ASSIMILATE (www.assimilateinc.com), the leading provider of dailies and DI tools for digital cinema and broadcast workflows, announced today the next generation of its flagship product, SCRATCH, the industry’s most comprehensive, high-performance digital cinema software. SCRATCH v7 features a powerful new suite of enhanced 3D compositing tools that integrate seamlessly into its world-class color grading, data management and finishing system to allow far faster, more fluid and more cost effective DI sessions, known as Creative DI.
Additionally, SCRATCH v7 is the first real-time, client-attended toolset in the industry to deliver a consistent, integrated user-interface across both production dailies and creative DI. This consistency offers a synergy between production and post-production that allows directors and producers of features, commercials, spots and episodic television to dramatically enhance creativity while significantly improving productivity.
“SCRATCH v7 is a huge time-saver for me,” said Julio Macat ASC, the cinematographer behind blockbuster hits such as Home Alone and Wedding Crashers. “During our shoot of Universal Pictures’ upcoming musical Pitch Perfect, we used SCRATCH to do the creative DI. I found the SCRATCH DI session to be far more fluid and much faster than anything I’ve experienced before. With the savvy hands of Leandro Marini at the helm, we were able to do color timing side-by-side with items like object replacement, beauty work on women’s faces, and even some VFX – such as changing skies, adding assorted lens flares and creating or extending light beams from lighting instruments that couldn’t be practically photographed – right inside of SCRATCH. This was all quickly achieved without time delays, which can interrupt the creative process. The faster you go, the more DI work you can do. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and I know all directors of photography will fall in love with this way of working. Creative DI is a great step forward in helping cinematographers reach their visual goals, and I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned with my colleagues at the ASC.”
New Features in SCRATCH v7
• Enhanced creative tools to enable creative DI:
SCRATCH now marries its world-class color grading capabilities with powerful compositing tools in a single, comprehensive environment with the real-time interactivity demanded in client-attended sessions. New features include:
• An expanded compositing toolset with a new 3D camera model, featuring an improved OFX plug-in environment and plug-in workflow
• Full peer interactivity between all SCRATCH features and critical VFX plug-ins, such as Sapphire, Neat Video, ReelSmart Motion Blur, Beauty Box and more
• Ability to nest layers and apply color grades to groups of layers
• New rendering features, including directional and motion blur, multi-sampling, and bit-map filtering
• An entirely new, flexible viewing model that displays content in a far more intuitive manner. Artists can fuel their creativity by navigating and working seamlessly from a multi-layer timeline to a single, multi-level composite, while viewing the results in context at all times. This new viewing model, allows artists to create dual views of any image in a project by quickly and easily selecting a version, a reference, a clip from a video track, or a color buffer, and compare them using one of two methods: a difference method or an overlay method with opacity controls and a 360 degree wipe. Additionally, one of the dual views can be designated as an output view (showing the final result of a shot), while the other is a fully functional working canvas with access to even the deepest elements of a shot, including a complex composite or color grade. Artists can intuitively manipulate any element of the working view and instantly see its resulting affect updated to the output view at full resolution and in real time.
• Extended native camera support:
– Phantom Miro
– Canon C300
– The latest ARRI Debayer algorithm
– Sony F65 native high frame rate
– SCRATCH v7 includes full support for the entire ACES specification including the file format, color space, and device and rendering transforms.
• Planar tracking data import from Imagineer System’s mocha Pro v3: New support and process for SRATCH users to import mocha’s planar tracking data for transform, scale, rotation and corner pin perspective. With the new mocha Pro-to-SCRATCH workflow, artists can seamlessly tackle the most difficult motion tracking shots for screen inserts, match moves, set extensions and image stabilization.
Ross Shain, chief marketing officer at Imagineer Systems commented, "Together, SCRATCH and mocha Pro are the perfect combination for delivering highest quality, effects-driven content. For years SCRATCH artists have asked for the ability to access mocha’s powerful planar tracking data within SCRATCH. We are very pleased to be working with the team at ASSIMILATE to help deliver this useful new feature to the users.”
Steve Bannerman, VP of marketing at ASSIMILATE, stated, “SCRATCH v7 marries its world-class color correction capabilities, which have been at the epicenter of so many of the world’s greatest features, TV shows and commercials, with enhanced creative tools for compositing and finishing previously found only as “bolt-ons” in traditional big-iron systems. SCRATCH v7 leaves these systems behind because it delivers what others have tried to deliver and failed: true, no-compromise feature and UI integration from dailies right through to finishing at breath-taking levels of price-performance. This is the workflow artists have considered to be the Holy Grail for years, and now they have it.”
New Subscription Model
ASSIMILATE also announced innovative Pay-As-You-Use and Site License Subscription programs. These programs make access to SCRATCH and Lab more flexible and more cost-effective than ever. Artists are now able to subscribe to either SCRATCH or Lab and activate their license for one day, one week, one month, or 3 months. In addition, facilities are able to license and use as many SCRATCH or Lab licenses as they need while paying one low annual fee (some restrictions apply). These facilities are now able to manage and license their SCRATCH systems from a new MY ASSIMILATE online portal available via www.assimilateinc.com.
Pricing and Availability
SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab v7 ship in Q4, 2012. The price for SCRATCH remains unchanged at $20,995. Likewise, SCRATCH Lab is still priced at $5,990. Both prices include first year’s maintenance and support.
See SCRATCH at IBC 2012
ASSIMILATE is offering demos of SCRATCH v7 and SCRATCH Lab at IBC 2012. Customers can book a private demo by e-mailing events@assimilateinc.com.
• Dates: September 7 – 11, 2012
• Location: The RAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Stand number: 7.H11
ASSIMILATE‘s SCRATCH® real-time digital workflow and post-production tools have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of major studio and independent features, commercials, television shows, music videos and corporate productions. Both SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab®, running on Windows and Mac OS® X, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo/3D productions.
ASSIMILATE‘s SCRATCH® end-to-end data workflow — from dailies, to conform, color grading, compositing through to finishing — and SCRATCH Lab, a robust dailies or VFX digital pipeline, deliver the industry’s most comprehensive toolset for data-centric digital cinema and episodic television productions for 2D and 3D stereo projects. Both products support multiple formats, including ARRI RAW, Sony F65, Phantom, and Canon 5D, as well as enhanced support RED r.3d at up to 5K resolution and beyond. All versions of SCRATCH and Lab software, running on Mac OS X and Windows 7, feature SDI output via AJA Kona 3G graphics cards, wicked-fast dailies rendering, improved metadata and timecode handling. For the latest film and TV credits, pricing and sales, visit www.assimilateinc.com.
ASSIMILATE is the premier provider of digital workflow and post-production tools, that have proven essential to the successful creation of thousands of studio and independent features, television shows, music videos and corporate video productions. The company’s SCRATCH products, running on Windows and Mac OSX, are the heartbeat of today’s most demanding digital post-production and dailies workflows for 2D and stereo 3D productions. They equip directors, DPs and artists with the state-of-the-art, intuitive, data-centric solutions they need to meet the continual challenges of increased creativity and productivity amid ever-shrinking budgets. ASSIMILATE‘s SCRATCH data-centric DI system, is the most comprehensive, end-to-end cinema and broadcast imaging tool for playback, conform, editing, color grading, compositing and finishing of RED and other digital workflows. SCRATCH Lab delivers a comprehensive toolset for the review, versioning, color correction, conform and output of on-set or VFX dailies. ASSIMILATE a privately held company, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA, offices in London, UK, Groningen, NL and Beijing City, CN and markets its products worldwide via a global reseller network. To learn more please visit www.assimilateinc.com.
