Assimilate Inc

The era of Creative DI has arrived. Directors and DPs have been searching for the “Holy Grail” DI session for years. Where creativity flows without interruption, where tools work at the speed of your imagination and where artists deliver even better value to your customers-more profitably.

SCRATCH® is the first comprehensive DI finishing tool to actually deliver on this promise. SCRATCH marries an incredibly powerful data management engine with world-class color grading and enhanced 3D compositing into one single intuitive UI that fuels the creative, fast and fluid sessions that are completely changing the way Directors see DI.

Designed to meet the unique DI workflow challenges of independent and documentary filmmakers, as well as boutique post-production houses, SCRATCH brings together dailies, conform, editing, color grading, titling, 3D compositing and finishing into a single, consistent interface that maximizes both creativity and productivity.

Hundreds of feature and documentary productions have relied on SCRATCH not only because it was first to support digital workflows, but because it is the only DI tool that offers the quality, real-time performance and breadth of features needed to meet the unique challenges presented by uncompromising quality vs. realistic budgets.

SCRATCH in Features benefits:

Designed for Ultimate Creativity.
Only SCRATCH seamlessly blends world-class color correction with deep 3D compositing in one unified, real-time system- at a price you can actually afford. No more interrupting your DI session because you have to send beauty shots out to VFX. Does your shot need a quick object replaced? Need to add a Sapphire lens Flare? No problem- with SCRATCH you can handle all these routine VFX fixes right in the DI session without stopping. This new way of working is not only faster and cheaper, but the ultimate in creativity.

Optimized for real-time, client-attended interactivity.
SCRATCH delivers the raw performance that inspires a new level of collaboration with your clients. Play and review multi-resolution shots side-by-side and in real-time. Experience incredibly fluid, responsive grading and finishing sessions, and use the time you save to refine your scenes and create the looks that set you apart. SCRATCH delivers DI and finishing at the speed of your imagination.

Digital tools for the entire post-production workflow. 
SCRATCH delivers real-time data management, to dailies playback and review, extremely flexible conform, advanced color grading, unlimited versioning, titling, compositing, finishing and mastering to a variety of formats, SCRATCH is your one-stop solution throughout the entire post-production pipeline.

Unmatched flexibility.
SCRATCH is highly extensible. Seamlessly integrate via XML with other tools in your workflow such as Nuke, Shotgun, Avid and Final Cut Pro. Extend dailies sessions for remote review and comment or create the kind of automated workflows and client tools that, until now, only the biggest facilities could afford.

SCRATCH is affordable.
SCRATCH delivers double the price-performance than it’s closest competitor. And new subscription options allow artists and facilities the ability to compliment today’s freelance work model with volume purchasing and pay-as-you-use choices, so you can easily match your costs with your revenues.

SCRATCH features include:

New v7 features are highlighted in orange text

Full resolution support for RED RAW, ARRI RAW, F65, 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
• REDCODE RAW.r3d including monochrome footage. Support for multiple RED Rocket cards with DRX control
• ARRI RAW including new ASSIMILATE custom ARRI 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 P2/MXF and AVCHD
• Canon C500, C300, 5D, 7D
• Blackmagic Design Cinema DNG
• Aaton Penelope
• Ikonoscop
• GoPro
• QuickTime
• DPX
• Over 50 additional formats

For a complete list of supported formats click here

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

Enhanced creative compositing tools to deliver Creative DI

• An enhanced compositing toolset, with a new 3D camera model featuring an improved OFX plug-in environment and plug-in workflow, that allows full peer interactivity between all SCRATCH features and critical VFX plug-ins, such as Sapphire, Neat Video, ReelSmart Motion Blur, and Beauty Box
• 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
• Planar tracking data import from Imagineer System's mocha Pro v3.1. New support and process for Scratch 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.

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

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 ARRI RAW 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
• 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, Cannon 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.

Advanced audio sync

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

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 HTML
• Integrate 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