SCRATCH Release History

• Fixed a potential crash with R3D decoding using CUDA (with NVIDIA Kepler generation cards on Windows or Pascal generation with OSX).
• Fixed a potential crash when encoding or decoding ProRes 422 on a Mac with Intel UHD 630 graphics.
• Fixed an issue that was introduced in build 1021 where the last character of the name/value metadata pairs of Open EXR media were stripped off.
• Default channel mappings for multi-channel Open EXR were not always correct.
• Reverting a timeline to its original sort order did not always work correct if slots were added.

• Audio from XAVC MXF was not read correctly when the last track was a data track.
• Updated Blackmagic RAW SDK to version 1.4 with support for the new BMPCC 6K camera.
• Fixes a potential crash when adding softness to a canvas.
• Updated the AJA SDK to version 15.2.2. with support for 8K output with Kona 5 12G.
• Snapshots from anamorphic footage could have the aspect scaling applied twice.
• When holding the 'h' quick-key the help screen could disappear automatically again after showing.

• Fixed and issue where the new Vectors tool could produce black pixels when using an AMD graphics card.
• Fixed a potential crash when working on clip metadata in the media browser.
• Fixed a potential crash when working in projects that contain many ProRes and ProRes RAW files.

• XAVC updates. When viewing the audio waveform, system memory could fill up. Bad performance when including audio playback.
• OpenEXR updates. SCRATCH now read/writes pixels aspect metadata of OpenEXR format. Also, SCRATCH could crash on (multi-part) OpenEXR files that contained large blocks of metadata. (note that SCRATCH currently only reads the first part of multi-part EXR - extending this is a work-in-progress).
• Fix on potential audio drop-outs with certain QuickTime files that contained audio channels spread over multiple tracks.

• Update on SCRATCH 2 After Effects bridge where the round-trip function was not fully functional on OSX. Be sure to setup the custom commands again or to select Reset with the S2AE Custom Command in the System Settings panel.
• Added a new HLG transfer function. The existing "HLG" EOTF was relabeled "HLG Scene". The new "HLG" transfer function is a so called display-referred transfer curve. See for more information http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/papers/HDR/BBC_HDRTV_FAQ.pdf.
• The CineformEncoder was not properly installed on the Windows version
• You could not drag a canvas when in the Curves or Vectors menu (and not in Pick-mode).
• Fixed a crash with the stitch node that could occur when the template specified a different number of inputs than actually present. Also, SCRATCH cold crash when rendering the stitch output to ProRes.

• New Sony Raw SDK (3.3.0) with support for various new X-OCN format variants: e.g. 4K/6K 2.39:1 and 5.7K 16:9, XT for all VENICE/CineAltaV.
• Included a new version of SCRATCH-2-After Effects bridge that properly loads back file sequence renders into SCRATCH (where before it required a container format like QuickTime). Make sure you re-install the custom commands or select the Reset button with the After Effects Custom Command tab in the System Settings dialog.
• Fixed an issue where an Undo-action could inadvertently change the EOTF setting (in the Media menu) of a clip (if that setting differed from the settings in the node-menu).
• Fixed an issue where a custom splash-screen would not show properly if the source was a 10-bit dpx.
• The Open Color IO (OCIO) plug-in produced a blue frame when it was unable to detect a configuration file. Note that to use this plug-in you need point it to an already installed OCIO configuration. This can be a setup that came with other (third party) software or a configuration that you setup yourself. Potentially you have to explicitly set the path to the config.ocio file through the advanced system settings. There are various setups available online: https://github.com/imageworks/OpenColorIO-Configs.

• Another fix for ARRI Raw on OSX as the fix from yesterday's build was not working in all circumstances.

• New RED SDK v7.1.0 with support for (8k - realtime) full decode and debayer on the GPU(s).
• Fixed an issue with AJA SDI which did not work when SCRATCH was started after certain other software that used the card.

• Apple ProRes RAW update. The decoder did not work on older NVIDIA cards. Now all cards from the Kepler architecture onward are supported.
• Animating scaling on an image with an uneven number of lines could lead to stuttering/shaking of the image.

• Apple ProRes RAW support.
• Update on the BlackMagic Raw reader with more options to control gamut and gamma.
• Fix for DNG reader to handle certain crop sizes for Hasselbad DNG.
• Added playlist (*.splsx) support for OSX and also make sure the newly loaded playlist timeline is selected on startup.
• Batch updating the timecode of clips in the media browser did not always work correct and did not properly take into account that clips could have different framerates.
• Added support for PTGui stitch templates in json format.
• De-construct Unique option was not always working correct.
• The Tint metadata was not correctly applied when decoding Sony RAW on the CPU.

• Fix on HEVC dual pass encoding that could crash the application.
• Fix on animation of vertices that could act odd when imported from an external source and updated in the animation editor.
• Fix on HDR MaxFALL statistics calculation.
• Update on AAF processing of AVID sub-clips where not all metadata from the sub-clips was imported. Also, any CDL info in the AAF is now used and applied on the shot.
• The 360 framing controls were not available in all Toolsets (Play Pro).

• Update on bad-pixel detection in 12-bit Phantom camera files.
• Added all the ACES version 1.1 transforms.
• Update of the SonyRaw decoder with enhancements for 6K media from the Venice camera.
• Update of the CanonRaw decoder with some performance improvements.
• Update H264 reader which fixes a crash with some specific clips we encountered.
• Fix on reading Audio wave files where incorrect metadata in the clip could crash the application.
• The #construct and #group codes could sometimes produce wrong values after renaming or using an output template.
• Added a parameter to #spath code: a parameter value of '0' strips the media folder and drive letter from the path (default behavior), a value of '1' shows the full path.
• Added a ‘result’-attribute to the post-render xml to indicate if a render was successful of failed. Note that before when a render failed, any post-render command was not executed. In this build the post render command is fired and the post-render-xml will contain ok/fail in the result-attribute of the render-node.
• Added User Preference for Collectors created in the construct to get resolution of the first input (rather than resolution of the timeline). The framing of the first input is transferred to the collector and all framing on the inputs is removed.
• Dragging clips to create a video-wall with the Wrap function in the Construct sometimes used the timeline selection rather than the shots being dragged.
• New Advanced system setting to replace '-' with '_' for scene metadata read from audio files.
• When deleting a clip on the timeline with the DELETE Key the button state was not update.
• Auto-select all text when clicking the network path-filter of the file browser.

• Fix on ARRI Raw files with a specific resolution and aspect were loaded incorrect (2868x2152 4:3).
• Adding an output template with the same name as an existing one could did not always overwrite the existing and could end up having the same name twice in the template list.
• Fix on rendering DNxHR MXF, where sometimes a wrong image aspect was included for sizes that are not 16:9.
• Included encoding information in the post-render xml which can be used by the post-render script.
• Adjusted the control gearing for the Height/Width numeric controls in the Media menu in the player.

• Various fixes related to Matchbox plug-ins. Ignoring reference files when scanning for plug-ins. In certain cases the parameters of the shaders where not properly scanned.
• New version of the S2Nuke script. Please follow the instructions in this article to setup/update the script files on your system.
• Added extra button to license dialog to register for trial license
• Fixed a bug where deleting a layer and then entering / exiting the animation editor could crash the application.
• The Font selection dialog now checks for keyboard input to quick jump to a specific font.
• Fix on Custom Controls which could crash scratch when creating a new node and then creating a new Timeline.
• The post-render xml now includes all available metadata of the source shots.
• Fix on issue where adding a default-note while the shot already contained notes, could end in the new note getting the wrong text.
• Fix on Quick Keys: Shift+F8 and F2 to open the Editor in the Player were not working anymore.
• SCRATCH v9.0 - build 1000! Even though this is 'just' an update release (rather than a version update) we did want to mark this as a little bit special. So we added a little v9.1 gadget back into this version: A Sync Player function to link and sync multiple SCRATCH players within a network. The function is available from the Collaborate (top)menu in the Player. Those few that we showed the feature already have come up with some interesting and creative applications for it!

• Added support for reading CODEX .arx compressed ARRIRAW files.
• Black Magic Raw reel-id was not properly read from the metadata.
• New versions of the s2nuke and s2ae (AfterEffects) script. The s2nuke scripts are now Python 2 and 3 compatible. The new s2ae script solves an issue with naming of the renders from AfterEffects and loading them back into SCRATCH. The s2nuke update includes passing of notes, maintaining color-space and better default node layout in Nuke. Please follow the installation guides to update the Nuke and AfterEffects scripts.
• The Structure view did not always show mattes in the tree when it should.
• Fix for displaying certain Matchbox UI controls.
• Opening up the PanZoom tool could under certain conditions hang Scratch.
• Fixes on caching. Cache rendering could be problematic for a second render if the first render did not completely finished. Also, caching certain OFX plugins (e.g. Neat Video) for certain media formats could cause errors. The state of the Cache/Process buttons in Media menu was not always accurate when switching range on/off.
• Fix on (post-render) custom commands where the xml file was not created and passed on to the script anymore.
• Added all source-shot metadata and notes to the xml output of a post-render command.

• More robust shot-recursion detection for event viewer, which could crash the application when opening a project with missing elements.
• Quick keys for Custom Commands (Ctrl F2-F8) and Default Notes (Shift + F1 - F8) now also available in the Construct.
• Stereo mode in Player-Setting-Monitor was not available in Play Pro.
• Exiting the stabilizer not always re-enabled the selected layer.
• In the Editor - when switching to the Audio menu, SCRATCH also auto switched to the first video track, even when in the player with a (derived) output node.
• The Vimeo login procedure was not working properly anymore.
• Executing an undo during metadata edit could crash the application.
• Updated the ARRIRAW SDK to version 6.0.2.0. and the RED SDK to version 7.0.8. Both contain minor - non SCRATCH essential - tweaks for internal processing.
• The Crop option in the Guides is now off by default.

• Added support for Blackmagic RAW.
• ProRes QuickTime that contained both 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 frames was not decoding correctly.
• Fit Slot not working correctly inside the Editor.
• Updated Beamr HEVC SDK to version 4.2.1.2.
• Fixed an issue ARRIRAW where pre-fetching could cause a crash
• Canvas softness sometimes went in the wrong direction / got stuck.
• The Cubic Packed -> Equirectangular transform in the VR Transformer plugin could introduce seams
• The Link button in the Canvas menu could disappear when switching a layer back and forth between bicubic and other shapes.
• Fixed an issue that could under certain circumstances crash scratch when loading a project where missing elements (LUTs / inputs) were detected.
• Fix on applying framing on stereo node with the Stereo Link option enabled.

• Added an Advanced System setting to NOT reset the path of output nodes that are created from a template.
• Various updates for processing (Final Cut) XML for conform, incl. support for framing and re-timer animation.
• Added an option to include alpha in a ProRes 4444(XQ) render from Play Pro. Also - after rendering from Play Pro the project could start to report 'missing inputs' on startup unless you explicitly cleared the render queue.
• Added the 'ccc' file extension for loading CDL files - although SCRATCH only uses the first CDL in the file. Also, when (batch) loading/matching in the media browser, SCRATCH now adds a metadata item 'CDL Match' with the cdl filename to be able to check if all files were matched properly.
• When inside the player with the main or derived output node, the 'Esc' key now returns to the Render tab rather than the Construct.
• On OSX, the minimize option with Custom Commands did not work properly.
• Partially reverted the increased sensitivity of the softness control from the previous build.
• The subtitles load format filter now always default to All Formats, even if a specific format is already loaded.
• The ZCam File Browser delete function was broken.
• Fixed an issue with (H264) Dual Pass render that was introduced in a recent build.

• The media re-link function did not working correctly for still frames.
• Saving snapshots to the project folder (user setting) did not work properly.
• The Publisher did not correctly use the selected (derived) output node but rather used the main output node.
• Since a few builds, the Qualifier menu did sometimes show up incorrect.
• Adjust sensitivity of numeric timecode controls for plug-ins, like subtitle-slip in the BurnIn.
• HDR Metadata controls were not showing correctly on the Render menu. Also, the HDR analysis report did not process correct in SCRATCH Play Pro.
• Use sub-folder name for grouping Matchbox shaders in the plugin browser.

• Reading (LTC) timecode from audio file from multi-channel audio files was not always correct.
• Changing the Matchbox shader plug-in path to a non-default path was not possible.
• Adjusted the control gearing on Softness control to make it less sensitive.

• Added function to read (LTC) timecode from an audio track. The function is available in the Media Browser Base-tab as well as can be part of the Match Audio functions in the Audio-tab.
• Added the option to load Matchbox (shader) plug-ins in SCRATCH. Matchbox plug-ins can be downloaded from: https://logik-matchbook.org/ You can install them in the default or a custom folder which you can set from the System Settings in SCRATCH.
• Added option to publish directly to H265. Note that by default this is always 8 bit as that is the max most web-enabled devices can handle. Please note that for H265, SCRATCH will always re-encode media and not like it does with H264 where SCRATCH checks if the source media can be used without re-encoding.
• Fix on H265 encoder - when encoding multiple files in one run some file could end up having faulty frame tables and could not be played back properly.
• We replaced the "Disable 'deep' color" with the "Enable 'deep' color" Advanced System Setting (on Windows). Recent NVIDIA drivers for Quadro cards could trigger a kernel exception on Windows 10 with the deep color enabled and it appeared that NVIDIA is not able to provide a solution soon. So rather than enabling the setting by default you now have to explicitly enable / try it!
• Added an extra check for systems with both Intel ad NVIDIA graphics where the wrong OpenCL platform could be selected by default which prevented SCRATCH to start properly.
• Update on Sony Raw decoder where Scratch now uses the kelvin/tint transformation method from Sony's SDK rather than its own implementation. Please note that the different implementations lead to different results. Nodes in existing projects will continue to use the old method until any of the node-settings are changed. When changed - the new method will be used which might result in a color-jump.
• Fix on Custom Commands where on OSX any result xml from the script was not properly processed by SCRATCH.
• The Ctrl+Home quick-key for fitting the image in the Viewport did not work while in the Editor.
• Instantiating generator plug-ins from the Plug-in Browser could give wrong results and zero-length nodes. Also, instantiating plug-ins in ColorFX while in the Input menu could also lead to wrong results.
• The player Navigation type could automatically switch when selecting a shot in the version stack.

• Various updates for hardware decoding H265 which now also works correctly on AMD cards.
• Added support for HEVC MXF files.
• Various tweaks for dissolves / fades in XML conform files from FCP / Premiere.
• SCRATCH could get unresponsive when using the 'Best' quality setting for the HEVC encoder.
• When selecting a generator plug-in in the Browser with 'On Node', SCRATCH now starts a drag instead of replacing the current node.
• The Render/Cache controls in Media menu are now also available in the CDL/Dailies toolset.
• R3D media coming in with IPP2 could have an invalid color space flag set.
• The name-check when saving an output template was not done correct and could overwrite an existing template without asking.
• The XML-export type for custom commands was not saved/loaded correct when set to Timeline.
• The most recent Search parameters were not stored correctly in the user-settings.

• Hotfix on yesterday's build that introduced an issue with H264 decoding. The current build reverts that update, which intended to solve an issue with hardware decoding on certain AMD cards.

• Fix on event-log that could crash SCRATCH when entering a project.
• Extra check on invalid UTF-8 camera metadata that could create issues when rendering to DNx.
• Fix on UI display of the layer stack when using custom ppi settings.
• Update on hardware H265 decoder for NVIDIA.

• H265 Hardware decoding on NVIDIA and AMD.
• QuickTime new correctly reads H265 Video/Full Range setting.
• File Browser now allow for multi-select files using control- and shift-keys
• Added startup checks on OpenCL presence and whether the correct SDI driver is used.
• Fixed an issue on the Event log that could crash the application.
• Use Delete key to directly delete selected shots in the Construct.
• No need to reset the RGB channel mask when applying a new mask on an existing layer.
• When creating a new user - the control-gear settings were taken from the previous selected profile and not reset to the defaults.
• Added color balls for CDL grading and a switch to toggle between sliders and color balls.

• The Report generator did not create all proxies if scope was set to group or project.
• When starting a note in the metadata stack in the Player, the text position reset to the beginning after typing the first character.
• Softness-vertices keyframes were not always properly cleared on reset.
• When fetching a shot Input from the Construct the menu bar was not properly restored.
• Remember the last change on the canvas Link(-vertices) setting similar like the 2-sided softness option.
• Changed track selector labels from 'T#' to 'V#'.
• Set minimum OS version for the Mac installer to 10.9.

• DNx MXF file from RED camera could cause a crash and the audio was not get read properly.
• Update of the Sony Raw reader to support new variants of the XOCN Venice camera output.
• Ctrl + A/D to (de)select all keyframes in the Animation editor did notwork while the Layer stack was active.

• Fixed issue with metadata used in a filemask of derived output nodes, which could have unpredictable results and end up in files rendered to one and the same file rather than separate files.
• Fixed an issue with Cube LUTs which in certain circumstances was cached incorrect resulting in an all-white image when refreshing the project.
• Fixed an issue with batch export of CDL variant .cc files from the Media Browser.
• Custom Commands updates. Executing Python (.py) script on OSX did not work on the previous build. Further, various update on the SCRATCH-Nuke script. The script now checks if Nuke is running and if not will start it. The script now maintains the file format of the input for the render. The default render folder is now "s2n" in the (scratch project) media folder and is by default limited to the frame range of the input. Adjusted the default file mask and remove any version numbers in the source shot name for the render output. The script now tries to apply the same colorspace in Nuke as the source shot in SCRATCH.
• Updated Chines translations.
• Fix: the Burn-In subtitle-slip was reset when entering player with Burn-In from the Render tab.
• Fix: layer re-naming was not always working with Panel
• Various tweaks and fixes on last builds Quick Key update. Also, an update on Full-screen mode: the toolbar button and the Tab quick keys now respond the same. Layer and ode stack are also hidden in full screen mode and playback does no longer start automatically. Aligning SCRATCH and SCRATCH Play Pro regarding start/stop playback. Now both Enter and spacebar can be used, while space bar continues to be used for panning as well.
• Removed the need to explicitly increase the graphics buffers sizes used by SCRATCH in the Advanced settings (e.g. for 8k r3d media). SCRATCH now adjusts the sizes dynamically.

UI and Quick Key updates

• Added an "Off" option to the Swipe Sensitivity User Setting. This replaces the separate No Swipe settings in the Construct / Player.
• To quickly exit the Trays, Player Settings or Animate and return to Edit or ColorFX you can now just click the (already selected) tab once more.
• Full screen mode no longer leaves the left/right swipe panels visible as well as does no longer automatically start playback. Exiting full screen mode restores the original view.
• Quite a few Quick Key re-mappings to align them with more general accepted mappings and including various new mappings. Please have a look at the full Quick Key mappings by pressing Quick Key 'h' inside SCRATCH.
• Among the new hotkeys are e.g.:
  • hotkey to create new layer (Insert in ColorFX)).
  • hotkey to increase/decrease playback speed (Ctrl Up/Down arrow)).
  • hotkey to switch between right/left/master in stereo tool (Shift + R/L/M).
  • hotkey for GoTo-Timecode (Shift + G).

Scripting & Custom Commands

• Added a new SCRATCH To Nuke Custom Command. Please read the help page from the link in the Custom Command panel when you add the new Command.
• Update on the SCRATCH 2 AfterEffects Custom Command which was not functional on OSX. Please note that you also need to update the s2ae_ui.jsx script that you added to the AfterEffects installation folder.
• The renders from Nuke or AfterEffects now use a single project Tray to load in. The renders are now also automatically loaded when you are in the Construct (previously this was only done when in the Player). The Tray button will show highlighted when a new render is loaded.
• Various fixes on generic Custom Commands for OSX: running Python scripts directly, properly select an .app bundle to run the application as Custom Command.
• The XML export for selected shots now takes the slot-length into account to have proper in-out points (since the selection-xml does not contain slot information you first needed to do a fit in/out to get the handles correct in the xml export).

VR Updates

• 360 panning was not always working on plug-ins or on (derived) output nodes, even if they were flagged as equirectangular.
• Yaw, pitch, roll controls in the Setup menu now also work for equirectangular 180 (stereo).
• Added stabilizing for equirectangular 180 media.
• Added a new "Eq Camera" plug-in to change the (spherical) view position of an equirectangular media.

Formats & Metadata

• Added two standard output templates with the installer that show in the Templates dropdown in the Render tab. The templates show with an '*' to distinguish them from user created templates.
• Updated Canon Raw SDK to version 2.2 which contains a few minor fixes on the previous version.
• Using metadata #md items in the file-mask of an output node, could result in long delays when SCRATCH would check if file in the render would be unique.
• Fix on incorrect timecodes for QuickTime files with an edit-list in the timecode track.
• Relink media was not always working properly for the first shot on a Timeline.
• After File-size was (re-)calculated, the results were not always showing directly in the metadata tab of the Media Browser.
• De-seleting metadata columns in the Report generator was not working correctly.

Misc

• The default match source for AAF/XML is now Fom Folder instead of Project. For new users this is a more familiar method.
• The filmstrip notes were not showing proper characters with Hebrew font.
• Include all notes as comments in an EDL export (rather than just the first).
• When deleting a plugin from the structure view, the menu was not updated.

UPDATE RELEASES V8.6

April 26 '18, build 970

• The 'audio match and sync' function in SCRATCH to calculate the audio slip could be a few frames off because of its sensitivity on a clip's (non-integer) framerate. For certain media the fps was not recorded with a sufficient number of decimals (23.976 vs 23.9760239760).
• The audio bitrate setting for h264 encoding was not working properly.

March 9 '18, build 969

• Limiting size of metadata column names to 32 characters for DNx export as other software has issues with reading longer names.
• Updated the format of CDL metadata in an EDL/ALE as other software was unable to parse the data.
• Updated ARRIRAW SDK to version 5.4.3.5. containing various bug fixes for processing images of certain sizes, LogC_Film color-space and ALEXA LF footage.

Feb 9 '18, build 968

• Masks were not always working correct on certain AMD GPUs on Windows.
• Updated the ARRI RAW SDK to version 5.4.3.3 with support for Alexa LF.
• Updated the RED SDK to version 7.0.6. that contains various bug fixes from the prior version.
• Fix on the timecode attribute in EXR renders which was not read correctly by other software.

Feb 1 '18, build 967

• Update Sony Raw handling to support the new Sony Venice CineAlta camera.
• Fix on rendering DNxHR 444 which contained wrong format metadata that could prevent it from loading in other software.
• Fix on the track-ripple mode in the Editor. The ripple mode only affected shots after the main timeline shot that was adjusted but should also affect shots that are on the same position as the timeline shot.
• In some cases the wrong EDID was read to determine physical size of a display (e.g. with a VR headset) - causing a wrong DPI setting for the UI.
• When applying a plug-in on a version shot the shot selection could change inadvertently.
• Fix on AAF parsing where the in-point of a composition node with a vari-speed inside it could be set to the wrong value.

Dec 11 '17, build 966

• SCRATCH now uses CUDA for ARRI Raw SDK debayers on Windows when possible because of the better performance compared to OpenCL.
• An issue was introduced two builds ago where all dissolves of an EDL were conformed to color fades (rather than just the first dissolve of a timeline).

Nov 23 '17, build 965

• New RED SDK version 7.0.5. Adds DCI-P3 and ProPhoto color spaces and improved 8k support. Note that IPP2 is not yet supported. Rocket-X driver 2.1.34.0 and firmware 1.4.22.18 or later. Rocket driver 2.1.23.0 and firmware 1.1.18.0 or later.
• ARRI monochrome files were showing incorrectly since the last SDK update.
• Custom Command based on system-events where not displayed correct in the system settings dialog and could en up referencing the wrong system-event.
• Scratch was unable and could hang on loading certain 12-bit DPX file.
• Publishing media to SCRATCH Web could introduce audio synchronization issues when the (fractional)framerate of the timeline was entered manually rather than selecting from the dropdown list.
• SCRATCH now by default sets the internal color space flag of a created QuickTime file to 'rec709' - as opposed to setting it to 'unknown' if there was no suitable translation from the SCRATCH color space to the available QuickTime standard format (such as e.g. for sRGB). The 'unknown' setting caused some other software to apply a unspecified color matrix conversion.
• Various AAF processing updates. The Assembler dialog did not always list the proper event numbers. Framing (animations) from AAF files created from Adobe Premiere where not properly included as well as certain source timecodes. In some cases an explicit outpoint was set for vari-speed shots which could produce a freeze frame.

Nov 3 '17, build 964

• DNx render with audio included the wrong audio channel index number and could include the wrong audio channel name name in the filename and the DNx metadata.
• The #audiofile[c] metadata code was not using the index-parameter correctly. Also added a new #chname[c] metadata code to retrieve the audio channel name.
• Added support for certain 10-bit monochrome DPX files which specify the wrong packing method.
• The Re-timer showed the first frame twice when instantiated from the Edit menu.

Oct 20 '17, build 962

• The previous build introduced an issue where the controls of an output node could be positioned incorrectly.

Oct 16 '17, build 961

• The DNx render node replaced spaces in the metadata column header with an underscore when adding the metadata to the MXF output file.
• The extended metadata column names In an ALE export could conflict with the standard ALE columns and introduce duplicate columns. SCRATCH now adds a numeric post-fix to the conflicting (extended) column name.
• The 'From folder' option in the Conform function did not work correctly with the 'All formats' file filter. Also, Placeholder nodes were not always included in a Conform when the 'Incl. Duplicates' option was enabled.
• Clearing a metadata value in the Media Browser did not always also explicitly remove the metadata item from the shot.
• EDL conform no longer creates zero length slots and any dissolve in the first slot is created as a color fade.
• Re-linking audio did not include any sample rate override that was set originally and as such the audio timecode could change.
• Added native support for reading DFT Scanity 10-bit monochrome DPX files.
• In certain cases the Sony decoder would not work because not all required runtime files were present on a system. The current installer includes additional runtime files.

Oct 8 '17, build 960

• Performance improvement for reading compressed EXR files.
• Under certain conditions SCRATCH could consume too much/all GPU memory.
• Segmented R3D file with lower case extension (r3d) were loaded as separate files.
• Using a plug-in on the source nodes of a 360 stitch or changing the channel format (RGB/A) could mess up the actual stitch. Also, clearing the template used in the stitch node could potentially crash the application.
• Nest nodes. Nesting a shot with vari-speed was not always working correctly. Deleting a nest node from the composite tree did not always produce the correct results.
• Format tags of a STL subtile file were not properly processed and displayed as plain text.
• The default file filter with the Assembler From-folder option was set to 'All Files' instead of 'All Formats', causing SCRATCH to also evaluate non-media files.
• DNx renders could contain an audio timecode that included any slip that was set. This could cause issue in an AVID workflow.

Sep 10 '17, build 959

• Stereo node did not always prefetch both eyes which caused a playback performance drop.
• EXR renders did not include the line offset table correctly, which could cause a playback performance drop for high resolution files.

Aug 30 '17, build 958

• New Codec Support Pack update (5.0.339). Please note that update contains fixes and changes that for some media formats might affect the resulting decoded images and as such are not fully compatible with the previous version. The update contains:
  • new menu structure for raw formats (GPU/CPU and Fast/Medium/Quality dropdowns)
  • new Quality debayer method (pixel-grouped debayer)
  • RGB gains replaced with Kelvin and Tint controls
  • added support for Canon C700 Raw 10 and 12 bit
  • new HEVC reader
  • added support for more monochrome DPX formats (incl. label change in the formats dropdown)
  • Panasonic AVCi 422 and 444 are now defaulting to full range source interpretation
  • performance improvement for Panasonic AVCi 444
  • performance improvement for Cineform 444
• File-mask in the Player Media menu was not properly updated in the player-media menu.
• SCRATCH Play always showed yaw/pitch/roll framing controls instead of the X/Y offset controls.
• After selecting a path from the recent-list or bookmarks in the file browser, the proxy image was no longer updated.
• If the sound roll property in the Media Browser is set then the DNx Writer will generate a metadata tag called "Soundroll" which is picked up by e.g. Avid Media composer.
• Update on live streaming to Facebook that failed after Facebook changed the size of their stream-keys (but also reverted the change again). Also , the stream function now uses new default bit rates.

Aug 18 '17, build 957

• Added a 'Position' option in the Paste Grade function: this matches shots in the current selection and copy buffer based on the slot-index position (and version index if needed).
• Change the default size for 3D LUTs to 33 (this is the size ARRI cameras need). Note that if you already set a value in the Player-Settings-General menu, this will not automatically alter.
• Make sure the user and system settings are saved before the system-close custom command trigger fires.

Aug 4 '17, build 956

• QuickTime reader was always outputting 16-bit audio - independent of the bit depths of the source.
• Adding audio to derived output nodes could cause a crash.
• Wrong metadata was included with 1080i DNxHD MXF that caused Media Composer to not read the files correctly.
• When the main output node contained grading, SCRATCH continued to pre-load source frames even if the main output node was cached. This caused performance issues.
• Fixed an issue with spanned clips when loading the main node as still frames.

July 21 '17, build 955

• Convergence controls were not always available with an active stereo node.
• Speed up of loading large file sequences.
• Default Kelvin value for Panasonic DNG media was incorrect.
• Fixes on Z-Cam WonderStitch interface.

July 13 '17, build 954

• Updated various supported headset interfaces: Oculus v1.15.0. / OpenVR v1.0.8. / StarVR v0.059.
• Fixed issue with rendering audio to MXF where the audio tracks could contain noise if the camera source contained silence.
• H264 output was not including audio when HDR metadata was enabled.
• A Cube LUT with only a 1D LUT could cause other (3D cube) LUTs to not display correctly.
• Adding audio to a shot / (derived) output which already inherited audio from an input could result in wrong slip value. Furthermore, a drag action of the audio (wave form) to adjust the slip used the wrong drag acceleration. Adjusting the slip of a derived output node by dragging was not always applied to the correct node.
• The 360 OpenCL stitch could have an issue on certain graphics cards (e.g. AMD on a Bootcamp systems).
• The Z-Cam WonderStitch interface is updated to work with the latest version.
• Updated QuickTime / mp4 color space tagging. As QuickTime only has a limited set of possible color space tags, SCRATCH would in certain cases tag a clip based on its resolution. Now, an explicit ‘undefined’ tag is set. In addition SCRATCH adds its own color space metadata references so that when loaded back into SCRATCH the clip is tagged exactly the same as it was rendered.

June 26 '17, build 953

• On OSX all gallery items were selected when opening the gallery trays the first time after entering a project.
• You could not drag/drop new shots directly into the version stack.
• Fixed an issue with decoding certain Panasonic GH5 media by updating the H264 decoder.
• In certain cases SCRATCH was unable to link the audio tracks with an DNx-mxf video track.
• Update on the stitcher. You can now read OZO camera metadata files directly. Also added a new seam-finder method (Radial) which works better in situations where there are a high number of cameras with a lot of overlap.
• New ARRIRAW SDK to version 5.4.0.7.
• Improved decoding speeds of DNG and Kinefinity.
• Automatic canvas convergence through the Stereo Eye Separation option in the Camera menu worked in the wrong direction.
• Certain data columns in the system settings dialog where not sizable and showed too small on systems with high resolution displays.
• Shift+F12 short key was not working properly.

June 8 '17, build 951

• Fix for SDI live view that did not always pick up on the live signal when started the first time. Also improved the format detection for BMD live view signal.
• Fix of an issue with the auto animate of vertices that was introduced in the previous build.

June 6 '17, build 950

• Animation values where not updated properly after deleting second to last keyframe.
• After entering the ZCam Live view, SCRATCH would no longer render framing on existing timelines when not exiting SCRATCH fully first.
• Reading / writing extended metadata into EXR could crash SCRATCH if the metadata data length exceeded a certain size.
• Adding keyframes while in dual view with the same source shot did not work properly.
• Media menu in the Matrix was not highlighted when source remapping was applied.
• Conform Match function did not always pick up new matches after loading additional media.
• Since the previous build, certain control text label were not properly clipped if the text was too long for the control.

May 29 '17, build 949

• Fix on interpretation the timecode of certain aaf files. Also, having the Incl. Duplicates option in the Assembler off resulted in an empty conform.
• SCRATCH is a bit more conservative in claiming memory at startup.
• Z CAM integration updates: Live view was not working after last camera firmware update: camera now requires restart on changing the video system (NTSC, PAL). Also an update on the Z Cam file browser where downloaded files were not always loaded into the construct automatically.
• The 360 Stitch Setup could potentially crash the application.
• Fix on OpenFX that prevented new Boris FX plugins to be instantiated on a layer.
• Fix on interpreting and processing metadata of Panasonic GH5 media.
• XML output for custom commands now includes output resolution and render path.
• Reintroduced - interpret XAVC log-curve files (S-log/S-log2/S-log3/S-log3.cine/etc) as full range by default (XAVC MXF only).

May 19 '17, build 947

• Previous build could have a problem installing on older OSX versions.
• Updated Chinese translation included.
• Update on handling render problems: SCATCH did not always show the event log but only wrote errors to the log. For file sequences if an image fails to render no file is generated. for container formats a frame with the missing frame color is rendered.
• Invalidating multiple items in the process queue at once was not working properly anymore.
• In- / out points where not always maintained properly when adding a plug-in on a node or when nesting a node and (cache) rendering it.
• For certain plug-ins (RE:Vision) SCRATCH will no longer automatically fall back to CPU processing when GPU processing fails - to avoid inconsistent render results.
• Various updates on Publishing function. Added an option to explicitly reset/clear your access token to your Vimeo / YouTube or Facebook account. SCRATCH was not always processing the in/out points of clips properly when using timeline audio. SCRATCH is now using a the new Vimeo API. For both Vimeo and YouTube the authentication challenge/response procedure is now fully automated and does no longer require copying of codes.
• For live streaming out of the ZCam , SCRATCH potentially could use a wrong framerate, resulting in out of sync audio.
• Panasonic IntraLT XAVC was not always scaled properly.
• Added an "All formats" file filters buy default for all file groups (this filter was already available with e.g. media types but not yet for LUT / grade files).
• Applying a grade from an item in the timeline tray to multiple shots required re-select the tray item after each apply action.
• Under certain circumstances, loading media into a clean construct could alter the color space of the main output node.
• Assembler did not apply effects on versions when you included duplicate matches in the result.
• Could not pick the tracker box when entering tracker / stabilizer – but required an extra click to select.
• Qualifier did not always function correct when adding a fill to the layer.

May 12 '17, build 946

• Drag&drop from version stack to memories results in incorrect thumbnail.
• The Construct Layerstack could show up in Player after a Fetch action.
• Structure View overlay menu could show while view not active.
• Stabilizer rotate for 2 points tracker now on by default.
• Stereo dissolves were not displayed properly on the second monitor.
• Multiple instances of H264 encoder with same file name but different extension did not work.
• All files produced by X264 and larger than 4096x2304 where not always playing back correctly due to a wrong decoder level in the files.
• Stitch updates: support for radius and crop functions in external templates. Added crop controls to the Stitch detail window. Improved performance on AMD GPU.
• A project output tree template was not applied on the first construct when creating a new group.
• Added copy/paste quick keys (ctrl c/v) to the calculator.
• MaxCLL and MaxFALL tooltips were swapped
• Various OFX tweaks for improved plug-in support.
• Certain CR2 files from Canon 5D Mark II only showed black.
• Z Cam 360 Camera integration; Live preview / file management / WonderStitch integration. This functionality requires a special license.
• Live Streaming function now uses hardware h264 encoding (NVIDIA + Windows only). Also, added a Clear button to explicitly remove credentials from interface and user settings.

Apr 14 '17, build 944

• SCRATCH could hang on startup on OSX with certain non-English language / keyboard combinations.
• Various fixes and tweaks for RE:Vision OFX plug-in support.
• Fix on Report Generator where clearing the custom logo was not stored properly.

Apr 6 '17, build 940

• Using (ACES) CTL scripts in combination with a 3D LUT could end up in a wrong application of the LUT or even a crash when loading the project.
• UI fixes. Pressing character-keys did not properly scroll the project list on the start screen. The tab quick-key to get a clean Player UI did not function correctly anymore. Added quick-key shift+F12 to (cache) render nest and plug-in nodes.
• Fix on ARRI RAW where monochrome images were show in red with the fast debayer.
• Fixes on OFX plug-in processing. Switch between GPU and CPU processing was not functioning correctly. Plug-ins that require multiple frames for analyzing a shot could end up claiming more memory than needed.
• Creating a collector node in the construct could change the order of the remaining version shots.
• Proxy reference frame position after a scene detection could be wrong.

Mar 23 '17, build 939

• When SCRATCH was started as player by opening a media file directly or when entering the player from SCRATCH Play – it could crash.
• Fix for rendering interactive-overlays which certain (OFX) plug-ins use.

Mar 17 '17, build 938

• Initial release: Note that this release requires a re-activation of your license key. All licenses and subscription keys have been automatically updated to include this version. If your permanent license does not have a valid support contract you will not be able to use this version. Please read the full Release notes to see what is new in this version or view this Feature Highlights Video.

RELEASE OVERVIEW V8.6

General

For a quick overview of the new features in SCRATCH and SCRATCH VR v8.6 please see this video Feature Highlights Video. 

This update contains a number of changes in how certain formats are processed. As such, they are not fully backward compatible. Before upgrading, you should maintain a backup and are advised not to upgrade in the middle of a project.

Format Support Updates and Enhancements

• New DNx MXF Encoder for high speed encoding of OpAtom and Op1A, including DNxHR.
• New more efficient DNx MXF Decoder, reading OpAtom, OP1a and Op1B variants.
• Increased performance of QuickTime and XAVC MXF readers.
• New DNG Raw reader with improved performance and high quality debayer. Reads wide range of DNG variants, including brand-new Panasonic Varicam LT DNG.
• New support for wide range of still camera raw formats like Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Hasselblad, Pentax, Leica and more.
• Update on Kinefinity support with new high quality debayer.
• The MXF DNx Encoder includes audio channel name information into the (OpAtom) audio filename so the info remains available in an AVID roundtrip.
• Option to create 10 bit H264 .mp4 or .mov output. Important to generate HDR output; the files contain all HDR statistics (such as color space and transfer function info and mastering luminance levels). Furthermore, the H264 maximum output resolution is now 8192x6144. The higher resolutions are especially important in the VR environment.
• ACES: this version contains all the latest standard transforms as published by the Academy. This version also introduces ACEScct; this is a derivative of ACEScc (also referred to as ACES log) but has a different fall off in the shadows of an image.
• Added an FFmpeg writer node to be able to output various (less common) formats (like e.g. Flash Video or Windows Television (.WTV) ). Note that FFmpeg covers may codec and container formats. Not all combinations of settings are possible and have been tested.

UI Updates & re-design

• The new Logon screen includes project poster images for easier navigation through your projects. A Poster image is written automatically on exit of a project or you can override the image from the Tools menu in the CONstruct.
• The Matrix layout has been updated and re-labeled for more intuitive access. Furthermore, all non-default values in the Matrix will now highlight, including the control-set selection panel.
• Swipe sensitivity is now a user setting and SCRATCH will now display Swipe placeholders in both the CONstruct and the Player if a panel has been swiped away.
• The Structure view has been incorporated into the Player Stack on the right. You can now easily switch between the source stack indented list or the structure view.
• Added tooltips to better explain all the available functionality. Advanced users can turn this function off in the user settings. Note that this is a work in progress and currently only the generic functions in the Player have been labeled.
• The functionality of the Process module has been consolidated to the top menu bar in the Player to have quick access to the render and cache functionality of SCRATCH from within the Player.

HDR Update

• The PQ and HLG transfer functions are now an integral part of SCRATCH's color management. There is no need to manually search and apply LUTs. With a single click you can define the transfer function for any shot, output or display.
• The scopes will automatically switch to HDR mode if needed and show the levels in a nit-scale. Furthermore, you can now choose whether the scopes should reflect the levels of your source media, your UI monitor or your reference monitor, which might include an additional color space transformation or custom display LUT.
• On the project level you can define your HDR Mastering Metadata: color space, color primaries and white levels, luminance levels, etc... This metadata is automatically included in the Video HDMI interface (AJA, BMD, BlueFish) for the display. The Luminance levels set in the meta data are also displayed in the scopes, where it will warn you if the current levels exceed the maximum levels entered.
• Next to the static metadata SCRATCH now also has the function to calculate dynamic luminance metadata like MaxCLL and MaxFALL. This metadata can be saved in a sidecar report next to your output or is included in the H264 media that you render.
• The REC2020 color space matrices have been added for the SDI output settings for the proper YUV conversion.
• Added the P3 D65 colorspace as an alternative HDR mastering. 

VR 360

• Added 360 stitch functionality. You can now load all your source media from your 360 cameras into SCRATCH and combine it to a single equirectangular image. You can use an external template or 'pano'-file for combining the sources or use SCRATCH's own functions to determine the stitch setup. Within SCRATCH you have the full set of grading and compositing tools available to optimize your stitch and you can review it while you work in 360 mode in a headset or on a reference monitor / theater projection. You can render out the stitched equirectangular shot or continue working on the stitch node in SCRATCH. The main benefit is that at any time during post and mastering your 360 project, you are only clicks away from your source footage.
• Support for templates: AutoPano / PTGui projects, Hugin and PTStitch scripts.
• Ambisonic Audio. SCRATCH can load and playback ambisonic audio files (AmbiX/FuMa B-format) to complete your 360 immersive experience. SCRATCH will automatically recognize ambisonic audio that is included in an h264 file or you can load a separate *.amb audio file and link it to a shot / timeline. Playback of ambisonic audio is automatically linked to the motion of your headset or the direction of the video you set with the PanZoom tool. From the audio panel you can adjust the base vector / direction of the ambisonic audio when it is not in line with your video. When rendering out 360 media to H264, SCRATCH will include and properly tag the linked ambisonic audio so that other players (e.g. YouTube or Facebook) will recognize it.
• Next to using ambisonic audio, you can also load multiple mono or stereo audio files and adjust their position inside your 360 environment. Again - this is all done through the audio panel - in the ambisonic section.
• Added overlay handles to the existing 2D-Equirectangular plug-in to more easily position 2D elements in a 360 scene.
• Stereo Link and Convergence are now also available for Equirectangular: convergence only applies to Yaw.

Misc

• New Report tool, available from the Tools menu in the Construct. The Report generator creates an (html) report from the input parameters and the selected shot-range. You can customize the reports with your own logo and for certain reports include your own metadata column selection.
• New Live Stream option. This new function is accessible - together with the Publish and Remote options - from the new Collaborate menu in the top menu bar in the Player.
• Back by popular demand: the Link-softness option.
• Nest and plug-in nodes by default now render to Project Cache folder.
• SCRATCH no longer sets an explicit out-point when applying a plug-in. In the Matrix Fill/matte menu you see the media length of the underlying node. When copying the layer / plug-in to another parent, the out-point automatically adjusts. This way you do not get any freeze frame displays when the new parent shot is longer than the original.
• Added a border-option to video wall plug-in.
• Added an Open Folder button to Process Queue dialog to open the file location of the selected queue item.
• Added option in the Stabilizer to either apply the data to the Framing parameters (as it used to do) or alternatively create a layer with the stabilize motion applied. This latter solution has the advantage that you can easily group the stabilizing layer and add a second autonomous motion (e.g. camera pan) on the already stabilized image. Also, the stabilize function did not properly handle over-under 360 stereo media, and the yaw, pitch and roll parameters where not always properly translated into a stereo node.
• Added the option to select an output-template with the Project setting which is then applied every time you create a new CONstruct. This will save you time rebuilding your standard output -tree. Also added a confirmation message before deleting output templates in the Output menu in the Construct.
• The actual value of an on/off button was not properly visible when the button was in a disabled state.
• XML scripting update: now all project formats and defaults properties can be included in a project-create xml.
• Added a Transformer Node to the output list; this is the same node type as the Image File node but labeling it this way makes it more explicit / intuitive how to add re-scaling in your output tree.
• Various updates for AAF conform that contain vari-speed adjustments in combination with dissolves.

UPDATE RELEASES v8.5

Dec 16 '16, build 920

• SCRATCH (Play) could crash on exit when it was started with a file reference.
• Reverse assemble did not skip always all zero length events in an EDL.

Dec 8 '16, build 919

• Invalid metadata in ARRIRAW AlexaSXT_1.0:36225 (firmware) media could result in an error message.
• AAF and XML assembler did not properly process utf8 characters.
• Range-state is now maintained when navigating through the proxy timeline.
• The Source button was not always in sync with the selected layer from the source stack.
• Switching slots while editing the slot label could prevent access to the editing text slate.
• Slip control in Editor could not turn negative.

Nov 28 '16, build 918

• New Codec Support Pack - 5.0.312:
  • certain DNG files had an incorrect aspect.
  • Panasonic 4k AVCi 444 images were shifted to the left by one pixel.
  • Magazines from the Canon C300 that contained .sif files could crash SCRATCH upon import.
• XAVC Reader gave an error on certain Panasonic 12 bit 4:4:4 files and potentially could crash SCRATCH on files containing a resolution of 4096x1080.
• The Reset option for a vertices animation on the masks did not work.
• The out-point of a re-timer node that was applied from a conform was wrong, resulting in a still frame.
• Proxy timeline was not updating when switching tracks.
• The slip control in the editor was had incorrect range values which could make it impossible to set the correct slip.

Nov 18 '16, build 917

• Fixes an issue that was introduced in build 915 where a dissolve could under certain conditions render wrong.

Nov 15 '16, build 916

• New Codec Support Pack - 5.0.311:
  • Added support for Panasonic VaricamLT DNG.
  • Added support for Canon XF-AVC (C700).
  • Added support for URSA (mini) DNG.
  • Added support for certain types of Cineform DPX.
  • Fix for the exposure parameter going negative producing a burned out image with raw files.
  • Fix for DNG files that had a misinterpreted exposure value (negative), resulting in exposure parameter jumping up to 9 on OSX.
• Updating metadata values in the media browser using the 'Set' function would wrongly strip file-system invalid characters.
• The dropdown option controls in the Output menu could under certain conditions display wrong and be unable to adjust the value.
• In certain cases when re-linking media with a different resolution could, the original width and height would be maintained.
• The User-settings file could grow exponentially when switching users profiles often.
• When importing more than 16 XAVC files at once, audio was not always playing back properly.

Nov 2 '16, build 915

• Updated RED SDK to version 6.2.2. Requires Rocket-X driver 2.1.34.0 and firmware 1.4.22.18 or later, Rocket driver 2.1.23.0 and firmware 1.1.18.0 or later.
• Updated ARRIRAW SDK to version 5.3.0.12.
• Updated Sony Raw SDK to support for the new Sony XOCN ST and LT compressed Raw files (F55/F5).
• If the main output node of a construct was set to do an ACES color space conversion, values could get clipped. This could also happen in certain cases with a transition in a timeline which also included a color space transform.
• The QuickTime Reader was reading the full time codes in a file when opening the file, which is very time consuming when working large files.
• Control surface mappings for PanZoom did not work if PanZoom panel was not visible.
• The VR360->2D converter node was not included with the recent Windows installer.
• When flattening a track the alpha channel of the resulting layer -fill was not enabled by default.
• To enter / exit the note editor in the meta data stack in the Player you can now use shortcut 'N' and 'Esc' without the need to use the mouse to set the active cursor.

Oct 11 '16, build 913

• Fix on position Dual Head for Windows(10) when the primary display has a (font) scaling applied.
• Fix on processing Stereo node which was not pre-fetching media.

Sep 26 '16, build 912

• Fix for a potential crash on OSX Sierra in the Qualifier when you picked a color.
• Nesting multiple layers at once did not always give the correct result.
• Proxy images did not include all the proper transforms when working in ACES Log and as such always showed in ACES Linear.
• Using certain file-naming hash-codes could introduce unwanted sub-folders (e.g. using #colorspace with value 'Lin\sRGB')
• Saving / loading xml did not always preserve all timeline transition data correct.
• The scope that was set with an xslt-custom command was not stored correctly.

Sep 16 '16, build 911

• The timecode of certain ARRI Alexa QuickTime files were not shown correctly.
• In certain cases the wrong shots were used when conforming A-B sequences from an AAF file.
• A Stabilize using a 2 point tracker and including rotate and fit, could lead to incorrect upscale.
• SCRATCH could crash at startup when encountering a bad font.

Aug 26 '16, build 910

• Fix on reading 4k, 10bit dpx images with alpha channel.
• Tweak on potential Defocus/Clarity edge artifacts.
• Displaying the proxy timeline could sometimes cause that you could not drag the overlays of an animated canvas.
• The de-construct function did not properly process stereo- or other plug-in nodes.
• The de-stereo function did not maintain the handles of the stereo node onto its inputs.

Aug 11 '16, build 909

• New RED SDK with support for Helium 8k Sensor, a new Log3G10 gamma space and REDWideGamutRGB color space. Requires Rocket-X driver 2.1.34.0 and firmware 1.4.22.18 or later.
• Various fixes on parsing aaf- and xml-conform files created with Adobe's Premiere.

Aug 1 '16, build 908

• Fix on the H264 decoder which prevented it to run at its full potential for 8bit media.
• Fix for reading 12-bit dpx files depending on the byte order used.
• Updated Chinese translation file.
• Fix on the Invalidate-function which resulted in a situation where you could not change the output path of the node anymore.
• AAF - Dip_2 (fade to color) effect could result in wrong timings.
• Fix in the Vector Paint for selecting a source for the Clone mode.
• A new Codec Support Pack (CSP), containing various fixes and new format support.
  • Support for Panasonic IntraLT and Intra2K-LT, Panasonic DNG, multichannel audio (in e.g. XAVC files), RMF recorded with AJA Ki Pro recorder, Canon C100 AVCHD.
  • Added new debayer modes.
  • Fix for reading DNxHD OP1a from new Avid MC.
  • Panasonic V-Raw had an incorrect default white-point.
  • Cineform HD 444 clips showed a vertical artifact line on far right of the image.
  • Ikonoskop DNG had a wrong default black-point.
  • The tone curve for Phantom Cine was not applied with OpenCL / CPU processing.

Jul 8 '16, build 907

• The composite of a stereo node was not always correctly displayed in the source stack or structure view.
• A qualifier matte could shift position when a post-blur or mask was added.
• The Named Layer - paste option was sometimes invoked while using the Memories or Galleries, resulting in no grade being copied.
• Updated Chinese translations.
• VR metadata was not passed properly in a Remote session.
• Added the #eventlen metadata hash code for burn-in and file mask, returning the length of a slot in frames.

Jul 4 '16, build 906

• Maintain split view position independent from single view.
• Multi-sampling did not work for masks.
• Added a ALE import option to automatically set a LUT reference as source or grading LUT. If the LUT reference does not contain a path then the import function uses the folder where the ALE file is located to find the LUT.
• Slightly adjusted default interface font size which on lower resolutions could cut-off certain labels.
• Added custom mappings for the Ripple.
• The De-CONstruct function did not properly include out-dissolve frames.
• The matte display was squeezed on SDI-output with non-square aspect footage.
• Audio could play out of sync when using the filmstrip to scrub through the timeline.
• Changing the bit-depth of a RED shot while using a Rocket-X with an OFX plug-in on a layer could lead to a crash.
• H264 reader could under certain conditions produce black frames.
• The vertices of the luma-curve could show jump when editing the middle vertex.
• Updated the AJA SDK for Mac to 12.4.1 - SCRATCH now needs driver 12.4.1. Updated BMD Deck Link SDK to version 10.6.6.
• Added OpenCL support for OFX plug-ins.
• Full-release version: the user guide has been updated for v8.5 and the pdf version is available for download.

Jun 20 '16, build 904

• Update on support for HTC Vive, which now including Play control from inside the headset.
• The audio waveform was not shown for timeline audio (issue introduced in previous build).
• Fix on parsing 3dl LUTs; if the LUT file did not end with linefeed then last entry of LUT was skipped. Also, when resetting a (display) LUT and then loading it again could produce a distorted image until the project was refreshed.
• Undo did not work properly for Manage Stereo sync function and for updates in Metadata stack.
• Picking vertices for softness at high zoom rate was not working properly.

Jun 13 '16, build 903

• Basic support for the HTC Vive - VR headset. Note that the motion tracking from the headset is not yet applied back onto the main and reference screen and that the player overlay controls are not yet available inside the headset.
• Fix for ARRI  Raw MXF format on OSX, which could crash the application when the media contained audio.
• Fix for PNG writer where content could end up flipped.
• Fix for H264 that under certain rare conditions could produce black frames.
• Opacity Animation combined with Softness of a layer, could sometimes lead to not rendering the grade of the layer.

Jun 10 '16, build 902

• SCRATCH now supports direct playback of the Cubic Packed format where the 6 squares of the 360 view are stored in 2 rows of 3 columns (or 4x3 for stereo). The VR transformer plug-in supports converting between equirectangular and Cubic Packed (stereo).
• Fix for viewing stereo node with the Oculus where the right eye image was also shown on the left.
• Option to interpret ProRes QuickTime movie as full range rather than video range and as such maintain super-whites and super-blacks.

Jun 8 '16, build 901

• Pre-Release version: The pre-release stage means that the build is fully feature complete and past the beta-testing stage but we are still working on updating the user guide and any additional documentation. Note that this release requires a re-activation of your license key. All licenses and subscription keys have been automatically updated to include this version. If your permanent license does not have a valid support contract you will not be able to use this version. Please read the full Release notes to see what is new in this version.

VERSION 8.5 [Jun 2016]

General

SCRATCH v8.5 requires you to re-activate your license. If you have a valid v8.4 license then the license has been upgraded automatically to also include v8.5.

Note that even though the color pipeline in SCRATCH has not undergone major changes from v8.4 to v8.5 you should always maintain a backup and validate your project when upgrading as subtle changes might occur from version to version.

SCRATCH VR Suite

With the release of SCRATCH v8.5, we're also introducing the SCRATCH VR Suite. This Suite bundles SCRATCH, SCRATCH Web plus a series of tools and features for an end-to-end workflow for Virtual Reality 360 media projects - covering dailies, editorial, grading, compositing and finishing.

Please have a look at the two tutorial videos that cover the various new VR tools and functions: SCRATCH VR Tutorial Videos. Alternatively, click here to open a white paper for a full description of the various tools and the workflow that the SCRATCH VR Suite offers. Please note that the SCRATCH VR Suite requires a special license and will not be included in the standard SCRATCH version. When the VR license is activated, the starting screen will show SCRATCH VR.

Stereo Workflow

SCRATCH v8.5 comes with an enhanced stereo 3D workflow.

• More flexibility and efficiency in setting up your stereo project where you wrap your stereo media in stereo nodes; whether the media consists of separate image sequences or a single image stream that already contains a stereo pattern.
• The new Manage Stereo tool in the Player gives you full control over what part of your stereo shot you view and work on: left- or right-eye view while working on the stereo master-grade or the grade of the individual eyes. The tool also allows for quick synchronization of a grade done on the left eye to the right eye without breaking the convergence. As such the Manage Stereo tool will increases your speed of working on Stereoscopic media substantially.
• A new Stereo Generator output node allows you to render out any stereo pattern or have multiple patterns in a single output tree. This allows you to quickly combine all your deliverables in a single output setup.

Please read this overview article for the details on the new stereo 3D workflow options in SCRATCH.

Formats

SCRATCH v8.5 offers support for new media formats as well as improved efficiency of processing of existing formats.

• A new and more efficient native XAVC reader. Note that this is currently implemented next to the existing CSP reader. The new reader is labeled "XAVC (.mxf)" against the CSP reader "XAVC / DNxHD (.mxf)". The new reader is the default. The CSP XAVC reader will eventually disappear as an active codec.
• Support for new ARRI Alexa Mini camera and the new MXF Raw format.
• Added support for reading 12-bit DPX: SCRATCH will convert/interpret it as 16 bit.
• Added support for rendering PNG file format - in 8 or 16 bit.
• SCRATCH now reads all metadata in an EXR. A new SConfig was added to also include / write all (extended) metadata in an EXR render.
• The QuickTime Reader now respects any flip/flop set in the metadata of the QuickTime file.
• Fixed an issue with loading very short MXF files.
• New SONY Raw decoder with various minor fixes related to specific graphics cards and drivers.

Media Management

We added some functions to make dealing with large projects with thousands of shots more manageable.

• Added Bookmark functionality to the SCRATCH File Browser to make specific paths quicker accessible.
• You can now verify the file references of shots from the Media Browser to explicitly check if files are online. This same functionality is also available from the Process Queue to validate all the underlying media of an output node. Alternatively, by setting an sconfig you can force SCRATCH to do an automatic validation on any item that is processed from the Process Queue. This way you can prevent processing a long job and only finding out afterwards that some media was not available during the render.
• You can now also start a processing job to calculate an MD5 hash code and the file size of the selected files in the Media Browser. The MD5 and file size are stored as metadata with the individual shot. This function used to be only available as part of a CONstruct consolidate.
• ACES. The complete set of ACES transforms as provides by the Academy is now included with SCRATCH - available through a new ACES bookmark in the file browser. We also included the inverse transforms which are now used by SCRATCH in its color space management: you can now transform any shot into ACES by nesting it, flagging the shot ACES and ensuring that the transform Apply option is enabled. This completes the setup for working in a full ACES environment.
• The Reset option with the luma curve for R3D media now resets to the curve to a straight linear line rather than reverting to the metadata.

UI Updates

SCRATCH v8.5 has undergone some User Interface adjustments to make functionality more accessible or make functions more intuitive.

• Extended the CONstruct right click menu to directly open the Editor and Matrix.
• Re-arrange / re-label controls on the Process Queue dialog to avoid confusion. Added tab-control in output menu to better separate nodes and template management.
• Added a Timeline button on the CONstruct menu bar to better express the 3-state options of Timeline, Staging and Output.
• updated the order of the items in the Player popup menu to show most use items at the top.

Miscellaneous

• A new Command Line scripting option for more flexibility integrating SCRATCH with other software and tools. You can now start SCRATCH with an xml script reference, rather than using a watch-folder. Start SCRATCH as ..\assimilator.exe -cmd "c:\myscript.xml". Once the script is executed, SCRATCH will close down again.
• Added a dialog for the Paste-Grade option in the CONstruct that offers you more control on how to match clips (time code, reel, name) and what to copy (grade / framing / notes).
• Added two user settings to toggle swiping in the CONstruct and Player on/off. Settings are available from the User Settings dialog in the Player / CONstruct (gear icon).
• HDR support: you can now apply a PQ-Transfer function to your main and / or secondary output. Note that for now this is only available for output displays, not yet for rendering files. You control the associated NIT level with the output from an SConfig setting.
• To increase grading efficiency - you can now Alt-click any shot on the filmstrip mini-timeline in the Player to copy the grade of that shot to the current shot in the viewport.
• The track selectors in the Matrix now indicate whether a track has media on the current position in the timeline or not.
• A new Copy Named Layer option in the Paste mask. When you now use the copy option and a Layer is selected, SCRATCH preserves the name of the layer. If you then use the paste option with this option enabled, SCRATCH will check the current shot to see if there is a layer with the same name and then paste the color settings into that layer.
• The 'Keep Layer Name Selected' setting now also applies to Primaries. If you explicitly select the Primaries on a shot, then that selection will be maintained when navigating to another shot.
• Added CTRL+D to deselect all options in the Paste Dialog. Note that CTRL+A was already implemented to select all options, as well as Alt+Click to select only the option clicked.
• You can now publish media directly to Facebook.
• The Repository is now only available with a specific license.
• The audio wave form was not properly displayed for the audio that was wrapped in a collector node.

UPDATE RELEASES v8.4

May 4 '16, build 901

• Important fix for rendering ProRes or H264 where SCRATCH could potentially crash when including extended meta data in the render target.
• Chinese character render could fail for certain glyphs.
• Cmd+S not always working on OSX.

Mar 21 '16, build 900

• Fix for OFX plug-ins that automatically set key-frames. Also - if a plug-in generated a user message, it was not always properly displayed.
• The Still-frame option would in certain cases load the full sequence.
• Read the meta data of a QuickTime file correctly to set the color space.
• The Over-mode was not displayed correctly on the SDI output when the wipe was set to 0.
• Scrubbing the proxy element of an AMT DNxHD output node was not possible.
• When creating a new mask the softness of the canvas was sometimes reset.

Mar 4 '16, build 899

• Publish. Added two new default resolutions to the publisher (1920x960 and 1024x512) - primarily to be used for VR 360 publications with a 2:1 aspect.
• QuickTime reader updates. Scene and take in ARRI QuickTime files were not properly recognized and ended up as general meta-data items rather than the shot generic scene and take properties. Audio tracks from Alexa Mini ProRes files were not always recognized due to flawed channel layout in the file. Browsing in files with just intra-frames could cause issues.
• Setting (dual sided) softness on a layer could sometimes cause the canvas to reset to the shape of the layer that was adjusted before.
• You could not drag a construct while panning the project tree.
• The #date code is now also available within a filename mask (before only in the burn-in).
• Pasting animation data did not automatically enable the animation channel.
• The Multiple Shots option in the file browser is now a user setting - defaulting to off the first time.
• Added correct version number to OS X installer package.

Feb 26 '16, build 898

• There was a refresh issue with 360 footage when changing projection mode.
• Empty lines in subtitles in right-to-left mode were skipped.
• Since the previous build you could not select single shot in file browser when invoked from the Player.
• Various tweaks to the QuickTime reader - scrubbing a timeline with h264 media could in certain circumstances lead to a crash.
• Enabled support for XAVC-S files and reading proper timecode.

Feb 16 '16, build 897

• Layers where sometimes copied twice when drag/dropping them on the filmstrip proxy shots.
• The #construct parameter in the Burn-In did not always reflect the correct value when rendering out a derived output node after the burn-in.
• Various tweaks with the new QuickTime reader where files with a non-standard resolution where not loaded properly and the reader should ignore QuickTime reference files (which can be only be loaded with the legacy reader).
• Publisher update: in recent builds the publish function could crash if a burn-in template was selected. Also the channel selector is now properly maintained. The process Queue items for uploading the publication now show the total time left.
• H264 encoder - added support for resolutions up to 4096 x 4096 (where before the total square resolution was limited to 4k).
• Fixed an issue in the tracker when importing Mocha tracking data. Also, the proxy image in the tracker menu did not always display the correct frame.
• In certain cases the Construct consolidate function could report it was finished while still processing MD5 check-sum calculations in the background.

Feb 8 '16, build 895

• Shape outline was not showing when Invert option was enabled. Also, the Canvas menu was not always properly updated when closing a free-form shape.
• JPEG2000 DCI encoding: limit the number of wavelet transform levels to 5 for compatibility with Sony Cinema system.
• New QuickTime reader: could lose media link with source when loading high number of movies. Also improved scrubbing h264 responsiveness.
• Added panel mapping for Luma keyer Presets (LumKey-Preset).
• The re-link LUT option did not always work for LUTs loaded in layer which in turn was inside a group.
• Publisher dialog did not always maintain the selected Channel correctly.
• The Multiple Shots option in the File Browser is now switched on by default when loading media the first time.

Jan 29 '16, build 893

• The new QuickTime reader did not correctly read the timecode of ARRI Amira files.
• The new QuickTime reader could hand or crash SCRATCH when loading many H264 files at ones.
• When removing an Audio reference while the waveform was loading could crash SCRATCH.
• Updated CP200 default mappings.

Jan 15 ' 16, build 891

• New 360 projection mode for the main viewer and dual view. While in this mode you can use the PanZoom tool to direct the projection. Note that while the viewer is in the 360 mode - none of the layer or plug-in overlays, vertices and handles are shown.
• Various fixes and optimizations on the new QuickTime reader as well as the mp4 render that in the prior build did not files that were compatible with all (web browser) players. Also, SCRATCH now recognizes the scaling (full/video) from the meta data of a DNxHD QuickTime file.
• Fix and optimizations to the YUV to RGB conversion used in SCRATCH. In the prior version the chroma sampling of the last pixel of an image could be wrong. The optimizations mainly benefits XAVC decoding.

Dec 24 '15, build 889

• Fix for left and right eye being swapped with 360 stereo view on the Oculus Rift.
• Improved rendering of 360 view.
• Improved H.264 playback performance.
• Fix for timecode not being read from some QuickTime files.

Dec 17 '15, build 888

New QuickTime reader

• The new QuickTime reader component handles ProRes, DNxHD and H264 encoded mov and mp4 files. This new implementation is more efficient in processing video and audio than the existing QuickTime in SCRATCH, which still uses the legacy Apple QuickTime library. Note that to use the new reader you will need to (re-)load media. The older QuickTime reader is still available and labeled "Legacy QuickTime" and can still be used to load media encoded with different codecs than ProRes, DNxHD or H264.
• The new reader has a Full/Video range switch to set how SCRATCH should interpret the media in the file. This switch is only available for H264 and DNxHD encoded media. ProRes is always assumed to be Video range.
• On OSX there is now also a separate ProRes QuickTime Writer component (the same as on Windows). Furthermore, the ProRes writer (as well as the Vanguard H264 writer) now include all meta data in the mov (and mp4) files.

VR Updates

• Support for latest Oculus SDK (version 0.8.0.0). This SDK does not provide support for OSX, so as of this build the Oculus is only supported on Windows. The setup for the Oculus has become much easier: there is no longer the need to create a separate display. SCRATCH will recognize if an Oculus is installed and activate automatically. The Oculus can even be used next to a second screen.
• In SCRATCH you can now tag media as 360 media - in the meta data stack 2 new properties have been added: projection view and stereo mode. Currently SCRATCH only supports the so called 'equirectangular' projection view - which seems to be the dominant variant in the VR world. SCRATCH will automatically set the projection view from the meta data of a 360 (mp4/jpg) file, if properly included. Alternatively you can set and update the shot property by hand in the meta-data stack or in batch for a range of shots in the Media Browser.
• Based on a shot's Projection Type property SCRATCH will automatically switch the second monitor (or Oculus) into 360 mode. If you want to override this behavior you can set the projection mode for all shots manually in the Player - Settings - Monitor menu.
• When rendering out 360 media to mp4 and jpg, SCRATCH will include the projection type meta data. This means e.g. that when you create media for SCRATCH Web or YouTube by using the Publish function, SCRATCH will tag the files so that the website / web-browser will pick up on it and switch into 360 mode.

PanZoom

• We added a new screen utility for panning and zooming. The utility is available from the top menu bar in the Player. In addition this utility has a 360-tab with the Yaw, Pitch and Roll controls to manage the 360 Projection View.In normal mode the PanZoom utility shows the visible area of the current image. In 360 mode the utility shows the projection centre and the outline of the so called projection frustum on the (equirectangular) image.

Publish & SCRATCH Web

• SCRATCH Web now has 360 playback capabilities. When you publish 360 media to SCRATCH Web, the player will automatically switch to 360 mode and you have option to pan the view in all directions: either by dragging the image in a direction or using the additional 360 controls. This also accounts for any slides that you published.
• Note that this functionality is currently only available if you use a Chrome or Firefox web browser. If you use that browser from your mobile phone - the player will turn into a magic viewer, meaning that you can direct your phone to adjust the view rather than using the controls. Do note that often 360 media is relative high resolution which takes quite a bit of resources to process and as such requires appropriate (mobile) hardware.
• We also added a 'Native Resolution' option to the Publish function. This option will take the resolution of the main output node of the current CONstruct - rather than one of the pre-defined resolutions. In addition you can now select/deselect individual audio channels to include in the publication.
• This build also contains some fixes on the Publish function. SCRATCH would sometimes re-render media while the source file was already in the correct format. A publication that contained timeline audio - rather than audio with each individual shot - did not upload correct.

Other

• We added tracker options to center the resulting transformation and to fill the frame (scale) with a stabilization.
• This build contains a new version of CSP with various tweaks and fixes:
  • Fix for AVCHD timecode via CPI-file not coming in correctly
  • Fix for Cineform AVI not recognizing aspect
  • Fix for mp4: Performance greatly improved
  • Fix for XAVC having performance issues during playback
  • Fix for Canon XF-AVC decoding artifacts
  • Fix for Cinema DNG causing a crash when loading more than 70 DNG-sequences
  • New MXF Import-labels "Sony / Canon / Panasonic (.mxf)" and "XAVC / DNxHD (.mxf)"

• Changes in the Sony Raw color space handling to match with the Sony Raw Viewer. Also the application of the Exposure index was adjusted. These changes can have an effect on existing setups with Sony raw media. Please review before upgrading current projects.
• There was an issue with asynchronous IO on OS X that could with certain external storage lead to errors ('Resource temporarily unavailable').
• We added an option for BMD DeckLink to select which input connection to use with Live View. In addition SCRATCH now supports HDMI input for AJA / BM devices. This version uses a new AJA SDK (version 12.3.7) and as such needs driver 12.3.8. The BMD DeckLink SDK is at version 10.5 and also needs the corresponding driver.
• Setting an audio slip through the audio mixer could not be undone with the undo function.
• The Reset and Save/Load options did not respond correct with a layer selected and in the Shot menu.
• The Custom Commands did not take shot selection into account.
• We added the option to write to a raw *.264 file with the H264 writer. These raw streams can be used for DVD and BlueRay authoring.
• A CDL did not include all elements if the elements were at their default value.
• Creating transition animation from FCP - XML could crash SCRATCH.
• We added a column sort to Placeholder Assemble dialog.
• Text meta-data in an AAF was not properly handled / cut off when included in an assemble.
• When clicking the column header in the media browser will now first activate the column rather than do a sort. This way you can select a column to be updated with the FX-controls. Subsequent clicks on the column header will trigger a sort as usual. This applies only to columns that can be edited with the FX-controls.

Nov 6 '15, build 884

• Initial Release: Note that this release requires a re-activation of your license key. All licenses and subscription keys have been automatically updated to include this version. If your permanent license does not have a valid support contract you will not be able to use this version. Please read the full Release notes to see what is new in this version or watch the highlights in this video.

VERSION 8.4 [Nov 2015]

General

• Note that v8.4 contains new functionality and updates in the color processing pipeline. As such, a v8.4 project is not fully backward compatible.
• Please watch this video that highlights some of the new features in this release.

Multilingual

• SCRATCH 8.4 also comes in a Chinese version. In the System Settings menu there is a switch to set the interface to English or Chinese.
• Bi-Directional text. SCRATCH 8.4 now fully supports display and entry of right to left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Color and Composite

• SCRATCH 8.4 supports Aces Log. Next to setting the specific ACES version to be used with a project in the Project Settings menu, you can also enable the ACES Log option. When this option is switched on, all ACES shots in the project are automatically converted to ACES Log. If needed, this project setting can even be overridden on a per shot basis from the Matrix - Setup menu. Once in ACES Log, SCRATCH color space management will automatically convert back to whatever output- or display color space you have set. ACES Log is primarily about creating a more "natural feel " to any of the color controls - rather than an actual output format. By squeezing the image color values into a smaller (log) range, the (linear) controls have a more direct effect on the image then when applied to the very wide (linear) color range of a regular ACES image.
• Added 2-sided softness for Layers. In the canvas menu you can now dial in softness that goes both outward and inward of a shape to get the smoothest possible transition. Note that in SCRATCH this works for any (free)form and shape - though depending on the actual position of the vertices it is possible to get into a situation where it is mathematically impossible to calculate the softness. In that case you can use the various Blur options SCRATCH offers. The Canvas menu allows you to add some additional blur to your shape together with the softness. Keep in mind though that this is a much more GPU intensive process. To add even more Blur you should go through the Texture menu.
• Extended the range of the 'Enhanced Levels' option. As such it now can be used for adding noise to an image or layer to e.g. blend in composite elements. The function now resides in the Matrix - Numeric menu.

Project, Conform and Media

• Support for the new Kinefinity camera formats - various file formats, including raw. Note that the current CSP version included no longer offers support for the (first generation) of krw files.
• SCRATCH now creates placeholders nodes (including animation effects) with a conform if the media is not (yet) present. Placeholders can be easily replaced on a later moment using the Placeholder conform. A placeholder is represented with its own proxy / image and can also be created manually from the CONstruct Media menu, in the Utility section. Or from the Editor in the Action menu.
• The Editor has a new Replace mode where you can Fetch + drag and drop a shot into a slot that maintains the slot size and only replaces the shot inside the slot. Note that when you drop a shot onto a Placeholder node, all framing (animation) and grades on the Placeholder node are copied onto the new shot that is replacing the Placeholder.
• Added additional functionality to load SVG. In prior version you could only load and process SVG in SCRATCH with specific (NVIDIA) graphics cards. Now you can use SVG with any card.
• Increased performance of mp4 (H264) playback, especially for high resolutions like 4K.

Publishing

• A new Off-line publishing function with which you can publish your media to a local folder which you can easily upload to SCRATCH web at a later moment. The offline publication includes an index.html so that you can already review the publication in your web-browser on the local system. The offline publication folder is self containing and as such you can also copy the whole folder to another machine for (local) review or uploading.
• SCRATCH Web has been updated to support client Sub-domains and Quick-links. The main domain of SCRATCH Web is now www.sweb.media. With a SCRATCH Web account you can then create your own sub-domain in the form of: https//mycompany.sweb.media. In addition you can create so called quick-links for your publications that you can easily distribute to your clients. With a quick-link you do not have to register each client as a user but rather can send them the direct link to the publication. A quick-link can be date-restricted and/or optionally have a password associated.

Misc

• Added "Right Mode" to the Settings - Monitor menu. When you enable this option SCRATCH will display the right image of the dual view setup on the second monitor / display. This allows for more flexibility e.g. client sessions: show the main output (full context) on the big screen while you work on a local shot within the multi-layered timeline or composite.
• We also created a basic video wall plug-in that allows you to take multiple shots and display them all in a single image for easy comparison. You can initiate the plug-in in different ways. First, from the Dual View source list to show all current versions in one view in the dual view. Second, from the Misc menu in the Tray module in the Player: either create a video wall from the shots in the current selected tray (max 16) or create a video wall of multiple versions of the current shot with the various grades in the active Gallery. And finally, you can also setup a video wall from the selected nodes in the CONstruct, using the Video Wall option in the Utility section of the Media menu.
• OS X deep color implementation: when enabling the "OpenGL: Enable 'deep' color" advanced setting, SCRATCH will use the new 10 bit output option of the latest OSX build (El Capitan).  Since this is still fairly new functionality on OSX, this settings is off by default but might change in a future update.
• Added default framing option to the file browser for loading media: No Scaling, Fit Width, Fit Height.
• New SConfig variables: SCF_EXR_READ_COLORSPACE - to ignore any meta data color space flag, SCF_KEEP_CONSTRUCT_OUTPUTS - this prevents SCRATCH from clearing the output when loading (from file) or copying a construct.
• Added the Burn-In as standard option in the Add-Output option list in the Construct Output menu.
• JPEG2000 (DCI) now respect the given bitrate at all times, even if the framerate is not set to one of the DCI-strict compliant rates (24 or 48 fps).
• XML Scripting. We introduced an SConfig variable to write an xml with the default project paths inside the project folder. SCRATCH by default maintains all project paths (media-, render-, cache-) with each project in a system settings file (outside the actual project folder). By having an xml file with the default (last used) paths, it becomes easier to archive and restore individual projects or use project in a multi-user / shared scenario.
• XML Scripting. We also added a  series of so called system-events that can be used to execute external script or applications: when SCRATCH is started/ended, when a project is opened/closed. These system events can be managed in the Preferences dialog the same way Custom Commands are.
• Added SConfig settings to set the default Show and Process resolutions for R3D and Sony Raw footage. We also added Source Resolution as meta data items for these formats to see the actual resolution - rather than the resolution set for debayer / decoding.
• The Edit Flatten function now includes framing (animation).
• Various fixes to Vector Paint module.
• As of this version the older legacy AJA Kona cards are no longer supported.
  
• By default proxy images that are generated for an html export or publish do not include any display LUT any more (as they did in previous versions). There is an SConfig variable that you can enable if you do want the (primary) display LUT to be applied.
• New up-to-date CP200 mapping files

UPDATE RELEASES v8.3

Oct 23 '15, build 874

• Fix for OSX version El Capitan where the Dual Head did no longer work.
• Fix for #eventno code for file name masks that did no longer have its default a 3 digit padding.

Oct 9 '15, build 873

• Fix for proxy-images in the Version Stack that were not always in sync with the main image in the View Port. This issue was introduced in the previous release.

Oct 7 '15, build 872

• Fix in the installer for OS X to be compatible with latest OS X version El Capitan.
• Fix where a layer canvas position could be frozen on a shot if the canvas contains an animation and the underlying shot had a vari-speed applied.

Oct 2 '15, build 871

• Previous release introduced an issue with the re-timer where output nodes did not render underlying re-timer nods correctly.
• Fixed an issue with importing FCP7-XML that was generated from Premiere.
• Adjusted the processing of FFMpeg (mp4) shots to gain performance for 4k resolution.

Aug 28 '15, build 870

• Publish render could wrongly apply grades in cases the publication contained a LUT and audio.
• Manual project save on exit only saved the current construct. Also implemented Ctrl+S Quick Key in Construct. Furthermore, the Auto-save message in the Player was maintained too long, giving the appearance the save took longer while simply clicking would clear the message.
• NVIDIA SDI embedded audio was not functional.
• The Tray did not always maintain its position and did not show the current selected item after adding new items.
• Slip value for subtitles in the burn-in was not maintained after selecting new subtitle file.
• XML insert command could potentially translate into an update of an existing shot.
• Some BMD devices do not support format detection, for those devices use the default Video Output format from the BM control panel as the capture format.

Aug 10 '15, build 869

• The Manual Save option would not always save the full project but just the changes of the current construct.
• Tray scroll position would jump when adding new items or when switching to a different version in the version stack.
• XML scripting - Insert-command could potentially update an existing node rather than insert a new node.

July 22 '15, build 868

• New version of the Codec Support Pack (CSP) included - containing:
  • Added support for Canon XF-AVC / H264 (MXF), Codex Raw (CDX), Panasonic 4K AVCi 4:4:4 (MXF)
  • XAVC: Various fixes for color-decoding, memory-consumption and frame-jumps. Also playback performance has been improved.
  • Phantom Flex 4K Cine: Tonecurve is now respected for clips recorded on older firmwares
  • MP4 import filter has been relabeled to 'MP4 GoPro / Sony / Panasonic (.mp4)'
  • Panasonic GH4 MP4 - playback performance improved, various VRAW updates.
  • AVCHD MTS: Playback performance improved
  • Metadata: Scene and Take info from clips are now added to the existing columns in SCRATCH, instead of creating new (duplicate) ones
  • Full/Legal range switch has been relabeled and now sets the range interpretation for the source image
• Conform updates:
  • Fade to Color did not get to 100% solid color. Existing alpha channel of image in dissolve was not properly processed.
  • Timecodes from AAF created in Premiere were not always interpreted correct.
  • Fix AAF Speed Ramps conform did not work on OSX
  • Added support for conforming wipes, fades and dissolve animation for Final Cut Pro X.
• Color updates:
  • In certain cases the gamma adjustments with the build in Lin2Log conversion was done twice.
  • Fix for using animations with OFX plug-ins.
  • Qualifier. Sometimes wrong default ranges were used when adding a new key.
• Render update:
  • Output render could be garbled in certain cases when moving from 10 bit to 16 bit.
  • Fixed setting an incorrect framerate on a Quicktime render (23.975 instead of 23.976).
• Other:
  • Keep Layer (Name) Selected - option did not work properly when selecting a version.
  • Maintain metadata selection in Meta data stack when navigating the timeline.
  • Updated ARRIRAW SDK to version 5.1.0b3 - with support for new Alexa 65 camera.

June 18 '15, build 867

• Various updates for conforming. Dissolves now are now assembled around the cut-point rather than aligning it to the right using the After parameter in SCRATCH (both AAF and FC XML). Furthermore, SCRATCH did not take the offset starting offset into account with Final Cut X conforms. Final Cut 7 XML can contain multiple sequences and potentially sequences with no actual content - SCRATCH now skips those and takes the first complete sequence it encounters.
• Re-timer did not always refreshes instantly when adjusting the frame position.
• SCRATCH could crash when rendering media with audio to H.264 with non-integer framerates. This also affected the Publish function.
• The Custom Commands XSLT option was not functioning correctly.
• XML did not include output path and file-spec for all types of output nodes. Also, when loading through XML, any preset files where processed after the XML (but should be before).
• The cursor for text slates could get stuck - preventing further editing of items such as Slot names in the Player and the file mask in the File name specification dialog.
• SCRATCH could crash over AIFF files greater than 2GB. Also added the extension *.aiff next to the *.aif.
• Various Repository updates. Previous build introduced an issue that could corrupt a project in the repository.
• In the Media Browser we added the option to batch export .cube LUTs. also, the Reset button with the Name-column was not working correctly.
• Using a 1D Display LUT sometimes resulted in a black screen.
• The segments of a bicubic-layer could sometimes be offset after making a copy or version of a shot.
• You can now pan the film-strip timeline in the Player with the space-bar just like the trays / galleries.
• Subscriptions did not always auto-renew.

May 21 '15, build 865

• Subtitles are now automatically recognized as URT-16 format.
• Update on the Vanguard H264 encoder: when using full float rendering color channels could be swapped. Also implemented some performance tweaks.
• Certain older graphics boards that are not able to do RED GPU debayers did not revert to CPU debayer properly.
• Construct consolidate could skip frames with DNG formats.
• Publisher had an issue with uploading to YouTube after changed in the protocol with YouTube.
• SCRATCH now reads / writes a color space tag in EXR files.
• Added an advanced setting to set the interval for the auto-save option in the player. Please note that next to the interval time SCRATCH also take into account the number of changes before initiating an auto save.
• Fix for processing FCP XML (coming from Premiere) where Track events can be nested inside a Composite event / node.
• When starting SCRATCH as a Player (double click a file), SCRATCH would revert to the default user when starting the software normally again. Now SCRATCH will also use the last set user settings when opening in Play mode.
• Various fixes for syncing your project with the repository.

May 13 '15, build 864 (official release)

• Fix: dissolves from an Assemble were translated to an Optical dissolve, rather than the 'normal' variant.
• Note navigation did not include note markers that were outside the in- / out-range of the shot.
• The Publisher now maintains the last used settings.
• Added sorting on reel-id in the CONstruct.
• Various tweaks on Final Cut XML assemble where the parameters of vari-speeds and framing where not read correct.
• Fixed an issue with the Wacom tablet where lifting the pen would be interpreted as a swipe action.
• All meta data #codes are now available with the FX - update functions in the Media Browser.
• Added support for AVID Film dissolve in AAF Assemble.
• FFmpeg did not return the correct timecode for.mp4 and .mov files.
• Added option to include preset- (pls) or grade- (ccr) file in shot-element in for xml scripting.

Apri 30 '15, build 862 (pre-release)

• Fix on pre-fetch function which could slow down read/write file sequence formats (dpx, tiff, jpeg, etc) located on certain network storage. Local storage was not impacted.
• On Windows systems with more than 64 logical processors not all cores were detected.
• Inserting shot in editor would set wrong default clip length.
• Added the #audiofile[c] metadata code.
• Previous build had an issue where SCRATCH could crash when opening file by double clicking it.
• Fix on loading FCPX XML that could crash SCRATCH.
• Transition undo functionality was not properly functioning.

Apr 21 '15, build 861 (pre-release)

• Updated EXR implementation to 2.2.0 with support for DWAA/DWAB compression. Also, all ACES chromatics are now included in the EXR header.
• Added Note marker navigation: display annotations on the mini timeline and use the special transporter controls to jump from note to note through your timeline (similar to key frames). The meta data stack in the Player now always shows the note editor rather than the shot proxy.
• Included a new publish option: Bunch of Clips. a regular timeline publish will limit all shots (including versions) to the slot-length. The Bunch of Clips option will only limit the bottom (timeline) version to the slot length and will render all other clips from in- to out-point.
• In ALE editor default setting for all columns is now 'import'. We've added a button to toggle this settings to 'exclude' or back for all columns at the same time. The Scene meta data item is no longer by default used for the matching process.
• Restored original Additive and Optical Dissolve options.
• AJA updates: high framerate in Dual link or 3G-B was not working properly.
• ARRI SDK update with support for Alexa 65.

Mrt 30 '15, build 858 (pre-release)

• Initial Pre-Release v8.3. Please note that this version requires a re-activation of your license key. If you have a valid support contract or subscription your key will have been prepared for this version. If you run into issues, please contact licensing@assimilateinc.com.
• Please read the release notes carefully for any compatibility issues that might affect v8.2 and earlier projects.

RELEASE OVERVIEW V8.3

Single Licensing Model

As of v8.3 SCRATCH comes in one flavor: SCRATCH. SCRATCH Lab is no longer a separate licensed variant. However, you still can maintain the simplified toolset / interface if you so desire. In the User Settings menu you will find a new Toolset option: Full, Primaries, CDL. This setting determines how the Matrix toolset is presented and whether SCRATCH will expose secondary / layer functionality. Please note that you can switch between the various settings without affecting a project. However, if you switch to Primaries or CDL and apply changes to a shot that also has secondary grading, you might inadvertently affect that.

Unicode

Unicode support and support for Windows / OSX language special text input methods (IME). SCRATCH will automatically pick up on your OS input settings as well as the use of modifier keys to enter special characters. Further, the Burn-in / text plug-in supports unicode text input and UTF-8 formatted sub-title files. Please make sure that you always set a suitable font when entering language specific characters as not all font support the full range of characters. Right-to-left language display (Hebrew / Arabic) is not (yet) supported.

XML Scripting update

We added an option to start a render from xml script: open a project, render and exit the project. This allows for more advanced automation and integration of SCRATCH in your pipeline.

Meta data update

Additional Project-level meta data: the project tree now has a second tab to hold project properties. These properties in turn can be used in the XSLT reporting options of SCRATCH and is also available through the #pmd[] code in the burn-in. In the System Preferences you can maintain the default set of project properties that are included with any (new) project.

Editor updates

The Editor has an additional menu to explicitly set and maintain a reference clip with your timeline. By drag / drop you can set the reference clip and by clicking the clip in the menu - or by selecting the new Reference option in the dual view of the Viewport - the reference clip is shown. The Editor Reference menu also holds functionality to easily scale the reference clip to correspond to your timeline format and as such making comparing the two easier. (Note that before - the a timeline reference was implicitly held by the last selected tray shot).
Furthermore, we extended support for AAF conform (including speed ramp / animations, framing (animation) and picture-in-picture effects), additional standard transition effects (wipes and fade) and a new Track Ripple editor mode to maintain sync between tracks when adjusting the main timeline. Note that the update for transitions resulted in dropping the Additive dissolve variant. The Optical variant (gamma adjusted) is available with all transitions by enabling the "O" option button. These changes might cause compatibility issues with prior versions.

Publish updates

With the functionality of SCRATCH Web gradually extending, we enhanced the publishing upload capacity. In combination with the regional storage option for SCRATCH Web Channels this now allows for very fast and efficient uploads that leverage your available bandwidth to the max.

Various Panel (Mapping) updates

First, the mapping management dialog has been extended to include a sort and filter option to more easily find a specific function. Also, you can now adjust the order of your main mapping groups. Second, there are a number of additional mappings available and tweaks on existing mappings.

• Additional mappings for Viewport panning, zoom in/out, animation controls (set key / trim key / etc.), toggling B&W matte and scrolling the timeline proxy tray.
• Mappings for switching to a specific Matrix menu ('MX-' mappings) now also work from the Editor.
• Tapping the Alt-key twice in succession will lock the Alt-key (until tapped again).

The standard Elements mappings have been adjusted for the various new mapping options.

Other changes

• A new "Construct" display option for the Viewport menu bar to show the name of the current construct you are in.
• The notes interface changed slightly to allow for a single-click color selection - rather than having a drop-down.
• In the media browser, you can now Reset the timecode for the full selection of shots (rather than having to do this one by one).
• By default floating point values in 3D LUT are now clipped, unless explicitly disabled from the Advanced setting / SConfig (this was already available in a v8.2 update release, but important to list again).

UPDATE RELEASES V8.2

March 25 '15, build 859

• LUT - Create Curve function was broken.
• When creating a texture the in-point was always set to 0 but should by default be set to the parent in-point.
• Default file permission for project database did not always allow it to be accessed from other user account.
• Update on publish function that did now always show the correct channel name
• ARRI colorspace was reset to its default after an undo.

March 15 '15, build 857

• Fixed an issue with SCRATCH unable to read new variation of DNxHD 444 introduced in latest version of Media composer.
• By default SCRATCH now clips exported 3D LUT floating point values. To prevent clipping on LUT export an SCongif / Advanced System setting is introduced.
• Fixed an issue that could crash SCRATCH when loading 32bit EXR files.

March 7 '15, build 856

• Publisher updates - versions where not limited to slot length. Also, timeline audio is included with individual shots.
• Profile synchronization and Repository failed on using the wrong server references.
• New Sony SDK that fixes some issues that the debayer could have on latest NVIDIA GTX cards.
• Fix for corruption issue with certain R3D monochrome footage.
• Certain EXR could show upside down.

Feb 26 '15, build 855

• Performance improvement for BMD SDI output in combination with NVIDIA GeForce.
• HDMI output of Kona 4 was not working.
• fix for scaling publications to SCRATCH Web.

Feb 20 '15, build 853

• Additional fix for Kona 3 Dual Link mode.
• Grade on/off toggle now also toggles any (dual head) monitor plug-in that was set. Also, the monitor plug-in selection is now mappable (Display Plug-in).
• Update on SCRATCH Publish function - which now implicitly always uses the project render-cache folder (rather than having its own setting).

Feb 18 '15, build 852

• Fix for Sony F65/F55/F5/FS700 Raw. The ISO, Kelvin and Resolution controls could jump to incorrect values when copying or conforming shots. If you ran into this issue you can now do an explicit Reset of all affected shots at once from the Config tab in the Media Browser. Also, the Media Browser Config tab wrongly showed the user selected resolution instead of the actual Source Resolution for Sony footage.
• Added a CONstruct setting whether to update the slot length when pasting or dropping a shot in the timeline layer of a CONstruct. By default this setting is Off (which reflects the older pre-v8.2 behavior).
• ARRI footage could be shown upside down as the meta data from the file concerning flip/flops was not read properly.
• The Dual-link output was not working for Kona 3.
• AJA audio output was broken on the prior build.

Feb 9 '15, build 850

• Various updates regarding SCRATCH Web and Publish, including the option to publish a single shot or range directly from the Player. You now also have to option to manage multiple Channels and publish to a specific SCRATCH Web Channel.
• Fix for AJA which could cause the that the wrong color space converter was used. Also, BM Decklink SDI settings could end in a dead-lock where a selected invalid format could cause the settings dialog to no longer be available.
• SCRATCH now reads ProRes XQ on Windows - were in prior builds it could only render this format.
• 1D LUT were not always processed properly since the previous release where we updated the shaper LUT section of a cube LUT. This also affected the ACES 1.0 to REC709 transformation.
• New CSP with new support for Kinefinity Raw and fixes for, among others, dng that would fill up log files.
• Fix for using layers on Anamorphic footage.
• Fix for issue that could show wrong frames when using ARRI Fast Debayer in a dual view setting with an AMD graphic card.
• Various tweaks for rendering Equirectangular footage for Oculus better.
• Construct Consolidate now remembers last path used.
• Display fixes: background of statistics (waveform) and curve could extend outside of its drawing area.
• Stabilizer was not working in SCRATCH Lab.
• Custom Commands could be mixed up - executing the wrong script.

Jan 22 '15, build 846

• Implemented ACES 1.0 and versioning option. You now set the desired ACES version in the project settings. All relevant ACES transformations are included in the SCRATCH installation and mapped using the aces_ctl_mappings.xml file in the seatings\aces folder. Optionally you can adjust this to use alternative transformations.
• New CSP with various updates. Added Panasonic VariCam Raw support. Ensuring compatibility between CPU and GPU decode variants for various formats. Fix for issues with loading DNG shots. Update on Phantom 4k. Improved debayer which might affect the following formats: Aaton Penelope, Digital Bolex, Kifinity (full raw), Magic Lantern MLV, IndieCAM, SIV (SI2K camera raw stream).
• Live View now also supports AJA SDI devices. We also changed the signal routing on AJA SDI cards: on the Kona 3G Quad, IO 4K and Kona 4 it now uses output 3 and 4 (for non 4K formats).
• We added Relink options for Audio, LUTs and Shot in the Media Browser File tab. The Relink Audio and LUTs work the same as Relink Media - search for files with the same name in a new location. These functions are applied to all shots in the current selection. The Relink Shot only applies to the current shot and you point to the exact media file to be used.
• Added 'Parallel Copy' option in Construct Consolidation dialog, allowing for more efficient copying files to multiple locations at once (read once, write many).
• New AVID DNxHD SDK, including support for DNxHR MXF. Also, the timecode for certain AVID MXF rendered files were not always interpreted correct.
• Update on the Re-timer which did not always maintain the framerate of its input properly and as such the retiming of input frames.
• Added support for encoding Apple ProRes 4444 XQ on Windows.
• Fix on processing cube LUTs that contain a shaper LUT. The default 1D LUT size has been increased from 1024 to 4096.
• Explicitly set slot length when replacing shots with a a collector.
• Automatically enable Clip Levels option when adding a LUT on a layer (and clear this flag when resetting LUT).
• ARRI - increased the number of metadata properties read from the file header.
• RED - new SDK containing new RedColor4 and DragonColor2 color space options. Please use Rocket-X Driver 2.1.19.0 and Firmware 1.3.19.7 or later, Rocket Driver 1.4.36.0 and Firmware 1.1.17.3 or later.
• Various fixes on the display of keyframes on Layers and the camera menu.
• Fix on the Vanguard H.264 encoder to ensure sync audio playback of rendered files in the QuickTime Player.
• Publisher: if the source shot is already H264, SCRATCH will assess using this rather than re-encoding it. The file new to have the correct formatting though before a copy is used.

Dec 16 '14, build 842

• Initial Release v8.2. Please note that this version requires a re-activation of your license key.

RELEASE OVERVIEW V8.2

General

SCRATCH v8.2 requires you to reactivate your license key. If you have valid support contract or subscription your license key has already been updated for v8.2. If the re-activation does not work, please contact licensing@assimilateinc.com. In addition, version 8.2 will also prompt you to upgrade your project database when you select to open your project. Please note that you still will be able to access your project database in a prior v8 version even after upgrading. However, it is always recommended to create a backup of all your projects before using a new version.

Meta data handling

• We added a new tab in the Media Browser for managing meta data. In it, you can select, update, add or remove meta data in a spreadsheet editor style. You can update meta data for a single shot or multiple shots at once, as well as update data by entering plain text or use formulas containing other meta data items.
• We also included additional search and match functionality: you can now automatically link LUT, CDL or SCRATCH grades to a shot based on meta data values and filenames. The Grade tab in the Media Browser contains additional columns for Source Input- and Grading LUT. Furthermore, for audio - next to the already existing timecode match function - you can now auto-link audio files to shots purely based on meta data and filename.
• To facilitate the search and match functionality we added options in the #reelid() and #name() mask codes to specify start and length. This way you can easily build your own formulas and logic to manage large numbers of shots without having to manually enter data.
• New Export LUT, CDL, grade option in the Grade tab of the Media Browser in combination with a filename mask option. This way you can easily export look / grade of multiple shots at ones with a filename that can be used to easily link it back to the shot later in the processing pipeline.
• To increase the usability of the Media Browser columns are now resizable and - rather than having to explicitly Apply any changes - the Undo function is extended to all updates during your session in the Media Browser. Also, as of version 8.2 all shot metadata is stored in the project database - this highly improves the speed of opening and working with the Media Browser when you are in a project that contains thousands of shots.

CONstruct Consolidate

• With the CONstruct Consolidate function you can manage the physical media files underneath the shots in your project and is similar to the already existing Project Consolidate function. However, the CONstruct Consolidate has a number of new features that increase its usability. First, the CONstruct Consolidate is a background process - this means that once started you can exit the construct, exit the project or even exit SCRATCH altogether while the process will continue to run. The progress of the consolidate can be monitored from the Process Queue - which can be opened from within any project
• The CONstruct Consolidate allows you to specify multiple locations to copy your media to. This might come to use especially in a dailies environment where you want to create multiple backups of your media at once. In addition the CONstruct Consolidate can include a checksum where the checksum result is included in the meta data of the shot from where it can be used in (XSLT) reporting.

SCRATCH Web, Publishing and new H264 encoder

• Up till now SCRATCH Web - even though released with v8.0, remained a sort of beta status as one of its fundamentals - proper H264 - encoding was missing on OSX. Since the release not only a lot of work has been put in to improve the user experience on SCRATCH Web - with v8.2 a new H264 encoder is introduced for both OSX as Windows. Have a try and create your own SCRATCH Web Channel. Or have a look at all the available tutorial videos on SCRATCH Web.

Live View

• The new Live View function takes in the SDI signal from a camera and allows you to work and grade directly on the camera feed. It also reads in the camera meta data if available which is then displayed in the meta data stack in the Player. The Live View function is available from the Utilities menu section in the CONstruct.
• We also added the option to set a naming mask for Gallery items - where the name of a Gallery item can be based on the meta data of the current shot (or e.g. Live View). As such the grade set can be easily linked to the recorded shot further downstream in the pipeline. The naming mask is set from the Player setting dialog.
• Please note that for now only the SDI input functionality of the Black Magic SDI cards / Devices is supported. Furthermore, currently we only read the meta data of the ARRI Alexa camera and Sony F65, F55, F5 cameras.

Oculus Rift / 360 Media support

• 360 media - though not new - is given a big impulse by the Oculus Rift. SCRATCH v8.2 includes full support for the Oculus Rift as a second monitor, including the tracking functions. SCRATCH supports both Spherical, Cube and Cylindrical based projections - as single and in stereo mode.
• The Tracking functions allows you to monitor the view position of the Oculus on the main interface monitor.
• The Oculus also provides a very good way for 'regular' 3D reference display.

Re-timer plug-in

• We have added the option to easily create speed-ramps with the default Re-Timer plug-in. In addition, you can now easily instantiate the plug-in directly from within the Editor by using the Ramp button. This will instantiate the re-timer plug-in and switch to the Shot menu in the Matrix. Also note that the Re-timer now takes its in-point as pivot for calculating the remapping to a source frame (it used to take frame 0). This might affect existing projects that use the re-timer plug-in!

New Monthly Subscription Model

• As of SCRATCH V8.2 a new monthly subscription licensing model will be available, including automatic (CC) payment processing and license updating.

Other Updates and Fixes

• As of v8.2 SCRATCH supports the AJA KONA 4 card. Please make sure that you updated the AJA Kona drivers to the latest available version when running SCRATCH V8.2.
• New version of the Codec Support Pack (CSP) with:
  • New supported formats: Panasonic Raw, Magic Lantern (.raw and .mlv), BMD Pocket camera (on OSX).
  • Updates on XAVC and XAVC-S to increase performance for 4k resolution. 
  • Added a tone curve to the Phantom Flex decoding.
• SCRATCH will signal the user on any renders in progress before exiting a project.
• To preserve performance - the Timeline Proxy strip is no longer updated on playback. Only the current shot is reflected.
• Added support for shaper (1D) LUT in Cube LUT that combines both a 1D and a 3D LUT. SCRATCH will automatically read a shaper LUT inside a cube LUT. To include a standard Log to Lin shaper LUT on a cube output, you need to enable a new (SConfig) advanced setting.
• Fix on an issue with the Curves that could cause a grade 'jump' when invoking the Curves on an image with out of range values. Note that this fix might have some impact on existing setup with out of range color values.
• Scale cursor and icons on higher resolutions displays (e.g. Retina). In addition - the statistics panel can now be resized to half and double the default size. The resize options are available from the Settings section in the panel itself.
• We have added various advanced (SConfig) settings:
  • Continue Process On Error: by default SCRATCH will now stop a render when an error is detected. This setting allows you to force SCRATCH to continue rendering the remaining part.
  • Always remap to Linear/sRGB rather than to Log Film when selecting certain gamma spaces with the debayer of ARRI, RED or Sony media. As an example - when enabling this setting SCRATCH will flag a shot Linear/sRGB when selecting RedLogFilm - rather than flagging the shot Log.
  • New setting to prevent setting a default media path for new projects and as such forcing the user to do this manually before entering the project.
  • Option to never start up background processor (as used by the new CONstruct consolidate).
  • Option to prevent any scaling of cursor and UI icons when working on a higher resolution display.
  • Include a standard 1D shaper LUT before the 3D LUT in the .Cube LUT format.
• For Stereo - the convergence function was not always properly working and we adjusted the Reverse option: rather than having this function with the shot - we added a Swap button with the Stereo options in the Config menu which physically swaps the left and right inputs of the current stereo node.
• The Fast-start option with a Quick Time export is by default only enabled for the H264 codec.
• The Search dialog now also searches through all extended shot metadata.
• We changed the color space labels from Ultra HD to REC2020.
• The Intro screen now contains the ASSIMILATE News section with news and links on SCRATCH updates. The Overlay with system information only pops up after an explicit click.
• Updating notes while in a Remote session was not propagated to all participants
• Adjusting the shot length / ripple the timeline when adjusting the vari-speed.
• Final Cut X 1.4 support for conforming.
• Using fit-scaling option in the Editor did not work properly - where the track selectors would obscure the shots.
• Various updates and fixes on the SCRATCH Repository tool. A trial repository is available for anyone with a valid support contract.
• Copy / Paste shots in the CONstruct now includes setting the length of the slot if the shot is pasted / dropped on the timeline layer.
• Include the latest RED SDK with RR support for monochrome footage. In the current build SCRATCH will not use an Intel graphics card for r3d debayer as the RED SDK used is not compatible.
  • Rocket-X Driver 2.1.19.0 and Firmware 1.3.19.7 or later. 
  • Rocket Driver 1.4.36.0 and Firmware 1.1.17.3 or later.
• XML scripting update: Added support for multiple audio files and included overall audio slip. Also note that the Create Project option now only creates the project folder - any project properties are only set after you enter the project the first time, using the init-xml.
• XSLT transforms update. When exporting HTML, SCRATCH will now search for an xslt file based on the type of export:  project, group or construct. When exporting a construct SCRATCH will look for a construct.xslt file in the SCRATCH settings folder. If it can not find that it will revert to the default xslexport.xsl file. We included a sample dailies report construct.xslt to show you the capabilities of using this export for generating reports.

UPDATE RELEASES V8.1

Build 824 (17 Oct '14)

• Issue with Sony Raw rendering blue frames when storage did not respond quick enough.
• Limit meta data name in AMT export to 31 characters (instead of 32) as Media Composer chokes over longer property names.
• Fix for 10-bit DPX using wrong endianess. This also might have caused certain solarized artifacts when using plug-ins.
• Publishing update. The Cinemacraft H264 on the Windows version causes problems on certain systems in that it is taking up too much resources - leaving the system unresponsive after starting a publish. For those instances you can use an Advanced System Setting to force the Publish function to render QuickTime H264. 

Build 823 (10 Oct '14)

• Sony SDK update that fixes the issue with Sony debayer on NVIDIA card on Windows using the latest graphics drivers.
• Fixes render issue with animated opacity.
• Snapshots upside down when a was display-LUT active or with the grade rendered twice when taking snapshot of the output node.
• Load media depth settings not working properly.
• Better fit display 2 to display 1 in wipe mode.
• More explicit message when opening a project in read-only mode.

Build 822 (3 Oct '14)

• New ARRI SDK containing a new debayer mode (ADA5) and among others fixes an issue with monochrome media.
• New RED SDK with Enhanced Blacks (D.E.B.) control and new sensor OLPF metadata items. Rocket-X requires Driver 2.1.10.0 and Firmware 1.3.4.11 or later. Rocket requires Driver 1.4.36.0 and Firmware 1.1.17.3 or later.
• Sony update: fixing issue that could change the resolution of a Sony clip after copying. Also, the Sony ISO control now defaults to Exposure Index value rather than the ISO sensitivity value from the camera meta data.
• The Publisher now uses a dynamic bit rate related to resolution and frame rate to improve file size.
• Working view Color Space (Apply) conversion could have an effect on Dual Head/SDI output.
• Various fixes on Repository that prevented committing changes or could crash SCRATCH on login.
• Added support for the "SOURCE FILE" comment line in an EDL to set the clip name.
• AJA: RGB to YUV conversion not properly set up for channel 3 and 4 with 4k output. Setup routing for 4k HDMI output.
• Fixes for DNxHD 444 and included new AMT SDK version.
• Changed the default Endianess for DPX so that 16 bit DPX rendered with SCRATCH will load in e.g. Clipster. Introduced an SConfig variable to change the Endianess if needed / required for compatibility with other software.
• Output nodes now properly default to the project settings again - rather than always to EXR.
• Stereo: pattern sometimes rendered flopped. Also, rendering dissolves often failed. Please note though that in a dual head setting Dissolves are still not rendered properly if the dual head has a different stereo pattern that the primary display.

Build 821 (29 Aug '14)

• Fix on Sony Raw implementation that caused performance issues since build 815.
• Includes a new version of CSP with fixes on various formats - among others the BM Pocket camera, AVC-i100 and Cinema DNG. Added support for the Panasonic Varicam 4k mxf and raw, Sony XAVC-S and mp4.
• Fix on QuickTime H264 encoding: Quality and Bitrate and GOP size controls were not functioning properly. Quality control only applies with bitrate value of 0. Also, The Publish function on OS X now uses new defaults for rendering better quality h264. On the Windows size the Publish function now uses variable rate frame size - decreasing the total size of the rendered movies.
• Added an Option to the EDL Editor to force update the names of the conformed shots with the names from the EDL.

Build 820 (25 Aug '14)

• When making a copy or conforming newly loaded shots, the resolution of the copied shot could be changed to the project default resolution.
• Entering / exiting the Curve Editor from the Curve menu could crash the application.
• (EDL) conform shot annotations were not properly added.

Build 818 (8 Aug '14)

• Added a normalization step in the color space conversion to XYZ. This normalization step is a later addition to the DCI specs and was until now missing in SCRATCH. This addition might slightly affect your setup when working / outputting to XYZ. To prevent this you can activate the Advanced setting 'DCDM: Disable XYZ normalization' in the Media section.
• Output nodes of v8.0 projects loaded into v8.1 are potentially resized - taking on the size of the first shot on the timeline rather than the project default height and width. To repair this you either need to explicitly reset the size of all primary output nodes of activate the 'Output size' variable in the Advanced Setting, Misc section. Note that this variable will not permanently resize nodes to the project default but only when activated or until you explicitly changed the size of the main output nodes. This variable should NOT be enabled when working with project started in v8.1, a v7 project loaded directly into v8.1 or after you manually updated all main output nodes.
• Ctrl + Click the Reset button in the Curves menu or the Vector menu now resets all the curves / vectors at once. Also - the v8.1 upgrade included that the curves include Luminance weights - were as v8.0 did not. If you stated a project in v8.0 and applied a grade - the v8.1 curves would continue to behave as v8.0. Only after resetting the curves (or the full grade) will they behave according to v8.1 specs and include the Luminance weight into the effect.
• Added DNxHD 100, 1080p/59.94 and 1080p/50 options to AMT MXF export. The new AMT library used now also includes all shot meta data in the rendered MXF - potentially allowing for smoother round trip to Media Composer.
• Various fixes related to OFX plug-ins.
• The Slip control in the Editor while in Source mode was not properly working.
• Publisher upload process in the Process Queue did not always show proper progress percentage.
• QuickTime with 8 AAC mono audio channels was only showing 1 channel.

Build 817 (30 July '14)

• Fix for an issue rendering out shots to mxf that have more than 16 channels of audio linked to it.
• Fix for an issue with the Curve Editor that when opened from the Curve menu did not show the proper curve or could potentially crash the application.

Build 816 (28 July '14)

• Option to include meta data burn-in in SCRATCH web publication.
• Various fixes regarding AAF timecode parsing, ATI/AMD graphics card, display stereo patters upside down, post render commands and xml scripting.

Build 815 (15 July '14)

• Initial release

RELEASE OVERVIEW V8.1

Please note that some of the updates are not fully compatible with prior versions and might affect existing v8.0 projects. Always back-up your projects before upgrading!

Color Updates

• Vectors and Curves now include luminance weights. With v8.0 the Vectors and Curves modules where upgraded - making them more accurate but apparently also making them more difficult to manage as luminance was not factored into their response. This update is not a return to the v7 behavior. The controls are still more accurate and respond different than v7 - but factoring in luminance takes off the hard edge.
• New Temperature, Tint and ISO-Gain controls in the Numeric Matrix menu. Note that these controls are 'additive' in that they do not reflect the possible (absolute) value which might be included in the meta data of the underlying media.
• A new 'Aperature' section in the Numeric Matrix menu that contains the (existing) Defocus control (with an extended range) and as a new Clarity control.
• New Color spaces: P3 (DCI) and AdobeRGB. Up till now we labeled the XYZ color space as 'P3/XYZ' which was primarily meant to send out to projectors. This label did not properly reflect that P3 (DCI) is a color space in its own next to XYZ. The Adobe RGB color space was added to better support still-photography workflows.
• Added the option to write Cube-LUT format.
• A new Advanced setting to disable SCRATCH's Color Management: when enabled the value of the Apply option for output-nodes and monitor settings will all be off by default for new projects and CONstructs.

Media Browser update

• The RED tab has been replaced with more generic Shot Config tab that will show all the shot controls of the selected shot and allows you to update values for multiple selected shots at once (if they are of the same type).

Other

• Snapshot function now includes flip/flops and rotation (in steps of 80 degrees). To include the full timeline framing context you can select the Output View in the View Port or explicitly select the (main) output node from the Output stack before taking the snapshot.
• Histogram display in curves menu is now a user settings as in some cases performance issues might want you to turn this off.
• Show timecodes for project tray proxies
• Various fixes - among others:
  • working with plug-ins on layers,
  • gallery maintaining state,
  • Quicktime output controls did not always reflect the correct values,
  • adding meta data through the meta data stack would crash the application on OSX,
  • on OSX the publishing upload task did not show up properly in the Process Queue causing users to prematurely quit the publishing job,
  • and more.

UPDATE RELEASES V8.0

Build 812 (2 July '14)

• Various updates on Publish and SCRATCH Web.
• Various fixes on refresh issues with plug-ins and working with free-form canvas.
• Update on Repository login screen - automatically generating list of available repositories.
• Workaround for faulty AJA driver that could cause audio playback at half speed.
• Enabled additional Sony F65 debayer resolutions (e.g. 8K). Note that these options have not so much to do with the resolution of the underlying source media but rather are (enhanced) debayer  quality modes.

Build 811 (15 June '14)

• Various update on publish, including new report option in SCRATCH Web.
• Fixes an issue with using a plug-in on a layer - generating a scrambled image or showing a freezed frame because the slip value was not set properly.
• Audio scrubbing was not functioning correct.
• Fixed a matte shift when using 2:1 image aspect.
• Tray selection was not maintained properly when adding items.
• Outputs created from a template would sometimes show faulty in / out points.
• JPeg2000 DCI outputs sometimes used incorrect bitrates. Note that you set the proper bit rate from the Format settings tab with the output. You can change the default values of new JPEG2000 outputs from the Advanced System settings.
• Re-instated option to ctr+drop shot on another shot to copy range and framing from one shot to the next.

Build 810 (28 May '14)

• Added ACES option for RED media.
• Added 2K DCI (2048x1080p) output modes for BMD DeckLink SDI.
• Support for Final Cut Pro X conform.
• Various Publish updates / fixes.
• Magenta Sticky notes appeared Blue.
• Update on XML scripting to set the Source Mode of shots.
• New Advanced Settings (SConfig) that will cause the Apply Monitor LUT option to only affect shots flagged as Log (to mimic the auto-apply option from earlier versions).

Build 808 (16 May '14)

• Various updates and fixes with the publishing functions.
• Added RED color spaces to the Media Browser update menu.
• Fixes various issues with Remote: connecting side was not pre-fetching media properly, shot aspect was not properly used on connecting side.
• The XML script copy routines added the file extension twice.
• Panel mappings for tray navigation were not stored properly.

Build 807 (8 May '14)

• Various updates and release of the SCRATCH Publishing function.

Build 806 (1 May '14)

• The Windows Installer would not always update the Windows registry appropriately if the user installing did not have the proper credentials. This could cause a problem with a first time installation of SCRATCH on a system.

Build 805 (30 April '14)

• New version of the Codec Support Pack (CSP): including a fix on XAVC. Note that using this new version might lead to a color shift in XAVC footage you loaded and graded in a previous v8 build / with another CSP version. Further, this version of CSP fixes issue with certain flavors of AVC and P2 contains support for the BM pocket camera.
• RED - updated SDK and added DragonColor color space and RedGamma4 gamma curve. The current version requires RED Rocket requires Driver 1.4.36.0 and Firmware 1.1.17.3 or later. RED Rocket-X requires Driver 2.1.10.0 and Firmware 1.3.4.11 or later. This update also solves an issue where the Kelvin setting on certain shots were not properly processed by the previous SDK.
• Player updates:
  • Start drag from the Timeline overlay tray.
  • Compare mode did not automatically show the selected shots.
  • Source stack now also responds to Page up/down keys for selection.
• OSX: Command key was sticking after Command+H and then switching back to Scratch.
• H264 encoder various fixes: QuickTime Player failed to playback certain PAL/NTSC rendered resolutions, could not render files greater than 4GB, sometimes failed to create the fast start option.
• Fixed an issue with rendering MXF on OSX.
• Increased accuracy on CTL script conversion to 3D LUT. Also created SConfig - advanced setting - to set the size of the 3D LUT that is created for processing CTL script.
• SCRATCH Remote did not always pass the framing to all connected clients.
• License dialog update to prevent mistakes on activating a license key or activating the free player version.
• Postrender XML output did not always contain complete frame table with all file names.

Build 802 (3 April '14)

• Sony - latest SDK and fix on Kelvin slider which was reversed. All non-default Kelvin settings are adjusted automatically when loading a project with this build. However, when reverting to an earlier build those values do not revert.
• Panel mappings: additional mappings for Dual View, Over Mode, AB Mode, Output Cache. New default mappings for the element panels.
• Color Slider were not properly updated when using panel.
• QuickTime - fixes for files that internally had different movie and media lengths.
• Load and Save options for (plug-in) presets are available again from the Shot menu.
• The Clear Notes function now only applies to the selected color. Holding down Ctrl when clicking the button will clear all notes from all selected shots.
• Gamma correction with the (lin/log) source remapping now works independent form the gamma conversion for the monitor or output node transforms.
• Conform match clips now also works on stereo nodes.
• Fix custom commands for plug-ins.
• BM DeckLink SDI used wrong levels.
• You can now use SDI and dual head simultaneously (except in combination with NVIDIA SDI - hardware restriction)

Build 800 (18 March '14)

• Initial release

RELEASE OVERVIEW V8.0

General Notes and Warnings

• This version requires a license update and re-activation of your license key. If you have a valid support contract your can just re-activate your current license key. Note that reverting to a prior version will again require a reactivation of the license key.
• This version is not fully compatible with version 7. When opening a v7 project SCRATCH will ask to upgrade the project database. SCRATCH will make a copy of the v7 database and convert that to v8. That means that you can revert back to v7: the project will be in the same state as before the upgrade. Newly created projects in v8 are not available in v7 - when installing v7 it will show an empty project. Also note that some of the grading tools for v8 have been updated - this means that any project created in v8 might not look exactly the same: e.g. the ACES implementation changed which might result in a small color shift when upgrading from v7 to v8.
• Panel mappings have changed and extended - existing mappings might not be fully functional with v8.

Collaboration and Workflow tools

• SCRATCH V8 contains a series of new collaboration and workflow tools to extend the scope of SCRATCH beyond the desktop. Please view this animation read this section of the manual for more information. Note that the collaboration tools are for now still in Beta phase and are expected to release several weeks after the v8 release. You need special permissions with you Assimilate account to be able to use some of the new tools. Login to the MyAssimilate site or contact Assimilate support to check availability.
  • Project Repository: On-line project database to share projects in a secure way with other SCRATCH users and maintaining a change log.
  • Publish: publish and share media directly from SCRATCH to the web - be it a single clip to YouTube or Vimeo or a complete CONstruct to MyAssimilate where you can invite others to review and collect feedback directly into SCRATCH. 
  • Remote CONNect: Link multiple SCRATCH systems from anywhere in the world for a creative session. 
  • Galleries: Maintain and synchronize looks, composites and SCRATCH settings with your on-line Assimilate account so they are available with any SCRATCH system at any time. You can easily link a SCRATCH user profile to an Assimilate online account - fully automate the synchronization and storage of your gallery items.

Color

• New Galleries Trays that are maintained outside the project database in your user folder and can be used with any project. The new Trays interface enhances efficiency of managing and applying filters, grades and composites. Please read this for more information.
• New Memory grades screen tool. Please read this for more information. 
• Update of Vectors menu that now allows you to pick any vector. Please read this for more information.
• Increased the number of available options in the Curves menu, including a new alpha curve. Also, the precisions and smoothness of the curves were enhanced. Please read this for more information.
• New CDL grading mode - limiting the color menu to CDL parameters only. Please read this for more information.
• ACES update - using the latest version with flexibility to revert to any prior version. Please read this for more information.
• LUT Update. Please read this for more information.
  
  • Support for the CineSpace 3D LUT format, including the 1D normalization transform.
  • LUT management: notification of missing LUT.
  • Automated LUT search path: media-, project-, user-folder.
• Added new Ultra HD Color space.
• New Color Match option with the Curves, allowing you to remap colors by just picking source and target from two images in a dual view setup. Please read this for more information.

Composite

• Solo mode in the Layer (formerly known as Scaffolds) list. Please read this for more information.
• Independent blur settings for Matte and Fill and new Pre- and Post-blur controls in the Qualifiers. Please read this for more information.
• Masks are now deformable with bicubics.
• Burn-in plug-in update, including text outlines and text styles - bold, italics, underline and color. Please read this for more information.
• Removed recursive display in Source stack / Structure view.

Media

• Official APPLE ProRes Encoding on Windows. Please read this for more information.
• New Cinecraft H.264 encoder to create mp4 media [currently only in Windows and limited to HD resolution]. Please read this for more information.
• Enhanced Relink media in Media Browser - no longer requires a full path to match. Please read this for more information.
• File browser enhancements - toggle loading multiple shots or still frames from inside the browser, create load type selections,  use UNC paths. Please read this for more information.
• Media format updates:
  • OpenEXR version 2.0 support including full floating point. Automatic loading of EXR stero images as top/down. EXR compression options are directly available with the output nodes.
  • SCRATCH now installs with the LGPL version of FFMPEG which offers additional format support. 
  • Latest Sony SDK with support for the new sLog3 color & gamma space. Each Sony node now also has its own ISO, Tint and Kelvin controls.
  • Includes latest ARRI SDK for support of latest camera firmware and monochrome images.
  • Latest RED SDK with support for multi-GPU debayer. Note that the new RED Rocket-X requires Driver 2.1.5.0 and Firmware 1.3.0.4 or later. Contact RED for downloading.
  • The Codec Support Pack (CSP) and the AVID AMT SDK for rendering MXF are now included with the SCRATCH installation.

Edit

• Link multiple audio files to a single node or timeline. Please read this for more information.
• The audio auto-link function in the Media Browser will link multiple matches to the same node if so desired. Please read this for more information.
• Reversed the track display in the editor and allow video track editing in audio mode.
• Update shot notes directly in the editor by using the Ctrl+N quick key.
• Store the dual view slip value set with a Project Tray shot so slip is re-used when the shot is used as reference in dual view. 

Project / workflow management

• Multiple notes per shot. Please read this for more information.
• Enhanced output management from the Output menu in the CONstruct. Please read this for more information.
• Post Render Commands to start an external script after a render finished. Please read this for more information.
• XML Scripting update: include output nodes and plug-ins (e.g. stereo nodes).
• Extended the number of available #-tag options in the Media Browser: for slot position, name and construct in the Media Browser to update shot-names or reel-id.
• sfile[1] preserves the sequence numbers in the original file name so you can re-create the exact same source file name on your render.
• Sort your CONstruct based on scene and take meta data properties. Please read this for more information.
• Event log reporting missing LUTs and uncompleted renders. Please read this for more information.

Other

• General face-lift of the interface
• Support for the Blackmagic DeckLink SDI output card.
• New Meta Data Stack in the CONstruct.
• New user settings menus dialog - available through the gear icon menu button. Please read this for more information.
• SCRATCH no longer automatically resumes any unfinished render but will show a notification.
• Various new panel mappings e.g. with the new Gallery Trays. 
• Set a custom number of project backup files in the advanced settings dialog.
• Layer selections are no longer maintained and stored with a grade. The actual Layer selection in the Player for a shot is only maintained during your project session. A new setting 'Keep Layer Name Selected' has been added - next to the already existing 'Keep Layer Selected' - to better control how SCRATCH defaults and maintains Layer selecti

V7.0 UPDATE RELEASES

• Build 766 (6 Dec '13)
  • Fixes an issue with applying LUTs, which under certain circumstances when rendering a long timeline, could product invalid results.
• Build 765 (15 Nov '13)
  • Update on file locking scheme on OSX
  • Fix for LUT export option with Custom Commands
• Build 764 (30 Oct '13)
  • Fix for loading F55/F5 2k display streams
  • Masks on anamorphic sources where not always displaying and rendering correct
• Build 762 (16 Oct '13)
  • Updates for improving reading F65 media from central SAN storage.
  • Additional updates for project sharing on OS X.
  • Fix for issue with saving Output templates.
• Build 760 (26 Sep '13)
  • Note: This build requires you to reactivate your license keys. If you have a valid support contract you can just use your existing key. If you are having problems reactivating your key please contact licensing@assimilateinc.com.
  • New RED SDK - including RED Dragon support. For Red Rocket support please update to driver/firmware to 1.4.36/1.1.17.3, available from the RED website,
  • Fix for database file locking on OSX to support project sharing,
  • Fix on AJA where overlay were shown upside down,
  • Fix on Sony reading XML meta data.
• Build 759 (3 Sep '13)
  • Fix for Sony Raw - not always recognized the correct format.
• Build 758 (28 Aug '13)
  • Support for Sony FS700 camera
  • Fix for issue with cube LUTs
• Build 755 (30 July '13)
  • Optimization and fix for the ACES implementation: clipping could occur in the RRT transform on extreme values.
  • Under certain conditions an error in a (QuickTime) output node could lead to the removal of all prior rendered files of that node.
  • Adjusted AJA Kona implementation in that the image orientation is now the same as most other applications so that there is no need to restart the system when switching between applications or to rewire cables in a 4k setup.
  • Update on Playout - using the Kona 422 output on the Mac could freeze the application when trying to connect to the VCR.
• Build 754 (16 July '13)
  • Included a Fast Start / Web-optimized option for QuickTime output.
  • Refresh issue with plug-ins where under certain conditions the grade of a shot was not always properly updated.
  • Solved an issue on OSX where a limit on the number of opened files was not properly overwritten and could cause failure to open certain files.
  • Update on XML scripting background process - a log messages was only written after all commands were fully processed rather than after each finished command.
• Build 753 (5 July '13)
  • Image on dual head was not always properly refreshed when using a plug-in for the second screen.
  • XML auto-export always included generating proxies and xslt transform.
  • Update on JPeg2000 for DCI compatibility.
  • Solved an issue on OSX were under certain circumstances the wrong texture was rendered.
• Build 752 (4 June '13)
  • Added support for 4k output from the AJA Kona 3G.
  • Reading external xml meta data files with Sony footage and processing ASC-CDL parameters if set.
  • Dual stream SDI output was showing anaglyph image.
  • Fixed issue with reading R3D RMD files that were edited in redcinex.
  • Timecode was not read correct from certain MXF files.
  • Issue with Qualifier on 10bit source footage when used in combination with masks.
  • Fix issue with reading CTL file that could clip the image.
  • Assemble: direction of dissolves where not always properly read from aaf files. On export EDL - any clip name version postfixes are stripped.
  • 3:2 Pull-down node did not show proper length.
• Build 751 (1 May '13)
  • Fixing issue with 3D LUTs / curves that could cause a color shift.
  • Fix for AJA SDI - sync output channels when dual stream (stereo) is enabled.
  • Dropping a scaffold in the Tray could potentially crash the application.
• Build 749 (13 Mar '13)
  • Fix for wrong offset with 3D grading LUT.
  • Fix for re-link issue with ARRI footage.
  • Fix for AJA analog mode detection on window.
• Build 748 (8 Mar '13)
  • Fixes an issue with 3d LUTs that was introduced in the previous build.
  • JPEG2000 would always include alpha channel, even if RGB was selected.
  • Color space setting was not always maintained when creating a version.
  • Update for OFX plug-ins that need more than 5 control tabs.
• Build 747 (5 Mar '13)
  • Fixes an issue with the Watch folder on OS X
• Build 746 (25 Feb '13)
  • Fixes an issue with the Cube LUT format.
  • Shot Input color space settings were not properly pasted with Paste Frw function.
  • Support for analog output from the Kona 3G card.
• Build 745 (19 Feb '13)
  • Update on Color Space management. Please read this article explaining how SCRATCH deals with color spaces and ACES in particular, as well as giving workflow suggestions.
  • HDMI output for the AJA T-TAP was not properly working.
  • In certain cases a shot's metadata items were duplicated when using undo functions which could cause the project database to grow rapidly.
  • Display LUT on SDI was in certain cases not properly applied.
  • In some cases SCRATCH auto-selected the wrong CUDA/OpenCL device.
• Build 743 (25 Jan '13)
  • new ARRI Fast debayer option. SCRATCH's own debayer method (as opposed to using the ARRI SDK), build for speed while preserving color accuracy. The Fast debayer option is set as default option when loading new media.
  • upgraded the JPEG2000 implementation to render DCI compliant output. In the Advanced settings dialog you can set the JPEG2000 Encoding format (DCI Compliant, Lossless or Lossy) and bit rate. Note that for DCI compliance there are two profiles: CINEMA 2k and CINEMA 4k. CINEMA 2k requires a framerate of either 24 or 48 fps, while CINEMA 4k only accepts 24 fps. The standard resolution for CINEMA 2k is 2048 x 1080. To maintain DCI compliance either the x- or y-dimension should follow this standard resolution with the other dimension either being equal or smaller than the default. For CINEMA 4k the default resolution is 4096 x 2160. The bit rate is maximum (and default) 250 Mbs. In the Advanced settings you can set a lower value if required.
  • New Sony SDK with new F5 and F55 support and for the F65 format, newly added 6k and 8k support.
  • New RED SDK with support for monochrome media, DRX control on the Red Rocket and additional metadata items (such as scene and take). Red Rocket requires driver 1.4.32.0 and firmware 1.1.16.11.
  • Load multi-view EXR images as under/over images.
  • Update on the benchmark / profile function of SCRATCH for measuring IO performance.
  • Other fixes:
    • Output temples with QuickTime nodes sometimes used wrong resolution.
    • The colorspace/LUT for dual head was not always properly applied.
    • Dropping shot in dual view sometimes set the wrong slip.
    • Iridas cube LUT not correctly loaded on the Mac
    • NVidia SDI RGB full/Range labels in the SDI configuration panel were switched.
    • Editor - splitting a shot would not split the versions in the slot.
    • Fixing issue with assemble of negative vari-speed events.
    • Fixing a number of issue with Stereo setup and stereo output on SDI.

• Build 741 (18 Dec '12)
  • Dual-view/Over mode updates and quick key reassignment: d = toggle dual-view, s = toggle split view, s + shift = toggle trim view, a = toggle over mode. The 'Over mode' on the SDI is now enabled by default.
  • Stereo setup was not available in SCRATCH Lab.
  • Copy / paste (forward) of FX Ctrl values did not always work.
  • Framing controls in the Editor did not update properly when animated
  • Solved load delays and performance issues when using certain LUTs.
  • Vari-speed offset from older project was not properly processed and offset could in some cases not be adjusted.
  • Fixes on FC XML for media with different frame rate than the timeline and for processing zero length EDL BL-events.
  • Locked timeline could still be updated in the editor.
  • Compare mode was not working
  • Link-views in the View Port is now enabled by default.
  • Color blend mode on node was not persisted properly and alpha is set to 0 by default.
  • The 'S' key to show / hide on shot-notes did not work properly in the Tray in the Player.
  • Deleting a scaffold did not update the control state properly.
  • The source-time in the editor for the shot's in- and out-point now shows the actual source-timecode.
  • Scroll the construct and tray with the mouse-wheel.
• Build 739 (29 Nov '12)
  • The Curves functionality was broken in the previous build
  • Fixed an issue with slipping the media of a version and removed a limit on the length of a resolve.
  • SCRATCH could potentially crash after a clean install when using an AJA card because settings were not properly initialized.
  • Stereo update. Scaffolds where not properly rendered on top of a stereo node and framing was not always applied properly. To render out left and right eye separately without having to change the output node settings, you now can add an additional node at the top level next to the main output node. This node does however not include any tracks in a multi-layer timeline setup.
  • The HSV Qualifier did no produce proper results.
• Build 738 (23 Nov '12)
  • AJA update: support for RGB 444 over a single 3Gb link as well as 1080p @ 50, 59.95 and 60 fps through dual link, 3G level A and 3G level B. When using a Kona cards, make sure you check your SDI settings after installing this update release.
  • Default monitor color space transformation setting is now auto-apply.
  • SCRATCH now exports graded proxies when using the auto-export or Custom Command export options.
  • Unable to set keyframes for Scaffold vertices.
  • Fixed an issue preventing SCRATCH to run properly on OS X 10.6.
• Build 737 (16 Nov '12)
  • initial release

VERSION 7.0 [November 2012]

General Notes and Warnings

• This version requires a license update and re-activation of your license key. Reverting to a prior version will again require a reactivation of the license key.
• This version is not fully compatible with prior versions: projects created and graded in prior versions might come out different in this version and vice verse. Always check your project carefully after opening it in a different version. We do NOT recommend upgrading in the middle of a project.
• Please spend some time getting used to changes in the UI and new hot key layout before taking this version into production. Also, the new color space and monitor setting require special attention.
• As with every new version, make sure you made proper back-ups of all your SCRATCH project data.

Player Navigation

Updated Player navigation and drag and drop model to allow forworkingseamlessly from a multi-layer timeline down to a single,multi-levelcomposite, while viewing the output in full context at alltimes.

• New View Port Toolbar to efficiently manage the View Port image for review and comparison (open link).
• Dual View Slip Selector to to independently the play left- and right view and visually set a slip value (open link).
• Updated Over-Mode with more flexible wipe function (open link).
• The Timeline Repeat Mode button also allows you to control the set the Playback Speed to 2x, 4x, 8x, 10x, 20x, 50x (open link).
• The new Source-Mode allows you to view the current shot including its handles while in the Player with the full timeline (open link and open this link). 
• View versions in the context of the final output (open link).
• The enhanced Drag / drop model allows you to drop shots in the Layer stack or Structure view to replace elements while automatically re-wiring inputs when dropping plug-ins. You can also drop any shot in the right pane in dual view to compare shots drop. Scaffolds also automatically re-wires inputs in case plug-ins are used - allowing you to efficiently copy a Scaffold from one shot to a whole range of other shots (open link). Dragging a mask to the scaffold list will promote the mask to a scaffold (open link). The reverse is will happen when dragging a scaffold to the mask list.
• Added Previous - Next navigation buttons to the View Port Control bar for navigating a history list of selected shots on the timeline and inside composites (open link).

Edit / Conform

The SCRATCH Editor has undergone a facelift (open link)

• Enhanced drag / drop options for interactive editing (open link).
• A new Editor-Overlay in the View Port showing the previous and next shot in the timeline (open link).
• When switching to the new Source-Mode, the Editor allows you to directly adjust the timings of all your composites inputs (open link). 
• The new Flatten function allows you to consolidate all sub-tracks into Scaffolds on the main track (open link).
• Create a Collector node from shots spread over different tracks (open link).

Color and Composite Toolbox

• Better Color Space management with auto-transformations and support for the ACES color space. SCRATCH perform automatic transformations from one color space to the next (open link) and you can set a color space per output device / monitor (open link). You can manage the with each color spce related gamma at the project level (open link).
• View your scene and manage and animate camera positions in the new 3D Camera menu (open link) together with the new View Port Perspective interface (open link).
• New Directional-blur and Multi-Sampling for textures (open link) as well as Motion Blur with MipMap Filtering (open link) for smoother animations. With the new added controls the Texture menu has been changed with separate control sets for Front and Matte. Use the "+ Matte Transform" button to link both settings again (open link).
• Regarding Textures (open link):
  • the Front section now has an Alpha (A) channel mask option to explicit enable embedded alpha, making an additional Matte assignment redundant 
  • shot assignment originating from the base shot's Staging area are referenced rather than first making a copy.
  • the IN / OUT used references the actual in/out of the shot.
  • in addition to Scaling you can also set the texture Rotation
• Additional Tracker functions; Selecting alternative source, setting offset for shape tracker and allow use of external tracker data from Mocha (open link).
• Easy Nesting of Scaffolds (open link).
• Per shot options for Opacity, usage of Source Alpha and RGBA Transfer modes, available from the Editor (open link) and the Input Transform menu in the Matrix (open link).
• Next to the existing RGB remapping options a new Alpha remapping (A=A,0,1) option was added to the Matrix Levels menu page (open link).
• Paste options. The Paste Forward function now stops at the mark out when a Range is set. In the Paste Dialog - selecting an option with Quick Key: Alt + click will disable all other selected options (open link).
• Additional Color features and changes:
  • You can now use a 3D LUT anywhere in the pipeline without restriction on your grade / curve usages.
  • Support for 1D RAW LUTs with .txt extension, like S-curve_for_CineStyle.txt from Technicolor.
  • Added black/white offset changes to non-clipped 1D LUTs/Curves.
  • Separate pivots are maintained for LIN and LOG settings (open link).
  • Input Lin to Log and Log to Lin conversions now extend the full range and don't clip between 0-1.

Menu Updates

• Settings menu is now available from the pop-up menu in the Player (open link). Some of the Matrix configuration controls were also moved to this menu.
• The Settings menu has a separate Monitor sub-menu for setting display LUTs (open link).
• The Stabilize function was moved to the Source- Matrix page.
• The Show Matte option and color pod were moved to the Qualifier - Matrix page.
• A large number of key-board Quick Keys were updated. The Help panel in SCRATCH now contains tabs to browse through all quick keys (open link).

Project, System & Other

• Updates for Stereo setup (open link): Output any Stereo pattern directly to a monitor without having to add a plug-in (open link).
• New Advanced-Setting dialog to control Panels setup (open link), VCR configuration (open link), custom Formats and Aspect ratios (open link), manage Custom Controls (open link) and advanced System Settings (SConfig) (open link)
• Support for HDMI output for AJA Kona cards and AJA T-Tap.
• New AMT library and ability to output MXF DNxHD 444 (open link).
• Separate Users and Projects folders for more flexible setup in multi-seat situations (open link).
• Custom Commands enhancements: export XML including proxies / LUTs, support for blocking calls and option to process results of a script rather than using the watch folder (open link) .
• Update on XML scripting - allow creating new projects (open link).
• Option to save a RMD-file for a r3d shot.

V6.1 UPDATE RELEASES

• Build 729 (8 Nov '12)
  • Fixed an issue with adding shot references to the tray and an issue with the Media Browser.
• Build 728 (5 Oct '12)
  • This build contains an update on the Sony F65 format implementation. In the previous build playback of F65 media had under certain conditions a performance issue, especially on OSX.
• Build 727 (8 Aug '12)
  • This build requires a reactivation of your current v6.1 license key. No new key is required just use the Activate button with the existing key. Note that the system needs to be online when activating.
  • New ARRI SDK with support for new debayering algorithms and support for color space ACES. The new version also includes a new notation "ARRI Debayer Algorithm" (ADA) for all debayer algorithms:
    
    • ADA-1 HW original camera hardware debayer algorithm,
    • ADA-2 SW  advanced ARC/SDK software debayer algorithm (previously called AMC-1),
    • ADA-3 HW SUP 7.0 camera hardware debayer,
    • ADA-3 SW: SUP 7.0 advanced SDK software debayer algorithm.
  • New Sony SDK which includes support for F64 HFR (high frame rate) and increased overall performance. Using a new SConfig-variable (SONYMXF_F65_DISABLE_OPENCL) allows to force CPU debayer rather than GPU debayer which in some cases provides better performance.
  • Both ARRI and Sony F65 have specific requirements and issues regarding OS- and graphics driver versions. Please read this article for more information.
  • High order filters were not always properly rendered pixel-aligned, causing jitter on animations
  • Update on caching of audio meta data to be able to open the player faster.
  • Update on SCRATCH Plug-in API (SPA).
• Build 723 (26 June '12)
  • Update on Burn-in plug-in. In some cases text was displayed distorted. Also the alpha channel in included with text display was not adaptive.
  • In some cases a LUT on a derived output node was applied twice.
  • The No-Clipping option is now properly maintained for the selected Scaffold.
  • Long file names were not always refreshed properly in the info bar in the Player.
  • Another update for Neat plug-in to properly work in combination with using SDI.
  • Added Quick Key - 'W' for toggling project tree panel in the CONstruct.
  • Added option to escape wildcard character in the search dialog: use 'x/yz*' to search for literal text 'x*yz*'.
• Build 722 (13 June '12)
  • OFX plug-in interface update - among others, fixing an issue with Neat Video which was not properly working in combination with SDI.
  • Embedded alpha in source Fill-texture can now be enabled and no longer has to be copied to the Matte-texture. Also, alpha is passed properly to (OFX) plug-ins.
  • Scaffold blur and alpha were not properly copy / pasted.
  • Bug fix on reading AIFF files that could cause channel swapping.
  • Update on AAF assembler. The From-Folder option could in some cases crash the application. Also, the timecode of a shot was in some cases not parsed properly when reading an AAF file coming from AVID MC.
  • Update on ALE export which now including all audio channel references rather than just the first two channels.
  • Media long file names containing only numeric characters were not always parsed correct.
  • Fixing an issue with updating the ReelID of shots in the Media Browser that could crash the application.
• Build 721 (9 May '12)
  • Solved issue with selecting a reference shot while in dual view.
  • Solved issue with range settings when entering the Player with a single shot.
  • Adjusted default file mask for new Broadcast Wave Writer.
• Build 720 (2 May '12)
  • Update on Sony F65 support; new implementation including additional Source Transform option and new defaults, audio support, auto processing of CDL data and support for F65 Lt media. Please see the Sony paragraph for a more complete description of the new setup.
  • New Metadata stack in the Player. Next to the Version, Layer and Staging stack a new panel is added for displaying and editing the metadata of the current shot in the Player. Please see the Metadata Stack paragraph for more information.
  • We replaced the Shot Name - input mask in the Media Browser with a more generic setup to update the name, reel-id, scene or take properties of a shot using a mask. Please see the Media Browser paragraph for more information on the Input Mask.
  • We added the option to copy/paste FX Ctrls values from one shot to the other. The Paste Dialog now includes the option to also paste FX Ctrl settings to a single or range of shots (using Paste FWD function). Please see the Paste Dialog paragraph for more information on this feature.
  • Drag & drop update; added the option to drag nodes from the tray in the player and drop shots onto the current shot in the View Port to copy a grade. For more information please see pasting grades paragraph and the Trays paragraph on dragging shots from a tray.
  • New Broadcast Wave Writer plug-in that allows you to write separate audio files. Please have a at the BCW paragraph more information.
  • Update on audio-sync function; when using Ctrl+Click to find the next audio peak - SCRATCH will slip video in-point rather than audio slip. Please see the Audio Slip paragraph for more information.
  • Added framing animation and opacity data in an XML import / export. Please see the Appendix for more information on XML scripting and import/export. Also, see the paragraph on Import and Export of Animation data for more information on the data formatting in the XML. Furthermore, note that the timeout for checking for updates in the init-xml folder of a project was changed from 30 to every 5 seconds.
  • Fix on processing ASC CDL data from an ALE - in previous versions not all decimals were processed. Also, on export CDL data the master value is included with the rgb components for pre-gain, offset and gamma. 
  • Properly include empty slots that with length as BL events in an EDL export.
  • Fix on timeline timing when using a re-timer / pull-down; the re-timing would not properly ripple through in the display of the timeline and in the render when writing to a folder per slot.
• Build 717 (28 Mar '12)
  • Sony F65 - implemented the new Sony SLog2 gamma curve. As of this build F65 footage by default are set to the R.BT709/sRGB Color Space and using the SLog2 input remapping in the Source Transform of the Matrix. About the current Sony F65 implementation - we get a lot of questions about comparing the image in SCRATCH to that in the Sony Viewer. The SLog2 implementation is identical to that in the Sony Viewer. SCRATCH has a different Rec709 gamma curve implementation (in the Source Transform) than the Sony viewer. Using the SCRATCH grading functions you are able to create a similar image as the Viewer if desired. Alternatively - on request, we have a LUT available that mimics the Sony viewer one-on-one; however that clips the image leaving very little dynamic range for further grading and is not a recommended workflow.
  • In some cases after Loading footage and doing a conform to a new construct the shots on the initial CONstruct where not saved.
• Build 716 (9 Mar '12)
  • New RED SDK with new RED colors paces.
  • Sony F65 and SR support: when enabling the SONYMXF_ENABLE_AUDIO SConfig variable SCRATCH will also process the audio in the mxf file. Note that this is still beta functionality and you might experience issues when in the Edit module and shuttling through the timeline while audio is enabled. These issues should not occur in normal playback / renders.
  • Support for .cube 3D LUTs
  • More precise message when using file mask that does not produce unique file names.
• Build 714 (1 Mar '12)
  • Support for Sony F65 and SR - formats. Please see the Sony paragraph in the User Guide for more information. Also note that currently audio is not supported for these formats.
  • New ARRI SDK, allowing for GPU debayer. As far as the GPU debayer this is still a beta version and to use it rather than regular CPU decoding you need to explicitly set the 'ARRI_USE_GPU' variable in the SConfig file. For Windows a Quadro 5000 or 6000 card is recommended and for the Mac a Quadro 4000 - though the performance gains are less than on a Windows system. Please see the ARRI paragraph in the User Guide for more information. Also, please refer to the driver chard for recommended drivers to use.
  • Added Color Space and Debayer Mode options to ARRI Process menu controls and any in the media included LUT / ARRI Look data is now properly processed. 
  • Updated AJA Mac SDK to version 3.2 - this now requires driver 10.1.
  • Added default mapping files for the new Tangent Element panels. Please see elsewhere in this article for more info and links on the use of this panel.
  • A Log to Lin + Gamma conversion in source transform did not maintain the proper black level; this fix might affect existing setups when doing a Log to Lin transform and a Gamma adjustment in the source transform.
  • The Log to Lin Display LUT does no longer include an automatic device-gamma adjustment.
  • The #sframe hash code for the file naming scheme did not always return the proper value.
  • Fixed an issue with Tracker when using file formats with different than expected endianess.
  • The backspace on selected text was not working properly.
  • The Scene and Take properties of a shot could end up twice in an ALE or XML export.
• Build 709 (7 Feb '12)
  • This build includes a new RED SDK that solves a bug  giving black frames when using HDRX in certain resolutions. However - there is still an issue that for certain resolution the Red rockets aligns the image incorrect resulting in a 1 pixel black line appearing on the right of the image. This issue is known with RED and is expected to be resolved with the next firmware upgrade.
  • Fix for a performance issue when a r3d shot was used as a texture.
  • Fix for a performance issue with copying image data to the graphics card while in dual view or a stereo setup.
  • This build ignores so called dead keys on certain international keyboards as they were crashing the application (OS X) .
  • The remote module was not working properly.
  • Added a new 'Alt' group text for panel mappings.
  • Statistics where sometimes calculated after the display LUT was applied.
• Build 707 (19 Jan '12)
  • Solves an issue with the Statistics Waveform with FX Quadro 5800 cards.
  • SCRATCH will now automatically calculate a slip value when loading and linking a (Broadcast Wave) audio file to a shot from the Edit menu in the Player. A sample-rate override (48048 rather than 48k) is automatically applied for calculating the slip in case of a shot with a 23.976 framerate. This same override is also applied by default in the Media Browser - independent of the override ht user can set manually.
  • Toggling the visibility of a note (using the 'S' key) of a selected shot will will also toggle all other selected notes. This way you can quickly show/ hide notes on the entire timeline.
  • Updating the Color Pivot defaults was not working properly.
• Build 706 (13 Jan '12)
  • The default extrapolation mode for animations was reverted back from Linear to Constant.
  • Final Cut XML was not always properly decoding a clip's timecode.

VERSION 6.1 [December 2011]

• Note: this version requires a new license. New license are only issued by sending you a license-key to activate or re-activate your existing license key. Please see Licensing the Software in the User Guide about license key activation. Switching (back) between this version and v6.0 requires a re-activation on each switch.
  
• Warning: in this version important changes in handling r3d media are implemented which make it not backward compatible with previous versions. Please read and consider the notes below carefully.
• Note: not all new features are available in SCRATCH Lab. Both in the User Guide and in these release notes -       - is used if a feature is only available in SCRATCH®.

SDI

• Support for the AJA Kona SDI boards (output only) both on OS X and Windows. Please see System Settings - SDI in the User Guide for more details. Note that for the AJA Kona cards to work you need the latest drivers which are available at the AJA website at www.aja.com/support. The latest Beta build requires Kona driver 10.0.1. Also, we are working on support of for the Bluefish Epoch card - but testing has not finished with the release of this version. 

PROJECT, MEDIA AND CONFORM

• RED r3d media - Please see the RED paragraph in the User Guide.
  • You can now set the target resolution per node and if using a Red Rocket - scaling is done on the card which greatly improves decoding performance. By default SCRATCH will set the target resolution of an r3d clip to the project resolution. 
  • Note that this new setup is NOT compatible with previous versions; once you load an existing project into this version you will lost the original settings. Vice verse - a project created in this version will not maintain its settings when loaded in an older version.
  • New RED-SDK with new options for processing HDRx. The Red Rocket requires driver 1.4.19.0 and firmware 1.1.16.5 both available on the RED website.
• Update on AAF/XML assemble- Please see the Conforming paragraph in the User Guide.
  
  • New Reverse-Assemble for AAF/XML.
  • Option to include multiple matches in an assemble.
  • Inputs of non-supported effects are included in the assemble. You can include additional inputs either in the Version stack or in the Staging area of the main input shot.
  • The Match from Folder - option also matches the name-property of the event with the file-name. In addition you can set the media type to search for - which increases the efficiency and performance of the match routine.
  • New option to import Meta Data from the AAF file into a matched clip.
• Meta Data handling to facilitate specific workflows - Please see the Media Browser in the User Guide.
  • New Scene and Take properties per shot; editable in the Media Browser and included in ALE and XML import / export.
  • Allow for automatic overwriting of Shot Scene and Take properties when loading / linking a Broadcast Wave (BCW) audio file.
  • New option in the Media Browser to update the name of all selected clips using a naming-mask with available #codes.
  • The #reelid[n] code was extended with a parameter in order to return only the first n-number of characters of the shot's reel-id.
  • When exporting AVID MXF all extended meta data items are included in the rendered MXF/AAF. 
  • The In / Out Points now displays absolute frame positions and an (additional) media length column. The +In / +Out controls now add or subtract the actual number of frames rather than previously re-calculate the values to increase / decrease the handles of a shot.
• Plug-in updates.
  • Stereo node update - Please see the Stereo node in the User Guide. Added a Frame Sequential mode; this will output alternate left / right frames rather than a single stereo pattern frame.
  • Burn-in update - Please see the Burn-in node in the User Guide. A new Flash Frame - option; when enabled only the first and last 'n' number of frames of each shot will have the burn-in text. Rendering Guides can be optionally linked to the display of flash frames.
  • New Re-Timer plug-in - Please see the Re-Timer node in the User Guide. The Rolling Mix - mode of this node does an interpolation of frames on a slow motion and will do a merge of frames on a speed up.
• CONstruct Tools - Please see the Media menu in the User Guide.
  • Reshuffle of functions with the Commands Menu to create space for new tools.
  • Generate TC function to generate a new time-code for all shots on the timeline in the CONstruct, given a start time-code and an interval.
  • The Stereo Setup function will create Stereo Nodes for all left Left/Right pairs on the CONstruct.       
  • Match TC function that adjusts the in-point of all second versions (right eyes) so that the timecode matches the timeline version (left eye).
  • De-Construct function that transforms the current (conformed) CONstruct to a stripped version by removing duplicate clips, adding handles and fixed gaps in order to render or play-out the CONstruct more efficiently.       
• Added #codes: #seq_frame which translates to 'left' / ' right' and can be used with Stereo nodes. #keycode which translates to the keycode of the source image. Please see the Output paragraph in the User Guide.

COLOR GRADING AND COMPOSITING

• New Enhanced Levels noise function in the Matrix Source tab than implements an overall error compensation scheme for all grades. Please see the Source Transform paragraph in the User Guide. Note that setting this to a high value might - depending on your grade lead to a too 'obvious' noise pattern.
• Automatically rescale the Scaffold canvas/transform when applied on a different target.
• Update on OFX plug-in interface for faster processing of image effects by sharing data between host and plug-in on the GFX.
• Tracker is now available for masks as well. Please see Masks paragraph in the User Guide.
• The No Clipping option is now active by default and its state ripples through when creating Scaffolds. Please see the Source Transform paragraph  in the User Guide.
• Added option to load and render Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files. You can load an SVG file in the Matrix where it will show as a scaffold. Please see the Texture paragraph in the User Guide.
  
  • Note that this functionality is only available on NVIDIA Fermi cards on Windows. 

SYSTEM - SCRIPTING, SPA

• Update on Custom Commands settings that now offer the option to an xml file with data of all selected shots(and optionally a LUT per selected shot. Please see Custom Commands in the User Guide.
• Added Staging Area items to XML export/import. Please see XML Scripting in the User Guide. Note that only items that were explicitly added to Staging are included - not all items used in a composite.
• Update of SCRATCH PLUG-IN API (SPA) for developing SCRATCH plug-ins.

Other Features and Fixes

• Added support for the Tangent TUBE API with supports for the new Element panels. Please see Controls Surfaces in the User Guide. Note that default mappings for the Element panels are not yet available on the first release of this version. For the panels to work you need firmware version 1.15 and Tangent HUB software version 0.1.3, revision 2.
• Added a Select All function in the Search dialog to select all clips found on the current CONstruct. Please see the Search panel in the User Guide.
• Added work around for NVIDIA dual screen bug when using HDMI as second screen; Enabling the SConfig variable NV_DUALHEAD_BUG invoke the work-around.
• New version of the AVID AMT library available for rendering AVID compatible DNxHD MXF from SCRATCH. Please download the library from here.

VERSION 6.0 [July 2011]

• Warning: Projects loaded in 6.0 might not appear the same when loaded back in v5.2. The setup of the Hue-Hue curve in the Matrix has been updated and is not always backward compatible.
• When opening a v5.x project this version you must Upgrade the Project Database. After upgrading you still can load the database in a v5.x version of SCRATCH but settings and grades might differ or be lost.

LICENSING & INTRO SCREEN

• SCRATCH has a new License scheme with two products; SCRATCH® - the full version and SCRATCH Lab™. Please see the Products Features Difference Matrix paragraph in the User Guide for the difference between the products.
• The ways you handle license files has changed in the version. Rather than copying a license file to the settings folder you load the license in the License Dialog of the Start-up Screen of SCRATCH. Please see the Licensing the Software paragraph in the User Guide.

MAC OS X VERSION

• Both SCRATCH® and SCRATCH Lab™ are also available on OS X.

MULTI LAYER TIMELINE

• Added a Multi-Layer Timeline (MLT) context to be able to overcome the slot-boundaries of a CONstruct.
• The MLT is implemented using sub-CONstructs and layers on the Main Output node.
• The Editor was extended with a Tracks view.
• To be able to easily navigate through the shots of the different Tracks, the Player navigation was updated.

STAGING, LAYER STACK AND STRUCTURE VIEW

• To improve organization, manageability and navigation through complex compositions:
  • a new Staging module as an extra data-management dimension to the CONstruct.
  • the Layer Stack and Structure View - composite tree view.

AAF / XML CONFORM

• Added support for conforming from AAF or Final Cut XML.
• SCRATCH supports conforming multiple tracks and most of the basic effects used: Dissolves and Fades, Vari-Speed, Flip/Flops and scaling.
• Next to Matching edit event to already loaded media, you can now also match the events with the media in an disk folder based on file-name.

MEDIA FORMATS

• Codecs Support Pack (CSP) - offers native support for;  Phantom .cine, Cinema DNG, Panasonic P2 (DV, DV50, DVHD, AVCi50, AVCi100), Sony XDCam (4:2:0 & 4:2:2), MOV and AVI (Cineform Si2, DPX-C), AVCHD. Currently CSP is available as a separate downloads.
• RED r3d media.
  
  • As of this version the SCRATCH software decoding of r3d is no longer available for new projects, only RED's own SDK decoding which can also be used in combination with a Red rocket acceleration card. The S-RED 12, S-RED 16 and Native color mode settings for R3D files are all disabled; existing projects using these settings will continue to use them but once changed you will not be able to switch back.
  • Additional 1/8 proxy mode for better play-back performance when no accelerator card is available.
  • New option to adjust the ReelID for r3d footage to one of four formats: A001, A001C001, A00131XX, A001_C001_1231XX. You can set the format on the General tab of the FX Ctrls menu in the Player. Note that the setting is a project-wide setting and is applied to all RED shots, unless the ReelID of the shot has been altered manually before.
• Support for the ARRI-raw format, using the ARRI SDK for debayer and collorimetry. The current implementation allows you to adjust the ISO and RGB channel gains used for decoding the image.
• QuickTime - Additional controls for color tagging and conversion for rendering QuickTime files.
• Tiff - now writes alpha as either UNSPECIFIED, ASSOCALPHA (pre-multiplied) or UNASSALPHA. Also added Tiff tags for TimeCodes and FrameRate according to the 'CinemaDNG spec' and reading/writing the 'reel id' from/into the Image header. Tiff now preserves the same metadata as DPX.
• Writing alpha is now controlled through UI options per node by selecting the RGB or RGBA mode.
• Added Range control (Video/Full) to MXF DNxHD node and using generic YUV->RGB conversion functions to prevent a color shift in AVID when loading / viewing SCRATCH generated MXF files.
• Improved performance of handling EXR footage.

THE MATRIX

• Next to the points trackers SCRATCH now also offers a Shape Tracker - allowing you to track any Scaffold created, including transformation and deformation of the shape - which can be controlled separately.
• New Masks sub-menu where you can create multiple shapes inside a Scaffold to add an alpha channel for masking areas / cutting holes in the parent Scaffold. These shapes should be viewed as a qualifier for your composite but based on 2D geometry instead of keying.
• Additional Qualifiers and keyer features.
  • New Luminance Keyer using curve control to set value and slope of the qualifier. 
  • New Chroma Keyer - using differences in chromatics, primarily targeting blue/green-screen shots. 
  • New Vector Keyer, treating colors as vectors in 3D RGB cube and defining a cone shape vector limited by shadow and highlight range and allowing for additional softness to all outer edges of the key. 
  • Spill Suppression. This option defines a color range around the key color and uses one of three methods for adjusting colors: Recover, Desaturate or Color. 
  • New Expand / Shrink function to expand or shrink the matte generated by a qualifier. 
  • New area select - when holding down the Ctrl-key you can select an area which is used to set the initial values for a Qualifier or when the C or S buttons are enabled adds or subtracts the selected range to the Qualifier. 
  • Added panel mappings for all the keyer controls.
• Added new basic 'Bicubic' surface as a primitive for a Scaffold. Note that for the best results this function requires OpenGL 4.0 and support for tesselation shaders, which is available on the new generation of Quadro cards.
• Optimized the Softness algorithm used in SCRATCH; existing softness settings might render slightly different. 
• Hue-Hue curve now has a relative shift to ensure the end points are symmetric.
• Added Matrix option "No Clipping" in the Source Transform. With this Switch you control whether the Curve controls will or will not clip the shot.
• Extended support for different flavors of CDL. 

VECTOR PAINT

• New module providing vector paint functionality (This replaces the Scratcher plug-in which is no longer available).
  • Defining, editing, saving and loading color palettes and brushes.
  • Different paint modes - Copy, Clone and Reveal - and option to paint in specific color channels RGBA.
    

AUDIO

• New Wave Form display in the Editor.
• New Audio Mixer Panel in Player; volume control per volume, separate settings for playback and play-out, channel mapping, automatic peak/clapper-detection.
• SDI Embedded Audio. 'SDI Embedded Audio' is presented as a separate audio device when using the new generation of Quadro cards with SDI - Requires NVIDIA Quadro 4000/5000/6000. 

XML SCRIPTING

• To ensure consistent order of processing the files in the XML / watch folder are now always processed based on the file's modified-date.
• Allow for a substitute path variables in XML - using $MEDIA$ to refer to the media path of a project or use $IMPORT$ to refer to the path of the XML that is being processed. Please see Appendix C of the User Guide.

OTHER

• Menu update and reshuffle. LUT and Guides menus are now available as sub-menus of the Settings menu in the Player. The LUT menu does no longer provide the option to set a Monitor LUT to be set on the operating system level as this is not possible with Windows 7 or OS X. Alternative some graphics card drivers settings allow you to implement a custom LUT. Note that you can still apply a display LUT for both the primary and secondary display. The Guides you set in the Settings - Guides sub-menu now represent settings for the CONstruct you are working on; the guides are displayed in the Player and included in SDI for Play-out but not when rendring to file. The Burn-in meta data option has been removed in favor of a solution of using a plug-in. In addition, the burn-in Grade option has been removed. All Output nodes now by default have their grade rendered.
• Renaming the Text-Frame to Burn-In and extending the plug-in with the option to burn in guides. There where the Guides sub menu in Settings represent CONstruct settings - this plug-in can be added to an Output node (or used in an Output Template) to actually burn-in meta data and guides.
• SDI (and dual-view) setup now explicitly configurable through the UI.
• Allow the CONstruct to scroll without holding down the Space bar.
• Removed the '+Grade' and '+Framing' from the Plugins Browser; input-color processing is now always enabled.
• Search Panel; When executing a Search, references of all shots found are added to a temporary CONstruct, which can be viewed in the Player.
• Improved performance rendering shapes. 
• ANC data on SDI is now enabled by default. Also, the VITC/LTC timecode is now also placed in the in HANC lines for Playout to VCR.
• Play-out now automatically switches to EE when in STOP mode only and disables EE when there is any activity on the VCR.
• Support for the AVID Euphoix MC Color surface panel.
• UI taking better advantage of high resolution displays (2560x1440).

VERSION 5.2 [NOVEMBER 2010]

IMPORTANT!

• v5.2 is NOT fully compatible with previous versions; Loading a 5.2 project back into a previous version might cause loss of data.

RED

• This version includes the latest official released RED SDK and requires driver version 1.3.3.0 and firmware version 1.1.8.6. 
• RED Settings are maintained per Shot rather than per Track as in previous version. Multiple shots pointing to the same physical file can have their own RED decode color and gamma settings. 
• The Media Browser allows for updating the RED settings for multiple shots at once. 
• Added RedLogFilm gamma option.

PROJECT / OUTPUT

• Broadcast Wave support. The new audio-tab in the Media Browser also contains a new function to match (broadcast) audio files with shots, based on the time-code of the audio file and the shot. The match function allows you to select a folder containing audio files of which the time-codes are read and matched with the (selected) shots in the Media Browser. If the time-code (plus the length) of the audio file overlaps the time-code (plus the length) of the shot, the two are length. Additionally a slip value for the audio is calculated. The slip value can be adjusted manually afterwards for all shots if needed. To be able to calculate a correct match, you must set the actual sample rate on which the time-code of the audio file is based (NTSC). 
• Project Consolidate. This function allows you to copy/move all used physical media to a new media folder or to just copy/move any media external to the media folder into the project's media folder. Note that the Consolidate process might be a lengthy process and that during the process you cannot enter the project. You can pause the process and enter any other project and you can abort a Consolidation all together. However, aborting a consolidate may result in some cases in invalid media references. Before aborting SCRATCH will ask to finish Consolidating the current shot to minimize the change of invalid data references. The Consolidate functions writes to a separate consolidate log file in the Project folder. The Consolidate function is available in the Project Settings panel in the Logon screen. Because the consolidate can have far reaching consequences, you can remove the option for all users by setting the "AS_CONSOLIDATE = FALSE" parameter in the SConfig file. 
• Option to create a new Collector node from a selection on the CONstruct. A collector node can be viewed of as a timeline-in-a-node. When entering the Player with a Collector node, the Edit module allows you to change the edits of the underlying nodes or add / remove shots from the Collector node. With this functionality, the Collector node adds another dimension to the CONstruct. The node-type is recognizable by the mini-timeline that is displayed in the top-bar to the proxy-image. Creating a Collector node is simply done by selecting one or more shots in the CONstruct and using the Create Collector button in the Media menu. With this button two options are available. Enabling "C" will also remove all the slots of the selected shots that are inserted in the Collector. Any versions of the shot will be moved to the new Collector shot. This option is only available when the selection consists of consecutive shots on the Timeline layer. The "+T" option forces the addition of slot transition info to the Collector node, even if the shot selection is not on the Timeline. When selecting a single Collector node on the CONstruct, you can also expand it again, creating copies of all the underlying nodes. 
• Additional #eventpos and #colorspace field codes for the file-naming scheme. The codes translate to respectively the absolute frame position within a slot and the color space of the shot (lin, log, xyz). In addition, the file-naming scheme restrictions where loosened; SCRATCH will no longer generate an error when the file-mask set will overwrite any previous rendered data. SCRATCH will still generate an error when using a file-mask that results in non-unique filenames within a single output. To make the use of file-masks easier, 3 default template masks are added that can be used and will always result in a unique file sequence.. 
• New Custom Command Control interface which uses an xml settings file and allows you, next to launching third party software & scripts directly from SCRATCH, also to launch a plug-in directly from the CONstruct (optionally including preset values) or opening a web-page (incl. providing meta data on the shot to the web server). In addition, the XML also allows for setting a default plug-in for a second monitor (SDI or Second Head). Please see Chapter 11 - Customizing SCRATCH of the user guide for more details and the formatting of the xml. 
• New Stereo Plug-In which takes two inputs and processes them into one of the available stereo patters; Side by side, Over/under, Line interleave, Checkerboard and Anaglyph. The plug-in can be applied directly on a node, on an output node in the Pipeline view (where it will automatically select its second input and display that by a dotted line) or, using the new Custom Command XML interface, you can use the plug-in on the second monitor, where it automatically will take Layer 2 of the CONstruct as its second input. Please read more about this option in Chapter 11 - Customizing SCRATCH of the user guide. 
• Additional (default) column in an ALE and new tags in XML to Import / Export Audio time-codes. 
• Support for rendering 8 and 16-bit dpx, both RGB and RGBA.

PLAYER / MATRIX / PROCESS

• SDI output produces ANC data (VANC) with the following fields set: VITC/LTC Timecode -> Timecode of the current shot, Film Timecode -> Source Timecode of the current shot, Production Timecode - Record Timecode. This function requires NVIDIA drivers version 197.90 or newer.
• A new Stereo Lock mode option in the Player Settings panel [S.Lock] which, when enabled, locks the left/right channels in a dual view setup. Selecting the right eye in the version stack will then maintain right-left view and you are editing on the right view of the dual view. Selecting another shot in the Version stack will automatically select a new Stereo (version) pair. Note though, that you cannot combine this function with selecting a Reference in the dual view as that would break the stereo effect. 
• Tracker update, improving accuracy and an option to edit the offset by holding down 'shift' while re-positioning the track-box. 
• Improved quality and performance of the rescale function. 
• Support for 8 additional audio-channels. 
• New A.Relative option in the Paste-dialog, which will paste any copied Animation Channels relative to the in-point of the shot. Also, the Animation Editor has a new option to re-align the animation with start of the slot / the in-point of the shot. 
• Additional panel mappings for navigating key-frames. 
• View position and scaling - Player settings are now stored in the database per CONstruct and restored when entering the Player. 
• The Overlays of plug-ins are now available when in the FX Ctrl menu inside the Matrix. 
• Dock-able Scaffold panel the left side of the screen. The default size of the Scaffold list is increased and when dragging the panel to the left of the screen it will dock and behave the same as the Project stack and shot-stacks.

GENERAL UPDATES & FIXES

• Audio icon on proxy-image, indicating presence of audio; a white icon represents media-embedded audio while a colored icon represents a separate linked audio file. 
• Update on dissolves; in a new project a dissolve now always start at the first frame rather than frame+1. 
• Clicking the Snapshot button in the Player while holding Control key will ask for a filename. By default the filename now includes the name of the CONstruct and shot. 
• Fix on the Create Version if files are rendered out over multiple folders. The function now moves the underlying media to a new folder, loads all individual shots and create a new Collector node. 
• Update on File Browser - improved performance and more responsive with large folders. The File browser also shows available drive labels / UNC paths with all the drives listed in the top left panel. 
• The Paste Grade function now takes slot-length into account to find the best match. Also, the Copy Grade is only applied to the selected shots on the CONstruct, unless none are selected; in that case all shots are processed. This way you can apply the function quickly to only a second layer or version. 
• Typing project name in the Logon screen auto-scrolls the project list. 
• An new panel-id was added to the default cs_devices file and used in the mappings file, which enabled that you can have different panel configurations on multiple systems while using the same panel-mappings file. 
• If you change a value in any text control within SCRATCH it will remember that value. So when you are next in a text control you can press the up-cursor key and scroll through any previously remembered values. The history is maintained until exiting the project.  

VERSION 5.1 [JULY 2010]

IMPORTANT!

• v5.1 is NOT fully backwards compatible. Projects created or once opened in v5.1 will not always load properly in a previous version of SCRATCH. Also, Play-out settings in the pconfig file might need adjustments for this new version, which might take some extra setup time.

RED

This version includes the latest official released RED SDK to enable processing footage shot with the new MX sensor. The new version also enables the use of multiple Red Rocket decoder accelerator cards, especially useful in a Stereo Workflow. In case of stereo footage, SCRATCH also interprets the flip/flop meta settings of an r3d file and copies them to the new flip/flop option in the Source Transform of the SCRATCH color pipeline. The new RED setup in the Process-FX Ctrl menu panel in the Player in SCRATCH is spread out over 2 menu-tabs: General and Color. It is very important to note that:

• the decoder settings on the General tab are still global and apply to all r3d footage in the project
• the red color transform setup in the Color tab apply to a single r3d file; all (copies of) shots that refer to the same physical file share the same transform settings!
• if you are using a Red Rocket harware card, v5.1 requires an upgrade of both the driver to version 1.3.2.0 and firmware to version 1.1.8.6; available from the RED website www.red.com.

The new Color tab contains additional controls for the RED decode and color transformation. Note though that this transformation is done outside the SCRATCH color pipeline. Please read more about the RED implementation in Chapter 9 - Output and Plug-ins of the SCRATCH User Guide.

COLOR

The setup of the Color Pipeline has been updated to further improve performance. A number of new features are implemented

Qualifiers & Keyer

The Qualifier interface offers a new Source Selection option to set the level the Keyer is applied to:

• Source Image; the base image without any grade
• Primary; the base including the primary grade.
• Recursive; the image including all grading and any (underlying) Scaffolds.
• The Fill or Matte used in the Scaffold

On the left top side of the Qualifier menu, two new View buttons are added: Source and Matte. The first shows the image used by the Keyer as selected in the Source Selection to actually see what color you are picking, the second shows the matte of the Key. To actually pick a color you must use Ctrl+Click.

Other new features

• New Grading Memory buttons in the Matrix to store grades. With Shift+Click the grade of the current shot is stored in Memory. Clicking the button applies the stored grade on the current shot. You can map the memory on a panel to Map-1. The Memories are stored as user settings so are not restricted to a single project.
• The Curves menus show the full histogram as background
• Moved the Framing options to the Matrix for easier access
• New re-sampling algorithm for more accurate LUTs

PROJECT & OUTPUT

SUPPORTING THE MXF FORMAT

The new version supports both playback and rendering of the (AVID) DNxHD MXF format. For rendering MXF format SCRATCH uses the AVID AMT library. Shots are rendered to singleton an MXF file with accompanying AAF and XML files containing meta data. The functionality to render out MXF is packaged in a separate installation which is available at the bottom of this page. The procedure to render out MXF is similar to rendering out footage in a QuickTime format; add a MXF node to an Output node, set the appropriate encoding options and start processing the node.

FILE-NAMING SCHEME

The file-naming scheme in this latest version has been enhanced and extended. The number of codes that can be used in the file-mask are increased and the dialog to create the mask now also has the option to create and load preset masks. Most of the codes can also be used in the new Text-Frame plug-in which is explained further down, while some codes are exclusively for file-naming or for the Text-frame. The list below contains all available codes.

• #reelid - Reel ID of the input.
• #name - Name of the shot.
• #sname - Name of the source shot.
• #file - Filename of the shot (excluding extension). (Text-Frame only)
• #sfile - Filename of the source shot (excluding extension).
• #note - Annotation stored with the shot. (Text-Frame only)
• #snote - Annotation stored with the source shot. (Text-Frame only)
• #tc[0] - Timecode of the shot.
• #stc[0] - Timecode of the source shot (only applicable to filenaming scheme).
• #rtc - Record timecode. (Text-Frame only)
• #frame[6,0] - Frame number of the shot.
• #sframe[6,0] - Frame number of the source shot.
• #eventno[3,1] - The source event/shot number. (File-naming only)
• #date[ymd] - The current system date.
• #slotname - Name of the slot. (File-naming only)
• #spath - Path of the source shot excluding media folder or drive-letter but including last folder separator.
• #fps - The frame rate of the shot in frames-per-second.
• #res - Resolution of the output eg. 1920x1080.
• #ext - The default filename extension for the output format. (File-naming only)
• #project - Name of the project in which the output resides. (File-naming only)
• #group - Name of the group in which the output resides. (File-naming only)
• #construct - Name of the construct in which the output resides. (File-naming only)
• #md[a] - Meta-data description. (Text-Frame only)
• #subtitle - The subtitle(s) at the current time. (Text-Frame only)

The new file-naming dialog automatically pops-up when selecting the file-name textbox in the configuration panel of an Output node. Through the Code - optionslist button you can select any of the available coes for inserting in the file-maks. By typing one or more '\' (backslash) in the maks directly you can create a custom folder structure. On exiting the dialog, SCRATCH will validate the file-mask and in case that will lead to duplicate file-names within the project, issue an error. The presets that are saved in the pop-up dialog are stored in the FileMasks.cfg file in the c:\programdata\assimilate\settings folder.

PLAY-OUT

The Play-Out module has been updated to get stricter timings. Also:

• A new Crash-mode, next to Insert and Assemble, which disables cueing the VCR to a specific point and instead starts recording right after obtaining a servo-lock.
• Use CTRL+Connect on the Play-out menu to switch to Emulate-mode. This mode makes Play-out available but without the VCR control. When pressing Record in Emulate-mode, a normal Play-out run is performed but without actually activating the VCR. This mode can be used for testing, reviews or audio sync on SDI. One option is e.g. sync audio to SDI without adjusting the slip (during user-sessions).
• A new parameter 'prst_init' can be used in the PConfig settings file. This parameter is used to set the initial offset on the time-code generator of the VCR for an Assemble. In certain cases the first frame needs a different offset than all the other time-code changes in the timeline that is being recorded.

Note that using this new version might mean that you have to adjust your current VCR settings in the pconfig.xml in the c:\programdata\assimilate\settings folder!

The NVIDIA graphics driver version used on a system is a major determinant for the performance of Play-Out. Test results for the 197.90 drivers have shown good results. The driver is available on the NVIDIA website.

META-DATA HANDLING, ALE IMPORT AND CDL SUPPORT

SCRATCH can now maintain an unlimited list of name-value pairs per shot. This meta-data is shown in the new 'Extended Properties' tab of the shot Info-panel (Quick Key - I while hovering over proxy image).

• each shot in SCRATCH inherits the meta-data from its main input, so all meta-data is preserved up to the final output.
• meta-data can be updated through the shot Info-panel, XML scripting or with the new ALE Import Manager.

The new ALE Import Manager offers a flexible way to set up matching criteria and include / exclude columns from importing. In the second row of the ALE Manager's data grid you can select the function of a column: use for matching, import or exclude. The matching algorithm and procedure is similar to that of the EDL Manager. You can either just import the meta data or also Assemble a new Timeline from the matches found. You can change the default settings by updating the AleDefaults.xml file in the c:\programdata\assimilate\settings folder, created after using the ALE Manager the first time.

ASC-CDL SUPPORT

Both ELD and ALE import / export can now include and handle ASC CDL parameter. The formatting in the EDL / ALE is in line with the 'ASC CDL Avid Workflow' specification. Note though that if CDL compatibility is required only a limited set of grading parameters should be used in SCRATCH. The ASC CDL parameter mapping is implemented as follows:
ASC CDL -> SCRATCH
Slope -> Pre-Gain (r,g,b)
Offset -> Offset (r,g,b)
Power -> Gamma (r,g,b)
Saturation -> Color-B Saturation

XSLT / HTML EXPORT AND EXTENDED XML SCRIPTING OPTIONS

SCRATCH offers the option to export data using an XSLT transformation, which can be used to create HTML (but also any other format). When selecting HTML as export format, SCRATCH will:

• create an XML file with the data; this XML is identical to that when choosing XML export.
• perform an XSL transformation on that XML with the XSLExport.xslt file. A default xslt file is provided with the installation of SCRATCH. You can change it by copying the file to the \programdata\assimilate\settings folder and modifying it there or providing a new completely new xslt file with the same name.
• create proxy images in a subfolder for all the shots included in the export. These images can e.g. be used in the HTML page created with the XSLT.

The HTML export functionality requires a license that includes the 'Remote' module.

AUTO-EXPORT

SCRATCH also offers the option to execute the XS transform automatically each time you exit a project, so the most up to date information is available for third party system integration. When setting the auto-export option to HTML in the Project-settings menu of the Logon-module, two additional options are available:

• Overwrite Proxies. By default SCRATCH will overwrite the image proxy files for all shots included in the export. When switching off this option, SCRATCH will only write a file when none is present yet. This saves considerable time processing for large projects but can also mean that not the most recent proxy is present.
• Export LUT. Together with creating a proxy image, SCRATCH can also create a LUT file per shot, depending of the selection this is a 1d or 3d LUT. The Overwrite setting also applies to exporting a LUT.

XML EXTENSIONS

• As of this version all the primary grade parameters are included in an XML export and can be updated through XML script / import.
• A slot can now also be referenced by its name next to its index position in XML scripting. Next to using the 'index=' attribute, you can also use the 'name=' atribute in the slot-tag.
• The 'Shot'-tag in an XML script / import can now include a new 'copy_grade' attribute. The value of this attribute references a shot of which the grade is copied to the shot updated / inserted. The value is either a slot-index number or a uuid.
• Until the previous version, when a new shot was inserted of which the media was already referenced by another shot, the color settings were automatically copied. In the new version an explicit color-copy is needed.
• Inserting new shots through XML when the actual media is not present (yet) will now create an empty node, rather than no node. An error is still generated to notify the missing media but this way no new commands have to be processed when the media becomes available.

CONSTRUCT UNDO / REDO

Each CONstruct now has its own Undo/Redo stack. The Undo/Redo functions ara available in the left bottom corner of the CONstruct menus or with Quick Keys Ctrl-Z / Ctrl+Y. Each stack has a maximum of 25 actions that can be undone. The following actions will clear the undo-stack: entering the Player, conforming an EDL / ALE, switching between slots and freeform CONstruct and exiting the project. Switching between CONstruct will preserve the undo-stack of the individual CONstruct.

USER INTERFACE

The menu lay-out of the CONstruct has been re-arranged to provide more comprehensible layout and to preserve space for future developments. Also, the layout of proxy images has been updated:

• The proxy image now includes a bar-code with 4 bars representing: 1. the shot contains a primary grading; 2. the shot contains a secondary grade; 3. the shot contains scaffolds; 4. the shot -framing is set. The bar code replaces the color bottom border
• The bar-code is also added to the Scaffold list where it represents the presence of: 1. primary grade; 2. secondary grade; 3. canvas/shape; 4. keyer, fill or matte.
• The presence and status of annotations with a clip are displayed in the proxies by the colored overlay and/or a new, more subtle, tag in the right top corner.
• Proxy display can be controlled in more detail and per user in the Settings sub-menu of the Timeline menu.

DEEP COPY BEHAVIOR

In previous version whenever you copied a shot, the new copy would use the same inputs as the original. In the new version SCRATCH will also make copies of any inputs the shot that is being copied uses. To prevent this deep-copy behavior you can place shots on a so called Reference-Construct. Shots placed on such a CONstruct are, when acting as an input for a shot that is being copied, referenced rather than also copied. You can switch a CONstrut to 'Reference'-mode through the Settings menu . The CONstruct will be marked with an additional icon in the Project-tree stack.

OTHER

• New options to export and import Tracking and Animation data. Using the general Save / Load buttons of the Matrix while in the Tracking submenu enables you to write and read (x,y) coordinates to and from a CSV file. In the Animation menu panel new Import and Export buttons are present through which you can import and export multiple Animation channels at once; all selected channels are imported / exported.
• Shot Quick Search. A new Search button on the CONstruct (Quick Key Ctrl+F) opens a dialog panel where you can enter search criteria to perform search over multiple CONstructs; a text search on shot name, reel-ID and annotation, together with the option to filter shots based on the annotate color / status.
• A new user setting in the Logon screen offers the option to set the default proxy size SCRATCH uses; small, medium or large.
• Creating a reference node in the Tray from multiple selected shots now preserves dissolves when the shots are on the timeline layer.
• A new Inverse option with the Load Layer function to add new shots bottom-up in the slots. Currently each shot found in the Load Layer function will be added to the CONstruct on top of previously found shots and already present shots. With the Inverse option each new subsequent shot found is added on the Timeline layer.
• Option to set negative value for SDI-Wipe option in the Settings menu of the Player; this will reverse the dual view display on the SDI view.

PLUG-INS

TEXT-FRAME AND SUBTITLES

A new Text-Frame plug-in offers text-overlay options. Next to adding plain text, the plug-in can use most of the same field-codes that are available for the new file-naming scheme. Adding a '#' with the name of the code and optionally the parameters will translate to the actual value. In a Text-Frame you can enter multiple textboxes and position each independently in the base image, as well as set properties like text size, font and color.

The new Text-Frame also supports loading external subtitle files, either *.stl or *.str formatted. After loading the subtitle file, use the field-code #subtitle to display the subtitles. The two formats supported are both plain text formats. The srt format is described in http://srt-subtitles.com/. The stl format has different sub-formats, however SCRATCH supports only the plain text variant:

....
00:00:56:06 , 00:01:00:16 , first subtitle with in- and out-timecodes
00:01:00:21 , 00:01:05:24 , second subtitle | the pipe character represents a line-break
.....

The '$' tagged meta-data items at the beginning of an stl files are not processed by SCRATCH.

PROCESS NODE

A new Process node replaces the previously used 'Pan-Scan' node. A processing node can be initiated from the CONstruct Media menu. The function will create a new processing node for each selected node in the CONstruct and take the selected node as input.

NEW DE-INTERLACER

A new OpenGL based De-Interlacer plug-in replaces the traditional de-interlacer. The new plug-in offers additional conversion types such as 24-25. When loading an existing project all old de-interlacer plug-ins are replaced with the new ones.

OTHER

• Substantial disk IO performance increase for read operations.
• The option to set a LUT and burn in the grade on an output node has been removed. Alternative you can enter the Player with the output node and use the Matrix menu panels to apply a grade or add a LUT to the output node.
• Added 'mp4' file extension for loading QuickTime files
• Dual-view is now the default setting in case 2 monitors are available. User the AS_ENABLE_DUALVIEW=FALSE in the SConfig file to disable dual view.

 

VERSION 5.0 [DECEMBER 2009]

IMPORTANT!

• As of v5.0 SCRATCH is released as a 64-bit application only and will NOT run on a 32-bit operating system. The target OS for SCRATCH v5.0 is Windows 7 64-bit (any edition). Be aware that not all graphics cards are fully functional with Windows 7 (yet). We urge you to plan your upgrade to v5.0 and please read carefully the additional notes at the end of this article and the information in this article about (NVIDIA) graphics card support, downloading a suitable NVIDIA driver for Windows 7, installation issues and hardware requirements.
• This version uses a new file format for storing project data and is NOT backwards compatible. Existing projects will be converted to the new file format and any changes will be saved in the new file. The old project files are maintained and can still be opened with an older version of SCRATCH but will not reflect any changes made since the upgrade.
• Furthermore, this version of SCRATCH implements NVIDIA's CUDA technology, which is not fully supported by older graphics cards. Only NVIDIA cards with CUDA - Compute Capability version 1.0 or higher support all the new features. For the Quadro FX range these are the x800 and x600 cards. Even though most SCRATCH functions still work properly for older cards, ASSIMILATE does no longer actively support those cards from SCRATCH v5.0 onward. When using an older card, the new CUDA based image-statistic functions will not update continuously during playback and revert to a CPU fallback mechanism.
• This version requires a new license to be installed. See below for information on how to obtain a new license.

GENERAL

• Support for RED Rocket, RED's r3d decoding card. Once installed, you can choose to use either the SCRATCH software decoding or the RED Rocket hardware decoding by selecting from a pulldown in the Process->FX Controls menu.
• Version 5.0 also implements a new transformation step in the color pipeline which is very useful in the RED workflow. You can read more about the changes regarding handling of RED's r3d format and the new Source Color Transform in this article.
• Version 5.0 implements a real time Full Histogram, Waveform Monitor and Vector Scope. With the use of NVIDIA's CUDA technology all the statistics are updated with very little overhead on regular playback. In case your hardware does not support the proper CUDA level, SCRATCH will switch off the auto-update function or, in case of no CUDA support, use the CPU fallback version; in both latter cases the histogram, Waveform and Scope statistics are recalculated only for the last active frame each time the player is stopped.
• All project data is stored in a new SQLite database format. SQLite is a high performance, open source, file based database format and makes SCRATCH projects more scalable and makes saving project changes more efficient. When loading an existing project, SCRATCH will first require you to convert the existing project data. For more information about storing project data, please read this article.

CONSTRUCT / OUTPUT PROCESSING

• Updating both Media and Timeline menu panel; moving command buttons to more appropriate positions.
• Importing & exporting individual CONstructs, Group of CONstructs of the entire Project to an external file which can then be imported into another project. There are two file formats: a binary format which saves all project data and an XML format which will only save specific properties of a project and is intended primarily for external processing.
• New implementation of XML scripting capabilities with more fine-grained control over updating a SCRATCH project, copying media to the local system and adding media to a SCRATCH project. You can read more about the new SCRATCH project database format and XML scripting in this article.
• Additional function in the Media Browser to change the color space setting for a group of clips at once.
• New function (plug-in) to add a color frame. The plug-in generates a single frame shot, with either a solid color or pattern: color bars, grey ramp or zoneplate. You can add a color frame from the CONstruct menu. Furthermore, a color frame is also used when conforming an EDL; a black frame is inserted for a BL-event, rather than an empty clip.
• Added "Sound TC" field to the ALE export.
• Option to change the color / status of sticky notes on Clips, CONstructs and Groups.
• An output node's format, aspect and frame rate can be easily modified by dragging and dropping a clip node from the timeline on the output node in the Pipeline View. The resolution, frame rate and aspect ratio of the clip node are all applied to the output node.

PLAYER / MATRIX

• New Source Color Transform step in the color pipeline. A new Input menu panel was added in the Matrix. Through this panel you can set an initial color transformation before your primary grade. For more information on this, see this article.
• Added a new Profile section in the Player through which you can run a number of Benchmarks. The results are written to the SCRATCH log file but you can also save them to a separate profile file. Making a profile for your system right after installation can be very useful, serving as a reference in a later stage against which you can check system performance.
• Plug-in controls are now available from within the Matrix menu. You can insert a plug-in on an individual Scaffold and control the parameters of that without having to revert to the Process menu.
• Added GPU based high-order filter pass for SDI output.
• Enabled the use of 2 x SDI 422 during playout; this can be used with either the same source or layer0/layer1, enabling support for stereo left eye/right eye and recording both signals onto a single tape in a single pass.
• Matrix control layout; The Numerical menu panel has been updated to now also include Pre-Gain.
• Drag and drop functionality in the Version Stack of the Player.
• Added support for multi-channel WDM audio and RF64 audio format to cope with audio files larger than 4Gb.
• Improved playback performance QuickTime in Dual View.

OTHER

• Added a User setting to set the amount of mirror effect under a slot in the CONstruct.
• Added SConfig variable DM_MAX_RETRIES to recover from failures on processing files that were dropped in the SCRATCH Watch folder.

FIXES

• Missing Frametables for r3d files where sometimes wrongly reported, (not) logged or slowing down project loading.
• Spinning cursor would sometimes appear and remain when using r3d footage and a RED Rocket.
• Order of entries in recent paths list in file browser was not maintained properly.
• Proper paging and layout of parameter controls of OFX plug-ins.
• Stabilizer preserves existing framing setup.
• Camera was using incorrect offset on multi-pass renders.
• Handling illegal character in the Tangent WAVE mappings file.
• Dissolve on odd height destinations was 1 line off between render and view.
• SCAFFOLDS texture with different origin was showing incorrect.
• Orientation of texture fill/matte changed unexpectedly under some circumstances.
• RED TC global-mode was not persisted properly.
• Scaling of SCAFFOLDS maintained inconsistent center.
• Adjust the play position for disabled slots.
• Timeline not updating after Prune Construct.
• Incorrect sorting on timecode.
• Problem playing 24bit AIFF audio.
• Displaying correct initial time code of QuickTime.
• OFX plug-ins; search path for 64-bit plug-ins and plug-ins using hidden controls.
• When loading a custom Display LUT, the setting was not maintained across sessions.
• Display was not updated when selecting a reference node in the Tray.
• Use 10 bit (deep color) when not in spanning mode.
• Paste multiple shots did not maintain slot order correctly.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• For version 5.0 a new license is required. You can request a new license by sending both your current license file and a SCRATCH log file to licensing@assimilateinc.com. The new license is not backward compatible. The new license should be placed in the C:\ProgramData\Assimilator\Settings folder.
• To work with SCRATCH and the Red Rocket you need to install the correct firmware (version 1.1.6.8) and the driver (version 1.1.4.0). These are available from the RED website at www.red.com.
• Please do read this article about NVIDIA graphic card support for Windows 7; be aware that not all graphics adapters are supported and / or fully functional with Windows 7 (yet).
• Additional information on hardware requirements and installation instructions are provided in chapter two of the manual .

 

VERSION 4.4 [JULY 2009]

IMPORTANT: For this version the settings for Play-out have changed. Please read about these changes in the release notes below and the user manual.

GENERAL

• This version implements RED’s new R3D Color Transform for its camera build 20 firmware. Footage shot with older firmware will also use this transformation but to maintain the look and feel of the old transformation, the color temperature values Kelvin and Tint are adjusted. Footage in existing SCRATCH projects will not be affected in any way and continue to use the old transformation unless the grading on those clips is explicitly reset.
• Multi-core CPU Hyper Threading detection procedure Updated (i7 Core); SCRATCH now only use physical cores for memory intensive multi-threaded operations.

CONSTRUCT / OUTPUT PROCESSING

• The layout of the PConfig.xml file for Play-out VTR settings has been changed to support a separate delay setting for audio. The delays set now exclude the (5) NVidia frame buffer delays which are set dynamically. The names of the xml properties were changed to prevent using old settings. Most old values can be re-used by subtracting 5, but should in the end be determined by trial and error as they are VTR specific. Another element added to the play-out function is that SCRATCH will log if material with different framerates is used on the same timeline; something which might lead to duplicate frames and timing errors.
• In the main CONstruct module, an Output Pipeline view is added, showing the hierarchy of all outputs of a single CONstruct. You can enter this Pipeline view by using the Output button on the main menu bar of the CONstruct screen. From there you can manage all the outputs of a single CONstruct; changing output settings, adding or removing outputs. The Pipeline can either be shown in Proxy mode or in Icon mode (toggled with the View button); the former will show the proxies of the rendered output and the format / size of the individual outputs, the latter view will give a better overview when dealing with a complex pipeline.
• From the new Pipeline view you can also manage the new Output-Template functionality to create, store and re-use pre-configure output setups. A single CONstruct can have multiple outputs in different resolutions and formats, shown in the Pipeline view. You can now select a node in the output tree and save all nodes in the underlying branch to and external template file. This can then be re-used on other / new CONstruct to quickly setup your output pipeline. The files are saved in a pre-defined folder (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Assimilator\Settings\Outputs) and the files are listed in the Output menu panel under Output Templates to be selected and applied. A template is always applied to the currently selected output node, meaning that the branch defined in the template is created under the selected node.
• As a result of the new Output Pipeline view, the controls in the CONstruct have been renamed / and re-arranged. The Settings menu was renamed Output and position switched with the Media button. Furthermore, the Exit and Save All buttons were added to the Media menu.
• Another addition to manage output rendering in SCRATCH is the Process Queue dialog, which can be opened from the corresponding button on the main menu bar of the CONstruct screen. The Process Queue gives you Project wide (over all CONstructs) overview and functionality to manage output rendering. Initially the Output Queue is empty. You can add jobs to the queue from the CONstruct screen or from within the Player, by either using the Process or Add to Queue buttons. The former will right away start the render process, the latte will only add the output render task to the queue. These will only be rendered till you start them from the Process Queue dialog or set a timer scheduler from within that same dialog.
• The Process Queue dialog shows of all outputs added to the queue the status and progress of the rendering. The dialog shows the order in which outputs are rendered and alows for you to set a start time to render the queue. Outputs remain in the queue untill you remove them but are only rendered again till the underlying media is invalidated (e.g. by changing the timeline of a CONstruct). Finally, the dialog shows where the output is rendered to and gives an approximation if there is enough space to render the output to a specific path.
• In the EDL Assembler an option to match name and reels cross-wise is added. Also, the auto-match function was replaced with regular start-stop buttons to control the matching process, including an abort option, progress indication and a Clear option to remove all matches in order to start the process again from scratch.
• The performance of the Media Manager was increased considerably. When dealing with large projects, opening of the Media Browser (introduced in the previous build) could take considerable time. In the new version part of the loading of the data will be done in the background, showing the dialog and initial results quicker.
• The user can set the default Output / Render folder in the project setting in the logon screen.
• Added a "Recently used paths" list to the File Browser. Each time a folder or file is selected the folder is added to a list; different lists are maintained for different purposes, such as images, color management, plug-ins.

PLAYER AND MATRIX

• Additional new Color Curves in the Curves menu of the Matrix: Hue vs. Hue, Hue vs. Saturation, Hue vs. Lightness, Saturation vs Luma and Luma vs. Saturation
• The mouse wheel is now enabled for all numerical controls which are mapped to the control surface and for Pre-Gain in the Levels menu in the Matrix
• Option to load Color Decision List (ASC CDL) as color setting. The existing function CDL Export from the CONstruct menu was removed to prevent confusion, as this was a different type of file.
• A User Setting was added in the panel in the logon screen to switch off the Bottom Swipe in the Player. When switched on use can no longer swipe down to switch to full screen / accidently remove the bottom control panel. When the setting is used, the short key 'Shift-Home' still works to switch to full screen; when in full screen, bottom swipe will still recall the Player control panel.
• The output node stack can now be accessed from within the Player, making it easier to switch between outputs. When the user entered the player with an output node the right swipe will show the full output stack.
• VU meters maintains the maximum levels within a single frame by keeping the higher level LEDs lit. The meters also continue to show last level when playing is paused.
• A Stereo option was added for QuickTime exports; when setting this option and when two audio channels are present, the stereo flag in the exported QuickTime movie will be set. Some external players would indicate that audio consisted of 2 mono tracks instead of stereo (a pure display matter).
• Added a Color Copy plug-in; takes the color from the first source clip and the luminance from the second and combine these into a new clip.

OTHER

SConfig variables and GFX Rendering (only use these settings after consulting Assimilate Support):

• Full floating point 1D LUTs are now the default mode on any G80 GPU's (as of FX4600/5600) or latter. The use of full floating point 1D LUTs has a severe performance impact on any pre-G80 GPU's. In case you do want to use this option on an older card you can use the AS_FULL_FLOAT_LUT = TRUE option in the SConfig file.
• Added two SConfig configuration variables: QT_MAX_OPEN and R3D_MAX_OPEN. These can be used to put a limit on the maximum number of simultaneous opened files. This is a tradeoff between memory usage and performance and should only be used with project with a very high number of r3d / qt clips and indications that one is running out of memory. The default for QuickTime is 256 and for R3D is 0 (unlimited).
• Added AS_RENDER_FLOAT32 to force rendering in full (32bit) floating buffers. This setting will double the memory needed for rendering!
• Added AS_USE_10BIT_FMT to force using native 10 bit GPU format for 10 bit images (DPX/Cineon). This only works on G80 GPU's and latter.
• Added AS_USE_16BIT_FMT to force using 16 bit integer format for 3D LUTs and 16 bit images. The 16 bit integer formats are supported natively as of G80 (NVidia) GPU's
  This build also replaces AS_NO_16BIT_FP with AS_USE_16BIT_FP to force old behavior if needed on older GPU's (FX4600/5600 and later are G80 GPU's)
• Alpha is now by default disabled for QuickTime exports; with the SConfig variable QT_ENABLE_ALPHA you can enable the alpha channel again.Added 16 bit decode mode for RED RAW material. This only works when AS_USE_16BIT_FMT is set. User can change decode mode in the Processing control page in the Player.
• New version of SCRATCH's plug-in API. Details and examples of the API can be requested and will be posted on the SCRATCH support site.

FIXES

• Allow changing the current shot version while dragging Scaffold
• Audio channels after the first were interpretated incorrectly when converting to 16 bit
• Duration of 3:2 pulldown node was incorrect
• Scaffold layer with matte and fill the same did not scale properly
• Gamma range on R3D adjusted, now the same as in the Matrix
• CONstruct: move shots sometimes made a copy, slots can now be scrolled with the mousewheel
• Update on the OFX plug-in interface
• Plugin presets loading correctly.
• Adjusted statists view to support increasing number of CPU's. Also, the SDI interlaced modes did not always show the correct number of bars in the statistics view.
• Adjusted drop-frame detection in Play-out .
• Exporting EDL Dissolve-events properly.
• Dragging a node to another CONstruct did not result in a proper copy.
• Tracker did not maintain origin correctly on scaled images.
• RGB channel mixer did not work correctly with Offset and pre-gain. Loading existing setups which have used the channel mixer (Matrix/Levels) might be affected!.
• OFX plug-in controls were not always showing up correctly.
• Slot numbers in the CONstruct now take correctly into account the 'Count From' system setting; starting from 0 or 1.
• Proper audio from r3d files when rendering out to QuickTime.
• EDL, handling of reel-ids with non-supported characters. When SCRATCH writes out an EDL it will replace the reel-ids with numeric characters when some of the reels contain unsupported characters, such as an underscore. SCRATCH will then write a translation table at the bottom of the EDL with the original reel-ids. Now when reading back the EDL, SCRATCH will properly process that translation list.
• A texture image auto created an offset when "Grade" was applied.
• Aspect ratio was not always properly maintained after first load.
• QuickTime not always maintained lin/log flag correctly.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The configuration for Play-out has changed; previous set delays do not work anymore and need to be re-entered into the new PConfig file. The new layout is relatively self explanatory. The way the PConfig file is used and its location have not changed; check the manual for more info on this.
• This version of SCRATCH contains optimization specifically for newer (G80) NVidia GPU's. When using older GFX board (FX550 and before) you can use the enhanced features by setting the SConfig variable AS_FULL_FLOAT_LUT = TRUE. There will however be a performance penalty! The SConfig file can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Assimilator\Settings. Check the manual for information on the usage of configuration variables.

 

VERSION 4.3 [April 2009]

IMPORTANT: Upgrading to this build requires a new license to be installed.

GENERAL

• Improvements in GFX and main memory management and increasing robustness when dealing with large projects. The amount of GFX memory being allocated is displayed in the (Ctrl-F1) statistics display.
• Increased performance in debayering of r3d files and handling of large numbers of QT on the CONstruct.
• SDI enhancements:
  • Added 'Identity (RGB)' matrix to the SDI configuration dialog
  • Update on SDI color-space matrices used; now using ITU defined color-spaces.
  • When player sync option is set to automatic, SCRATCH will sync to SDI (when no audio is used and SDI is enabled).
  • option to frame-lock to external sync.
  • when SDI is enabled, SCRATCH will show warning message when frames are dropped on main output.
  • The default API that is used for SDI has changed; the config variable 'AS_USE_FBO_SDI_API' is obsolete and has been replaced with 'AS_DISABLE_FBO_SDI_API'.
• Enabling the Alpha in 8 and 16 bit DPX files
• User can abort Load Layers function by pressing Escape, if the process takes too long.
• New auto-save scheme. Auto-save is no longer turned off after an unexpected shut down and SCRATCH will make back-up copies of project files when the project is opened again. Also, the log file of the unexpected shut down is preserved by copying it to the project folder.
• A project is automatically saved before a render process is started.
• OS administrator rights are no longer required (although still advised); this is for facilitating installation on (not actively supported) Vista OS.

CONSTRUCT

• New and enhanced Project CONstruct tree management:
  • the CONstruct tree displays current clip/frame of individual CONstruct,
  • user can add notes to CONstruct and Groups,
  • drag and drop functionality to manage CONstruct, incl. user setting "Drag Threshold" to better time distinguish between click and drag
  • easy copying of whole CONstructs and binning multiple constructs,
• Rectangle selection on CONstruct and improved panning and scrolling of CONstruct.
• Enhanced selection and clip management in Trays; easy select and removing of (multiple) clips.
• Added function in the Timeline menu to paste the grading from clips in the copy-buffer to clips on the current CONstruct based on matching source-timecodes, reel-id and names.
• Added option to copy/past entire slots.
• Added controls in the media browser to set in- and out- handles on multiple clips at once. Also, added a column with the clip resolution. In- and out controls on the media menu in the CONstruct now set the handles of the new clips that are loaded.

PLAYER and MATRIX

• Gaussian fall-off smoothness function for softer-edges on Scaffolds.
• Added second dual view reference for the Edit module; this reference can be set seperate from the Matrix reference.
• Added options to set bit-depth and decode-quality for playing Quicktime movies and increased efficiency of handling large numbers of QuickTime movies on a CONstruct.
• Audio VU meters in Player menu and added audio playback capabilities for QuickTime.
• Option to adjust the y-axis scale of Full-Histogram with mouse wheel.
• New color-channel mixer to remap R, G and B to an alternative component; used for generating RGB from for example BGR image.
• Enhanced track-ball vector mapping. User can switch off vector mode and set an angle (in User Settings menu) to adjust color mapping.
• Separate controls for texture blur setting for fill and matte to individually control the blur level. When both fill and matte are selected controls are linked.

PROCESS and OUTPUT

• Increased render efficiency by placing encoding of Quicktime movies in separate background process.
• Enhanced support for Avid DNxHD QT codecs. The resolution index is set based on best match scenario relative to various project settings; Progressive/Interlaced; Bit depth 8/16; X/Y Dimensions; Quality; and FPS.
• Added a configuration variable to exclude certain QuickTime codec’s from option list in SCRATCH. This setting can be used to prevent less stable codec’s from being used. Furthermore, of all codec's with the same type identifier only the first (alphabetically) is shown in the selection list.
• Added option to enable audio channels on the VCR on an edit command.

FIXES

• Update on SDI levels and clipping
• Loading (named) LUTs properly
• Improved parsing of FCP EDL (dissolve) events and ignoring audio events
• Handeling of EDL vari-speed and EDL from FCP with flip/flop events.
• Playout stop accuracy and audio output
• Regenerate correct timecodes when rendering QT or R3D to separate folders
• Audio playback did not resume when after player encountered clip without audio
• SDI colorspace selection mismatch
• Better smoothening on Scaffold edges
• Time codes in exported EDL and ALE files are formatted with the CONstruct framerate.
• EDL reverse-assemble generates dissolves
• Process-fit width and height are now properly applied if CONstruct included anamorphic shots.
• The image formats configuration file now accepts resolutions larger than 4096
• Graded textures display properly in 2nd Scaffold
• Color-B wheel updates properly with Wave panel.
• Wave panel also works during playback from another module than the Matrix menu.
• F12 – quick key for starting output rendering is more responsive
• Properly handling of long list of audio devices.
• Remove audio artifacts in r3d files.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• For version 4.3 a new licence is required. You can request a new licence by sending a log file to licensing@assimilateinc.com . This license is not backward compatible. However, you can just leave your existing licencse file where it ( C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Assimilator\Settings ) and copy the new one in the same directory. That way, in case you want to to install a previous build, it will be fully functional.

 

VERSION 4.2 [dec 2008]

GENERAL

• Support for the new NVIDIA 'Deep-Color' (10bit Display Port) mode has been added.
• Two new RED color spaces, RED RAW LIN and RED RAW LOG, have been added for direct grading in linear or logarithmic mode on RED R3D files.
• The NVIDIA-SDI settings can now be controlled from within the SCRATCH interface.
• SCRATCH’s custom configuration parameters, including many new parameters, can now be more easily managed using a single configuration file.
• The Scaffold Softness parameter has been enhanced along with improved performance.
• SCRATCH uses more sophisticated memory management for processing 4k source material.
• Further optimizations for reading large files from disk have been added.

CONSTRUCT

• The new EDL processing tool, called The Assembler, provides precise control over the conform process as well as allowing you to edit the EDL to ensure a proper conform.
• Media Browser to manager all of the shots within your SCRATCH Project, including filtering capabilities so you can quickly locate the shots you are looking for and modify them with a single click.

PLAYER

• The Plugin Browser makes it easier to find and apply effects and save presets of your most common effects.
• The updated Tracking functionality gives you more control over the tracking process to get exactly the results you require.

PLAYER - Extended Audio Support

• ASIO devices are now supported for audio output.
• You can load individual audio files per shot and control up to 8 separate channels.
• Embedded audio in the RED R3D file format is automatically read directly from the R3D files.
• Any loaded audio is automatically included in QuickTime exports.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• As of SCRATCH 4.1 build 491, the REDNODE is included in the AssimSetup.msi. If you are upgrading from a previous build of SCRATCH where you had to add the REDNODE as a separate operation, any existing REDNODE files in the C:\Program Files\Assimilate\bin folder MUST be removed manually before installing this build.
• SCRATCH 4.2 build 504 is fully compatible with previous setups. However, projects created with this version are NOT backward compatible.

 

VERSION 4.1

GENERAL

• The Tracker has been updated to be faster and more precise with a new interface. Added tracking support for r3d media at all resolutions.
• SCRATCH now supports DUAL output for STEREO workflow and versioning. Allowing for simultaneous fast processing of left eye and right eye.
• SCRATCH now support per shot audio and added support for r3d embedded audio.  

 

VERSION 4.0

GENERAL

• SCRATCH now fully supports the Tangent CP-300 Wave panel.
• Additional XML commands are now available.
• Offset, Lift, Gamma, Gain and a custom LUT can be applied to individual clips.
• Audio file and audio slip values can be applied to individual clips. NOTE: The ability to play per-clip audio is still in development at this time. Audio clips can be assigned but playback is currently limited to the entire CONstruct audio file.
• Reading large image files with small block sizes has been optimized.
• Overall bug fixes and optimizations.

CONSTRUCT

• An ALE file can now be exported from the CONstruct. This allows users to pass clip information to other systems while preserving all of the metadata information.
• The 'AS_ALWAYS_MATCH_NAME' environment variable was added. When set, SCRATCH will only conform a clip if the timecode and clip name both match the source EDL. Previously, only one matching value was required.
• There is now a FIND MEDIA option in the CONstruct. This allows users to reconnect shots in a SCRATCH Construct for which the source files have moved to a different location.

PLAYER

• Support for ASIO audio devices has been added. The active audio driver can be selected in SYSTEM SETTINGS. When audio is enabled in the SCRATCH Player, the sync will default to AUDIO. To ensure proper audio sync, the ASIO audio card must be locked to a valid reference. Additionally, when using the NVIDIA SDI output, both the ASIO audio card and the NVIDIA SDI card must be locked to the same SYNC source to ensure synchronized playback of picture and audio.
• The QuickKey 'TAB' has been added for toggling to a clean, full screen display.
• A new per-project error log and dialog have been added. This allows users to view and troubleshoot playback errors within the SCRATCH interface. The Error Log dialog can be accesses using the ERROR MENU button in the CONstruct view or through the QuickKey ‘CTRL-E’.
• Timecode and frame number entries can now be directly selected from the Player interface.
• The Version Stack selection can now be controlled through QuickKeys ‘Page Up’ and ‘Page Down’. The Version Stack selection can also be mapped to the external control panels.
• ‘Add Version’ and ‘Bin Version’ in the Version Stack can now be mapped to the external control panels.

PROCESS

• Timecode can now be embedded in the header of EXR files rendered out of SCRATCH.
• Dedicated XYZ conversion options have been added. Pre- and Post-Gamma settings can be adjusted in the PROJECT SETTINGS. These are set to .65 and 2.6 by default but should be set to proper values to match specific XYZ conversions.
• A new REGENERATE option is available in the CONstruct SETTINGS menu. When DISABLED, each clip’s source timecode will be written into the resulting output file’s header. This was previously the default behaviour. When ENABLED, the SCRATCH CONstruct timecode will be written into the output file’s header. Users can control this by toggling the button on or off.
• Source timecode can now be written into files generated by additional SCRATCH Output Nodes. Previously, only the Main Output Node would use the source timecode. Now all Output Nodes can include this information.
• The CONstruct is now saved before processing is started.
• Output rendering has been optimized. NOTE: These optimizations may create slightly different output results from previous SCRATCH versions.
• QuickTime outputs have been optimized.

MATRIX

• Users now have the option to disable Texture Fill/Matte assignments for PASTE operations.
• The way SCAFFOLD Canvas’s are rendered has been modified so that any blur applied to the Matte channel will be applied to the Canvas shape as well. This allows for more control over the softness of a Canvas shape. As a result of these changes, this version of SCRATCH may create different results from previous versions.
• The SHOW MATTE option can now be controlled using the QuickKey ‘M’ while in the MATRIX menu. Also, the MATTE for the current shot can be viewed as a high-contrast, black-and-white image by toggling the Alpha channel selection in the View Port Menu Bar at the top of the View Port.
• When isolating a color channel on a SCAFFOLD, the source image no longer needs to be loaded separately into the MATTE channel.

PLAYOUT

• The PLAYOUT menu now has an option for RECORD TC or SOURCE TC.
• When set to RECORD TC, SCRATCH uses the CONstruct timecode as the basis for the PLAYOUT to tape.
• When set to SOURCE TC, each clip’s source timecode will be recorded as the timecode on tape for PLAYOUT. This requires that the deck’s internal timecode generator be set to PRESET, so that SCRATCH can update the timecode being generated to match each source clip as the PLAYOUT is happening.
• The ‘AS_ABORT_ON_ERROR’ environment variable has been added. When this variable is set to ‘OFF’, PLAYOUT will continue even when errors have been detected. The errors are still logged, but PLAYOUT will not abort the layoff. Users can view the Error Log and check the resulting tape for accuracy once the PLAYOUT has completed.

RED

• SCRATCH now supports the latest RED camera Firmware, Build 16.
• The R3D metadata color information is now processed outside of the SCRATCH MATRIX values. Previously, the R3D metadata was added using the MATRIX OFFSET parameters. With Version 4.0, the metadata color is processed prior to the SCRATCH MATRIX. Users can still bypass the metadata color information by using CTRL-RESET from the main MATRIX menu. A normal RESET will revert back to the metadata color values.
• The new REDspace color space has been added as a gamma option for R3D files. The gamma selection is accessed in the PROCESS->FX CONTROLS menu.
• A new REDspace display LUT has been added in the RED folder under C:\Program Files\Assimilate\Settings\LUT.
• The decoding of R3D files has been improved to allow for better recovery from errors in the R3D files themselves. When rendering, SCRATCH will render any bad frames as black frames and report them on the new error console. Users should always check the Error Log to determine if any frames have been skipped or eliminated.
• SCRATCH now reads the frame rate of R3D files directly from the file. This ensures the proper frame rate is assigned to the shot.
• The ISO value for R3D files is read directly from the metadata of the R3D file. This ensure the proper ISO value is used within SCRATCH.
• The handling of half- and quarter-resolution proxies has been improved to ensure proper scaling and framing.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• If you are upgrading from SCRATCH 3.5 you need to obtain a SCRATCH 4.0 license. Please send your current license file and a new log file [after installing new version] to licensing@assimilateinc.com. Keep in mind that it might take some time to get your new code from the licensing team.