COLOR FRAME
The Color-Frame plug-in generates a single frame shot of a specific
color or pre-defined pattern. The plug-in doe not have any inputs. The
format of the Color-Frame is by default the project default but can be
altered through the regular shot-config menus. There are a number of
predefined patterns available: Color Bar 75%, Color Bar
100%(saturation), Gradient, Gradient Bar, Zone Plate and Color Circle.
When selecting the Color-Frame option, a color picker becomes available
through which you can set the desired color of the frame.
The Color Frame is a generator node. It does not have any inputs. It can be instantiated from the Utilities section in the Media menu in the Construct or from the Action menu in the Editor.
LIVE VIEW
The Live View Plug-in should be invoked by selecting the Live View
option in the utilities section of the Construct menu. The option is
only available if you have the supported SDI boards available and
enabled (currently only Bluefish444 or BM Deck-link). Clicking the
Live View option will take you into the Player.
The top left label in the Shot menu will identify the source of the SDI input. To start a live capture:
- Select the Device you want to capture from (it is possible to have multiple SDI cards installed).
- Select which Channel / Input to capture from on the selected device.
- Press Start to initialize the capture.
- Next - to actually start capturing frames on continuously, put SCRATCH in playback mode by hitting the regular Play button in SCRATCH.
Use the Stop button to force the capture to re-initialize - in case the input format or channel changed.
Once you started capturing the SDI signal - you can use any of the
grading tools in SCRATCH to work on the image. To persist a grade you
need to save it to the SCRATCH Gallery Trays or one of the Memories (see Chapter 7 - The Matrix).
The Live View Plug-in will also attempt to read any metadata that is
included in the auxiliary channel of the SDI signal. Certain camera's
include various metadata items about the camera operations and settings
on the SDI. When capturing, the metadata is displayed in the regular
metadata stack of the Player.
Finally, please note that SCRATCH also has to option to automatically
name Gallery items based on the metadata of the current shot. Using
this in combination with the Live View you can easily build up grades
that reference a certain camera, scene and take. That way the grades can
easily be linked to the actual recorded data later. Please see Chapter 7 - The Matrix, the paragraph on Trays for more information on this setting.
NEST NODE
The Nest node (formerly known as Process node) is a type of Output node and allows you to wrap a shot with a specific grade into a new node and as such shield the grade. You can also use a Nest node to force a color space conversion by using the Apply button in the default node controls (see the paragraph on Outputs in Chapter 4 - The Construct).
You can instantiate a Nest node in one of two ways. Use the Nest option in the Construct Utilities section of the Media menu or the Nest option in the Layer stack in the Player.
RE-TIMER
The Edit module in SCRATCH allows you to set a vari-speed with a shot directly. However to create speed-ramps / speed animations you need to instantiate the re-timer plug-in. You can do this directly from the Editor or you can use the plug-in browser from the Matrix.
MODE
The Re-Timer plug-in has an additional mode when compared to the vari-speed in the Editor: next to Nearest Frame and Rolling Mix, there is the Motion Estimate option which uses an optical flow algorithm to detect motion to interpolate between frames. The Rolling Mix modes does an interpolation of frames on a slow motion, while on a speed up it will use the Trails parameter to determine the number of frames to use for a merge. The Nearest mode will simply take the closest existing frame.
FRAMERATE - PERCENTAGE
Set the amount of speed-up or slow down. Note that in an animation these controls reflect the relative speed at the current frame and not the average speed over the full animation.
FRAME
When no animation is used, this control just reflects the remapping of the requested frame to the underlying source frame. Changing the control will not persists. However, when an animation is invoked it is this parameter that is animated / used. When entering the Animation Curve Editor - the source frame mapping can be set in a curve.
Note that when the Animation option is set to Manual or Auto for the first time with the plug-in, SCRATCH automatically creates a 2 point animation curve based on the current speed value. From there you can easily add animation points to create more elaborate ramps.
STEREO NODE
The only way to instantiate a Stereo node is with the Stereo Setup function in the Construct Media menu. Please see Chapter 4 - The Construct, the Media Menu paragraph for more information on creating stereo nodes. Also please note that SCRATCH versions before v8.5 contained a different type of Stereo node, which could also be created from the Plug-in browser. This node is obsolete however. You can still load pre-v8.5 projects into v8.5 but the Stereo nodes do no longer trigger specific stereo actions, such as the convergence parameters in the Player-Matrix-Config menu or the Manage Stereo tool in the Player.
The Stereo node does not have any specific parameters of its own.
STEREO GENERATOR
The Stereo Generator creates a stereo pattern and is typically added to the output tree, followed by a file writer to crate the physical file with the pattern in it.
The Stereo Generator can generate on of these patterns:
- Left - only render the left eye. used when you need to render out two separate media sequences.
- Right - only render the right eye. used when you need to render out two separate media sequences.
- Side-by-Side
- Over-Under
- Line Interleave
- Checkerboard
- Anaglyph
Depending on the resolution of the Stereo Generator, the Over-Under and Side-by-Side patterns might be scaled. To make sure no scaling is applied you need to increase the resolution of the Stereo Generator (manually) and make sure that the file write node after it also has that same resolution.
VIDEO WALL
The Video Wall plug-in combines all of its inputs to a single image.
As such it does not have any parameters on its own. You can use the
Inputs menu to add and remove input shots with a maximum of 16 inputs.
However - rather than manually setting up a a Video Wall the plug-in is
easier managed from one of the following locations:
- From the Dual View source options you can select 'All versions'
which will create a Video Wall plug-in of all the current shot and all
of its versions and use the Video Wall for the right view in the dual
view setup. This way you can easily compare versions.
- From the Misc menu in the Trays you can create a Video Wall node
based on the tray selection. If multiple shots are selected in a
Project Tray a video Wall is created from those shots. If a single shot
is selected in a Video Wall, SCRATCH will take that and the next 15
shots in that Tray to create a video wall. The same applies to a Gallery
Tray, however for inputs of the Video Wall SCRATCH will take multiple
instances of the current shot in the Player with each instance having
one of the gallery grades applied.
- From the Construct Utility section in the Media menu. Here
SCRATCH will take all the selected shots in the Construct as inputs for
the new video wall.