Assimilate is now shipping Scratch 9.0, an aggressive, high-performance, and user-friendly product update that delivers a huge boost in creativity, efficiency and performance, saving enormous amounts of time for all creative functions. Known for its high-quality 2D/3D/VR tools in a single, streamlined workflow – dailies, conform, color grading, compositing, finishing & mastering – now includes support for over 200 Matchbox Shader effects and an easy connection to AfterEffects and Nuke compositing tools with a single click.

New Scratch 9.0 Creative Highlights

Matchbox Shaders

  • The Matchbox Shader toolset is extended into SCRATCH 9.0.
  • Installation takes only a minute! See https://vimeo.com/285256385
  • Free or inexpensive way to add more than 200 new effects to shots or complete timelines in real-time.

AfterEffects and Nuke

  • Integrated bridge in Scratch 9.0 to quickly send shots to AfterEffects or Nuke for significant compositing requirements.
  • It takes one click to send a shot to AfterEffects or Nuke.
  • A second click pulls the final render back into Scratch.
  • See how quick and easy Virgil Kastrup did it at https://vimeo.com/275156701.

H.265 Reader and Encoder

  • Ships with renowned BeamR h265 encoder to deliver pristine quality in up to 12-bit 4:2:2.
  • Supports hardware decoding of h.265 media on Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
  • Significant speed increase in playback and transcoding speed of h.265.

How Customers Use Scratch 9.0
“There are several new features in Scratch 9.0 that I greatly appreciate, but as a colorist, I mainly focus on the color grading tools that enable me to work extremely quickly and intuitively,” said Tobias Wiedmer, lead colorist and head of the color grading department at Cine Chromatix in Berlin. “Its support of Matchbox Shaders makes Scratch even more powerful, for example, when changing the light, adding a realistic depth of field/defocus, and doing advanced beauty work. Most of these shaders are real-time and usable without rendering.” See the Cine Chromatix color grading show reel at https://vimeo.com/256433488. All imagery was color graded in Scratch.

“Support for Matchbox Shaders in Scratch is a great addition to our creative arsenal. Scratch being GPU-based since its inception has the best environment and interface for these kinds of tools. In my opinion, there is nothing out there that can beat such a great integration – real-time in many cases or incredibly fast,” said Leo Lovera, founder of Moving Forward Studios. “We have always been a 100% SCRATCH studio since v1.0. Throughout all our studio suites, we use Scratch to do all grading, visual effects, finishing and deliveries because it’s a superior creative tool suite and streamlines our workflow to maximize productivity. We also greatly appreciate that Assimilate regularly adds productivity features to Scratch, such as the one-two-click for compositing with AfterEffects.” https://www.instagram.com/movingforwardstudios/

Peter Hacker (https://www.fatrat.de) is an independent color grading artist. “As of today, I have worked on about 500 projects in Scratch, from the straightforward to the extremely complex,” said Hacker.  “Recently, the creative tools in Scratch gave me the confidence to tackle a monumental color-grading project that included footage from eleven different cameras and over 2000 edits. With a lot of passion for the project, patience, and Scratch, we were able to get to the 100% result we envisioned.”

Price and Availability
Scratch 9.0 is now available at www.assimilateinc.com, starting at $79.00 (USD) monthly and $650 (USD) annually.

About Assimilate
Assimilate provides real-time post-production tools and workflows that have proven essential to productivity and creativity in the creation of 2D/3D/VR studio and independent feature films, documentaries, TV episodes, and music videos. The Scratch product line equips directors, DPs, on-set DITs and post-production artists with state-of-the-art, cost-effective tools and workflows they need to simplify the dailies and post-production processes to achieve high-quality results. Scratch is resolution independent, and continually updates support for nearly all formats. Additionally, in Scratch VR, Assimilate offers the only professional end-to-end VR workflow and tools for VR360 / 3D and VR180 / 3D – including stitching, Ambisonic sound, and live streaming. Assimilate partners with Z Cam to offer complete, integrated VR workflows with its Scratch VR and the Z Cam S1, S1 Pro, and K1 Pro VR camera – from previews to shoot, data management, stitch, color grading compositing, finishing, and mastering. Learn more at www.assimilateinc.com.