out here and also loads of other techniques but I thought I would focus on the obvious ones. 

It was a fun project, I learnt a lot and now know I need to know more for the next one but that’s half the fun!

Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8uLhENw4I

Follow me on twitter @BCharmonics

[lost-pop]

Lost Pop produced this music video. More details on how it was made to come in the next few weeks. For now enjoy!

[lost-pop]

MTNS - Lost Track of time

MTNS are a Australian band who are on the up, keep a eye on them for sure.

[buchanan-video]

NEW MUSIC: Ghosting

Here is my new record. Stream via Soundcloud and then download for FREE via Bandcamp  https://braincellharmonics.bandcamp.com/album/ghosting

[lost-pop]

After 6 months delay we finally got watch dogs but is it any good?

We have not fully sunk our teeth into this massive open world tech thriller yet but first impressions are good….very good indeed. It has a lot of depth and the way the world interacts seamlessly with online mode for hacking is amazing, all of a sudden you will be doing some free roam and then BAM! you are being hacked and you have to hunt down the culprit before the download is complete. It is a great mini game and one that works very well and feels very next gen.

The story mode seems to be gripping enough (although we are only a couple of hours in) apart from the main dude Aden being a little lifeless and cliché (dude lost his nice and family yada yada ya) with missions feeling varied and challenging at times.

It is hard not to compare WD with GTA5 when trying to look at comparisons with open world games. The way the police hunt you down is heart pumping (and can be challenging), evading the cops in WD really feels like a job well done. One of the tools in the box to evade cops is to slump down in a car and wait for them to crawl by; this makes you feel bad ass and it kind of rewarding to put your finger up to the law.  

Watch Dogs is a great game and worth the wait. Ubisoft have already smashed their own record for a software launch (it helps it is on every single console current and last gen) which is a great achievement considering these are the guys that make Assassins Creed.

Watch dogs is on XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, PS3, PS4, WIIU

[lost-pop]

PANES - Bones Without You.

Check out this amazing new band if you like 90's R&B beats with some synth based hooks. 

Stream PANES debut EP in full, right here http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/19924/1/stream-panes-stormy-debut-ep

[lost-pop]

Ben Khan - New electronic musician on the rise. If you like Jamie Woon, and 90's vibes then keep a eye on this guy!

 https://www.facebook.com/benkhanmusic

You can pre order his 4 track EP right now. We have. 

[lost-pop]

New Baths track 'Ocean Death' - What do you think? We like! 

[lost-pop]

Listen/purchase: Needs by Giraffage

[lost-pop]

What do you think about The Last of Us coming to PS4?

Is it good that so many people are hyped for last gen ports? well thats a tough question, people seem to be a little impatient this gen. it took last gen 6 + years to get the traction and the games it did. 

Arguably the best games come at the end of a consoles cycle, so why not give the new hardware a leg up and port the games? the only problem we have is putting a full price tag on the shinny new ports.

What do you think?

The Last Of Us Remastered is slated for release for Summer 2014  

[lost-pop]

Cahinsaw Dave

Sometimes talent is Awesome and David Luas is Awesome. 'Chainsaw Dave' can take a fallen tree and turn it into something incredible. His sculptures are so intricate and they are all crafted by a freaking chainsaw! 

Take a look at this video and see the magic unfold. 

For more info on 'Chainsaw Dave' then get hooked up with him on social. 

@Chainsawdaveuk - Twitter 

https://www.facebook.com/chainsawcarver?filter=2 - Facebook

[jonathanmbettsart-blog]

Smoking Man 2 (Pigment Liner) 2013

[avadcniels]

the cast of LOST on set

[staff]

Bad news. A major vulnerability, known as “Heartbleed,” has been disclosed for the technology that powers encryption across the majority of the internet. That includes Tumblr.

We have no evidence of any breach and, like most networks, our team took immediate action to fix the issue.

But this...

[dualshockersny]

Oculus’ Creator Welcomes PS4 to the VR Race, but Thinks it’ll Be Surpassed by PC and Mobile in Time | DualShockers — http://buff.ly/1mYYWGP Oculus VR CEO Palmer Luckey is quite happy about Sony joining the virtual reality camp with Project Morpheus, and thinks it can be a good application for the moment, even if he expressed concerns about the PS4′s lasting power in an interview on the Japanese website Game Watch. "I think that if Sony pours enough effort in it, it’ll be a very good solution for the present time. There’s also the combination with the PlayStation Move, and PS4 is like a powerful PC now. However, I think there’s reason for concern for the long term." "That’s because in two to three years almost everyone will have a PC more powerful than the PS4. In five to seven years even mobile platforms will surpass the PS4. The PS4 generation has passed its eightg years, but it’s still going. And because the PS4 generation should be very long as well, there’s no telling whether it can keep up with virtual reality on PC and mobile in the future or not." [Read more in link above]

[lost-pop]

Records on rotation this week

Earl Sweatshirt - Doris (Lo-fi strange hip-hop. for fans of Odd Future) 

EDDIE FRONT - Eddie Front EP (Smoky frank music, the real Lana Del Rey)

Tennis - Small sound (70's 'Fame' style tunes, for fans of delphonics)