SANTA CLARA, CA — Assimilate, the provider of digital dailies and DI workflow tools, has released V.8.2 of its Scratch and Scratch Lab. The latest release significantly expands metadata support, as well as gives DPs and DITs the ability to grade footage right from a camera feed and save those looks for later in the post process.
Users can now select, update, add or remove metadata, be it for a single shot or for multiple shots. New metadata can then be exported via ALE or XML to be imported into other systems or integrated with other proprietary tools.
The new Live View feature allows on-set pros to capture metadata from live camera feeds, grade live and create looks. A new H.264 encoder, licensed from Vanguard, provides optimized encoding for Windows and Mac OS. In addition, Oculus Rift support has been added for grading and compositing VR shots in realtime, with or without a headset.
Additional features include the ability to conform data from multiple sources and then make local copies or consolidate all media into a new single location. The consolidated media can be monitored via a process queue. Since it is a background process, artists can continue working on the same or another project, or even exit Scratch and the process will continue until it’s completed. There is now support for AJA Kona 4 video hardware as well as for new camera and media formats, including Panasonic RAW, Magic Lantern (.raw and .mlv), and BMDPocket camera (on OSX). Updates on XAVC and XAVC-S increase performance for 4K resolution.
Both Scratch and Scratch Lab 8.2 are available immediately from the Assimilate Website (www.assimilateinc.com). The company offers pricing options such as a daily license rental of just $20. A monthly recurring subscription option is available too.
In related news, Assimilate has also launched Scratch Web, which allows Scratch and Scratch Lab artists to set up secure, cloud-based client review sessions. Users can seamlessly create a secure content channel for dailies, DI or VFX review directly from within the Scratch or Scratch Lab user interface.
Artists with a MyAssimilate account can publish their local Scratch or Lab CONstruct to a corresponding cloud-based CONstruct on their Scratch Web channel. Scratch Web channels can be reviewed from any device with any Web browser.
A basic subscription is $79 per month and includes up to 20GBs of storage. An extended subscription is $249 per month and includes up to 100GBs of storage. A free introductory account is available to any Scratch or Scratch Lab artist who is current on maintenance and support.