SCRATCH 9.4 released

[Mazze]

 

 

Hey friends,

we just released v9.4 of SCRATCH, Play Pro, Live Looks and Live Assist.
Here's what's in:

Main

• Live FX – Live Composition and Virtual Production. This is a new product and toolset within the Assimilate Product Suite. The product has its own release notes, available here. The product is currently still in a beta phase, where we encourage everybody to participate in.
• Full support for the Apple M1 Silicon.
• Editor update. The Editor has a new set of edit modes that align better with existing editors. The drag/drop model for multi-tracks has been improved and includes functions to prevent creating freeze frames by exceeding in-/out point ranges. Note that in the User Preference for the Editor you can switch the option back on to allow range settings beyond a clip's media size.
• To utilize the HDR capabilities of new computer screens and dual head monitors / tv’s, the advanced settings "Extended Dynamic Range for OpenGL for UI / Dual Head” were added. These settings ensure that the output is not clipped and can be interpreted as HDR. The settings have a slightly different effect on Windows and the Mac. On Windows the effect on the display of the UI controls is slightly more prominent. After enabling advanced setting you update the colorspace and EOTF of the corresponding monitor. For the Mac set the monitor colorspace to the actual colorspace of the monitor (P3, Rec2020) and the EOTF to a Gamma 2.2. On Windows the monitor should be set to sRGB with a Scene Linear EOTF. The operating system will then do proper HDR transform.

Color

• Update to ACES v1.3, including an option in the project settings to select between versions. Existing projects by default stay on v1.1. ACES v1.3 contains a series of new (P3) HDR transforms for different brightness levels. The software uses the Max Luminance settings in the HDR Mastering parameters in the Project Settings to select the suitable transform.
• Upgraded the OCIO plug-in to use OCIO v2.
• A Qualifier update with a number of new controls and the controls split over 2 tabs. A new de-noise option as a pre-keyer filter. New Clip White / Black options as post-key operations. The possible range of the Expand option has been substantially increased (do note though that higher values do affect performance).
• Added a new layer matte Copy blend mode, which causes that the only alpha passed is that which is generated by the layer itself.
• Added a new Matte Wrap plugin to create a matte for a light-wrap effect. Add the plug-in as matte on a layer after the keyer layer by selecting the Matte section in the Fill/Matte menu before opening the plug-in browser. Navigate the node-tree to get to the plug-in controls to set the size and gain of the Matte Wrap as well as the option to expand it outward or inward (Invert).
• To indicate even slight changes, the color-balls now show a tint in the middle area when a grade is applied.
• Added an Unlink colorspace/eotf advanced setting to prevent automatic update of the EOTF when selecting a color space.
• CIE plot did not always use linear XYZ as input. In the CIE plot settings you can now set both a colorspace and EOTF override used for the CIE plot.

Formats / Media

• Added an "Auto" options for selecting the audio channels when exporting ProRes, DNxHD and H.264/HEVC. When Auto is enabled the number of audio channels being exported is the same as the number of audio channels in the source files.
• Implemented dynamic per-frame metadata for Sony Raw media which includes e.g. the posture angles (pitch / roll).

Video IO / Monitors

• The Video IO panel can now be opened directly from the start screen. The output latency has been reduced. An advance setting to override the default number of pre-roll frames/buffers for video output was added. Furthermore, a separate Vertical sync option for UI and Dual-Head display was added (previously this was an implicit part of the selected sync mode).
• The GenLock function on the VideoIO card now automatically uses an external reference clock if available and if it is using the same framerate as the output channel is set to. All output channels are now synchronized.
• VideoIO devices are now hot-pluggable and settings can be updated while inside a project without the need for a restart.
• The startup logo and reference monitor splash screen could show too bright on HDR displays. The display now takes into account the EOTF settings for the display. Alternatively you can force the startup logo display in HDR PQ by enabling the corresponding advanced settings. Furthermore, the text display on the splash screen has been improved if the Video IO or Dual Head screen size differs from the UI screen.
• Note that the changes in the VideoIO setup also had consequences for external applications that use this functionality – like e.g. external software scopes. Check with the vendor of that software if it already supports the new VideoIO interface of the Assimilate Product Suite.

Product Specific

• Play Pro now also shows the Metadata entry panel in the project tree to enter metadata used in various reports.
• Added the paste options panel, including the Paste Forward function to Play Pro.
• The record-state did not always come through properly when using Teradek Bolt wireless equipment. You can now specify Teradek as the source (rather than the camera type) to ensure that the Auto record option works.
• Added Brompton as LUT box option in Live Looks and Live Assist to control the look on a video wall. This function can apply a (LUT) grade to one or multiple Tessera video wall controllers from Brompton Technology.
• Fix on the image capture function from the IS-Mini 4k LUT box for Live Looks / Live Assist.

Tools

• The Sync-player function can now handle longer computer names (mac-os recently extended the potential size of computer names). This does mean that you no longer can sync with older version systems.
• Added F1 - F5 function keys to the Remote Control function. These functions can dynamically be assigned to specific functions in the Remote Control panel.

Camera

• The Camera menu has been updated to accommodate various functions for the Live FX toolset. In general these changes do not affect compositions in a post-production / non-live context unless the virtual camera was explicitly used.
• The main change is that the virtual camera is no longer specified in just a (vertical) Field of View but rather with a Focal Length settings and Sensor Size (width, height and crop), which together determine the Field of View. The default values in the new setup differ from the original Field of View default.
• The virtual camera position is now specified with an origin position and an offset (which can be animated).
• The Far-Plane setting in the new setup is dynamically adjusted, which prevent the issue that layers could end up ‘behind’ the far-plane and effectively become invisible with very high resolution media (>8k).

Misc

• Added the SHA1 and xxHash64 checksum options next to md5 in the Construct consolidate. The Consolidate report to show the Checksum type that was used in with the timeline consolidation process.
• Importing still images automatically get a user defined length. The default length can be set in the Preference panel of the Editor.
• The Import function of the Animation Editor now allows loading in general csv files with animation data.
• New Lens (Un)distort plug-in.
• Update of the camera menu (to align / accommodate various Live FX functions).
• Playback is no longer stopped when minimizing the app (on Windows - macOS already had the correct behavior).
• Added a "Relative" option to the layer-Canvas setting.
• The startup screen now shows more specifically which modules are licensed.
• Some of the Assimilate plug-ins did not properly pass the alpha of their input.
• Use Ctrl + Shift + Arrow to move 10 frames. The exact number of frames can be set in the player preferences panel.
• Search function enhancements where you can specify the metadata item to search for: e.g. 'scene 01a' searches all scene metadata fields for the value 01a*
• The in/out parameters on the Fill/Matte menu can now show as a timecode.
• Added the [Note Delete] panel mapping to delete the note of a shot at the current play position.

Download from HERE.
Something to play around with during the holidays 😉 .


Cheers!
Mazze

9.4_out_now.psd