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Assimilate Announces Scratch 8.3

Full SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab now in one toolset for a streamlined cloud-based ecosystem for dailies and post-production workflows.

Santa Clara, CA -- Assimilate brings innovation again to digital cinema with its new SCRATCH 8.3, a cloud-based integrated ecosystem of advanced digital cinema tools for DITs, DPs, directors, editors, colorists, post-production artists, and all creative professionals. With SCRATCH 8.3, the full SCRATCH DI workflow and SCRATCH Lab for on-set and VFX dailies, are now integrated into one, robust toolset at the right price point for any budget and everyone in the filmmaking process – $650 USD per year. Filmmakers and artists can now ratchet up their creativity and productivity with an uninterrupted workflow, from on-set production through full 4K post-production, with a single user interface and the assurance of consistent color throughout the entire filmmaking process. The SCRATCH 8.3 ecosystem also includes SCRATCH Web and SCRATCH Play 8.3 for real-time publishing and sharing of native RAW camera or other media with the entire creative team – in any format, any resolution, at any time, and anywhere in the world. Unicode is now included to support the high-growth, budget-limited Asian markets. Additionally, Assimilate’s acclaimed, 24/7, global technical support is available to all customers. 

All current SCRATCH and SCRATCH Lab customers on subscription or active support receive an upgrade to SCRATCH 8.3 at no charge, as well as a SCRATCH Web channel to publish RAW and other media data for collaboration and review.

The affordability of SCRATCH 8.3 also gives indies, large studios, and all post facilities the opportunity to use the most advanced digital tools while reworking their business models to meet today’s ever tightening budgets and client deadlines – without sacrificing profit.  

Core features include real-time 2D/3D, virtual-reality (VR) workflows for on-set, dailies, live grading on-set, VFX through to full 4K post-production and DI – conform, versioning, color grading, playback, compositing and finishing.  SCRATCH supports the broadest range of cameras and media formats, including the latest state-of-the-art offerings.

In addition to its cornerstone tools, the extended SCRATCH 8.3 ecosystem includes features that are unique to SCRATCH, expanding the creative professional’s toolkit for even greater productivity and creativity – without limits.

Unicode to support Chinese and Japanese languages:  Essential for these high-growth markets to use for burn-in, subtitles, and file naming, as well as local language support.

SCRATCH Web: The first professional cloud-based multi-user collaboration and review tool that offers individual clip, timeline, or timeline+version sharing (SCRATCH CONstruct), and native support for industry standard RAW camera and other formats.  Sign up for a FREE 30-day trial and create your own private SCRATCH Web channel at www.assimilateinc.com/trials/registration.aspx

FREE SCRATCH Play media player: The ultimate on-set assistant for real-time playback and review of dailies in any format, including Oculus Rift (VR). Artists can also publish and share RAW media and other data for global collaboration and review. Visit www.assimilateinc.com/products/scratch-play for a full listing of features and formats.

Oculus Rift (VR) support: Developers can create cinematic content for the Oculus Rift (VR) with a powerful tool that allows them to review, grade and composite VR shots in real-time – whether or not they have a Rift headset.

Additional highlights include:

  • Fully ACES 1.0 compliant – This includes the file format, color space and device and rendering transforms. Working with an ACES project is as easy as mixing it with media in any other color space.
  • Metadata support significantly expanded 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. 
  • Live View Gives DPs and DITs the ability to capture metadata from live camera feeds, grade live on the camera feed, and create looks.
  • Apple ProRes support – Artists can encode Apple ProRes files on Microsoft Windows 7/8-based PCs, as well as the Max OS X, with the highest possible quality and encoding speeds on both platforms.

“Since day one, Assimilate has been highly responsive to the needs of digital cinema professionals, and we’re doing it again with the all-inclusive and powerful functionality of the expanding SCRATCH 8.3 ecosystem,” said Jeff Edson, CEO at Assimilate.  “We’re adding features that meet the demands of the broad, high-growth global markets, such as Unicode for Asian languages. And we’re delivering extreme price/performance value to make SCRATCH available to all creative professionals, worldwide.”

Edson added, “SCRATCH quality and price/performance value are also creating strong demand for SCRATCH in the curriculums of numerous film schools and universities around the globe. It’s very rewarding for all of us at Assimilate to participate in the turning point of careers for so many new creative professionals.” 

Source: Assimilate

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.