SCRATCH the’ Digital Finishing Solution’ by Assimilate is billed by the company as the essential mix for a real-time, resolution-dependent data workflow.Riding the RED MX Wave and beyond: The RED-ONE Digital Camera has taken the entertainment world by storm.  Assimilate’s Scratch 5.1 leads the industry with first support for RED cameras, such as support for multiple RED Rocket cards in a single SCRATCH system; first dual RED Rocket support for MX R3D; and first non-RED application to support the new RED MX sensor and revised color math, with native real-time playback and adjustment of all on-camera color parameters, such as FLUT, exposure, and curves. Working easily with the native R3D files, SCRATCH streamlines the RED ONE MX workflow and delivers a high-quality master for multiple delivery formats.

With 3D in full gear, Assimilate has given post artists the ability to work in real-time 3D at all times with direct output to any stereoscopic display system. Additionally. Assimilate offers post houses it’s exclusive 3Play Pro, which enables playback and review of full-resolution HD stereoscopic material on a variety of consumer 3D monitors, as well as non-3D monitors using a variety of Anaglyph formats.  With enhanced color grading along with finishing and compositing, Scratch v.5.1 also offers support that reads and writes every DNxHD format, which provides full compatibility with AVID media for projects originating on Media Composer, Symphony, or DS.

Assimilate’s Scratch v.5.1 will be on display at this years NAB with multiple booths for those eager to test out the new features and take a test run on what is proving to be a valuable asset to those in the post community.

Another topic I keep hearing about from production and post production personnel is that “Avid can’t handle Red One footage…”  While there was, and I stress was some truth to this at one point, Avid has made sure this is no longer an issue.  The truth is, that Avid was always capable of handling Red One footage, there was just a bit of a workaround, which could be a hassle if  not done properly, in order for an editor to bring the footage into the system.  Now enter Avid MetaFuze.  Similar to the Sony Clip Browser, Avid’s MetaFuze is a one-stop transcoding software provided free via download.  Once download you simply load up the software and import the footage.  MetaFuze will transcode any number of formats, from DPX, RED R3D, QuickTime and even stereoscopic 3D source files by converting your high-resolutions files to 10-bit or 8-bit uncompressed or Avid DNxHD media. 

Most post houses have multiple editing stations which generally pull projects and media off of a main server, this certainly isn’t new.  But an issue that has been brought to my attention over the last few weeks is one regarding the use of multiple avid suites with different windows based platforms (ie. Windows 2000, XP, Vista) accessing the same projects.  The issue being that when a project is closed on one particular suite and re-opened on another, the user would get an error which stated that the projected is locked or write protected and therefore any changes would not be saved.  As one can well imagine, this can be a huge issue, especially if the project is under a deadline, and if you haven’t experienced this before, then God bless you, but I hope the shared knowledge here will benefit you down the road. 

Compositing can be a very deep and complex subject, especially when dealing with animation, but here we’ll try and keep it fairly simple and straightforward.  There is always talk amongst those in the industry when it comes to blue/green screen and working on an edit as to whether or not one should do their composite in whatever NLE software their working with or export to a third party software to handle the task.  Unless your working with animation, the answer, like so many in post production questions is a not a simple one.  Take for instance Avid, who has excellent composite tools available in their 3.0 versions ( and up ) that can do the job relatively pain free providing the ‘screen’ is a talking head or has minimal movement.  Final Cut does a decent job too, providing your using the newly acquired Ultimatte software that was made available earlier this year.  Both are good and most editor’s may prefer to use their NLE system to avoid the hassle of exporting and re-importing footage for what may be no difference other than minor ones no one notices.