SCRATCH Introduction and FAQ

Full resolution support for RED, ARRI, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, DLSR and all other popular camera and media formats. Featuring unmatched real-time performance and reliability, SCRATCH removes the risk and frees the filmmaker and DP to get the most from a high-resolution digital shoot.

Real-time full resolution, native playback of all popular camera formats

• Fully ACES compliant
• Kinefinity KineRAW(.krw) codec
• Oculus Rift VR360 file format including Cylindrical, Equi-rectangular, and Cube formats, for output to a secondary monitor, or an Oculus Rift DKI or DKII
• REDCODE RAW.r3d including monochrome footage. Support for multiple RED Rocket cards with DRX control
• RED Dragon
• ARRIRAW including new ASSIMILATE customARRI fast Debayer – built for significant speed while still preserving color accuracy
• Sony F5/F55/F65 including 6K and 8K
• SONY Mpeg-2 .mp4, .mov and XAVC HD/4K .mxf
• Phantom
• SI2K
• Panasonic RAW, P2/MXF and AVCHD
• Canon C500, C300, Magic Lantern (.raw and .mlv), 5D, 7D5D, 7D
• Blackmagic Design Cinema DNG, BMDPocket camera
• Vanguard Video H.264 encoding (Mac and Windows)
• Aaton Penelope
• Ikonoscop
• GoPro
• QuickTime
• DPX

Over 50 additional formats.

Powerful finishing tools

Shot Versioning, SCRATCH CONstruct manage multiple versions of the same 2D or 3D shots within the same timeline for easy comparison.

• Vector paint
• Subtitling support
• Apply OFX plug-ins to create a wide range of visual effects
• Direct Output: Real-time tools for frame-rate conversion, image-resolution scaling and frame-accuracy to monitors, projectors and tape decks using both DVI and SDI interfaces
• Multiple Deliverables: Create alternate versions in different resolutions, image formats and framing, all from a single source

Fast, highly interactive color grading

• Real-time, non-destructive primary and secondary color grading
• Heads-up color grading interface and support for Avid Artist Color panel series or all Tangent panels – including the Element
• Source-side adjustments for mixed color space workflows
• Match and auto grading
• 2D and shape tracking
• Keying based on Vector, Chroma or Luminance
• Controls for finessing keys
• Integrated Histogram, Waveform, Vectorscope and Color Curve views
• Group shots, copy/paste color grades and reference libraries
• Key frames and animation curves
• Import and save 1D and 3D LUTs based on primary color grades
• Support for a shaper LUT inside a cube LUT

High-speed conform and confidence checking

No other software offers the range of tools for quickly conforming and checking against a reference clip.

• Mix-and-match RED.r3d files with ARRIRAW or Phantom (or any other media format recognized by SCRATCH), even Canon DSLR, within the same resolution-independent timeline
• Dual-View, Half-Mix and Side-by-Side comparison options
• Quick Keys for moving through a timeline and edit tools for shot manipulation
• AAF import and MXF integration
• Import and export ALE
• Final Cut Pro XML import
• Final Cut X 1.4 support for conform
• Shot log metadata import
• Metadata search
• Stereoscopic 3D versioning
• CDL support
• Output to multiple file formats such as DNxHD, DPX, ProRes (Mac OS version only) Tiff, JPG, Quicktime, MXF and more
• Export with timecode and metadata
• Multilayer timeline

State of the art metadata and timecode support

Sync timecode from multiple cameras (including stereo) with a unique “Match Timecode” function. Stack cameras into a single slot, then automatically sync the timecode all of cameras to one of them.

• Generate dailies by automatically naming clips based on any metadata field, including camroll, scene and take.
• Create flash burns either at the top and tail of a clip, or throughout its duration.
• Capture scene and take metadata automatically from broadcast wave audio files.
• Automatically generate new timecode for DSLR cameras such as the Phantom, Canon 5D/7D and GoPro that don’t support it. Easily increment the timecode with each slot and even skip by user-defined intervals.
• Populate Avid AAF files with extended metadata, avoiding the double pass to access that ALE files required. This effectively removes the need for separate ALEs.
• Select, update, add or remove metadata in a spreadsheet editor-style. Update metadata for a single shot or multiple shots at once, as well as update data by entering plain text or using formulas that contain other metadata items. New metadata can then be exported via ALE or XML to be imported into other systems or integrated with other proprietary tools.
• Match/find, load and apply looks to multiple shots in the form of 3dl, CDL, LUT or XML, and audio. This new feature will search and match by name, time-code, or any common metadata items. In addition, artists can now auto-link audio files to shots purely based on metadata and file name.

An entirely new, flexible viewing model

Create dual views of any image in a project by quickly and easily selecting a version, a reference, a clip from any video track, or a color buffer.

• Compare them using one of two methods: a difference method, or an overlay method with opacity controls and a 360 degree wipe
• 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
• 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

Stereo 3D workflow support

Imagine the creativity of a full stereo workflow that provides consistent, intuitive feedback during the conform, color grading and finishing process. Stereo image pairs are automatically linked for versioning and real-time playback to a wide variety of stereoscopic delivery systems.

• Check and adjust stereo with dedicated link and convergence controls
• Bicubic controls for fixing 3D stereo images
• Position elements relative to the screen plane
• Immediately review decisions in stereo
• Panasonic 3D stereo camera support with automatic stream de-muxing

Flexibility and extensibility

Future-proof your workflow with an advanced and scriptable XML back-end that allows you to:

• Automate SCRATCH to maximize productivity
• Access your job anywhere via HTMLIntegrate SCRATCH via XML with other tools in your workflow such as Nuke, Shotgun, Avid or Final Cut Pro
• Enhance SCRATCH with OFX plug-ins such as Sapphire, Beauty Box, Twixtor, and Neat Video
• Built-in SQL database supports a full range of metadata

Advanced audio sync

• Broadcast wave support
• Automatically sync to timecode or slate
• Interactive waveform for sync
• Interactive audio scrub

Live View

The new Live View function takes in the SDI signal from a camera and allows artists to work and grade directly on the camera feed. It also reads the camera metadata if available, which is then displayed in the metadata stack in the Player module. In addition, the name of a SCRATCH Gallery item can be based on the metadata of the current shot (e.g. Live View). The determined grade can then be easily linked to the recorded shot further downstream in the pipeline.

These tutorials are from Assimilate SCRATCH. And we will also provide KRW workflow with SCRATCH very soon.

1. Get Started SCRATCH v8.0

2. SCRATCH for Resolve Users

3. Full Dailies Workflow

Covers the main topics a DIT should control in order to provide efficient dailies to the offline editing. Those include color adjustments but also metadata management and audio relinking.

4. Creating Apple ProRes dailies on Windows using SCRATCH

create ProRes dailies using the Apple-licensed ProRes encoder in SCRATCH and Lab…..on a Windows machine.

5. SCRATCH and LUTs

This tutorial shows how to load Lookup-tables into different locations within the color pipeline in SCRATCH; also address how to export LUT.

6. Balance a shot

This quick tutorial explains how to neutralize any color dominance that might affect an image.

7. Color Management

Understand how SCRATCH manages the most used color spaces:

Linear/sRGB, Log/Film, Rec709, UHD, XYZ (DCI), ACES, WideGamut, Scene Linear, P3 (DCI) and AdobeRGB.

SCRATCH offers you the flexibility to mix various sources colors spaces within a single project and takes care of all the necessary color transforms up to your deliverables.

8. Consolidate media

This tutorial covers the topics related to consolidating your SCRATCH project such as:

• Isolate Project media
• Copy or move media to new folder
• Ensure all Media in the Project Media folder

Basically you can use the Consolidate function e.g. to move media to a different disk-system, archiving your project or to ensure all media is centralized in a single folder.

9. Anamorphic shots

• how to handle anamorphic footage in SCRATCH.
• how to set the correct aspect for the footage, the CONstruct,
• how to setup file-exports with either an aspect ratio, or square aspect.

10. Gallery

• Overview
• Setting up a dailies project
• Grouping shots
• Comparing grades
• Saving and applying partial grades
• The Film Strip tool
• The Memory banks
• Synchonizing Galleries and User Settings with your MyAssimilate account

11. SCRATCH: LiveGrade

how to export 3D-LUTs from LiveGrade and use the LUT-matching function in SCRATCH to apply them.

SCRATCH’s ShowReel