Home

SCRATCH User Guide

1. EXITING THE PROJECT EXIT PROJECT The EXIT PROJECT button returns you to the SCRATCH Start up Screen The status of the Project is saved so that the next time the Project is entered it will start up on the same CONstruct This action requires a confirmation by clicking on OK 58 SCRATCH User Guide LOAD SAVE LOAD A CONSTRUCT The Load Construct button opens a SCRATCH Browser where you can navigate to a previously saved SCRATCH CONstruct file either in the proprietary dsk format or in a valid XML format Opening the CONstruct file creates a new CONstruct in the current Group Loading a CONstruct does NOT overwrite an existing CONstruct SAVE A CONSTRUCT The Save Construct button opens a SCRATCH Browser You can then navigate to a location where the CONstruct file will be saved Saved CONstruct files use the name of the CONstruct The data can be saved in SCRATCH proprietary format with a dsk extension A CONstruct file saved in this format contains all the metadata regarding editorial decisions color grades notes and any other information that has been added or modified You can also save a CONstruct in XML format This file will contain the basic CONstruct slot and shot information to setup the CONstruct The XML version does however not contain any color grading or enhanced editorial info The XML version is intended for use within workflows utilizing third party systems Note Loading and Saving CONstructs is part of the PROJ
2. For example in the default panel mapping for the Tangent panels the F1 and F2 buttons on the Tangent CP200 BK are mapped to the Active Group The F1 button increases the Active Group number by one each time it is pressed and the F2 button decreases the Active Group number by one each time it is pressed This allows you to easily move forward and backward between Groups without continuously pressing one button to go all the way through the Group List and loop around Note On the JL Cooper panel the Page 4 button is mapped to decrease the Active Group and the Page 8 button is mapped to increase the Active Group CREATING A NEW GROUP SCRATCH User Guide 193 To create a new Group click the NEW button at the bottom of the Groups List This will create a Group called New Group at the bottom of the Groups List You can rename the Group by clicking in the Text Slate at the bottom of the Groups List and typing in a new name Tip Be sure to press Enter on the keyboard to accept the new name You can remove an existing Group by selecting it from the list and then press the BIN button at the bottom of the Groups List CREATING NEW MAPPING PAIRS To add new pairs to this list select the proper Group in which you want to create the mapping from the list on the left side With the Group selected you can select the button or encoder from the Encoders Knobs list and then select the SCRATCH control you want to be affected by that button knob f
3. VM The amount of Virtual Memory in Use PLAY REPEAT OPTIONS Initially the Play Repeat setting is set to Play Once as indicated by the Y button at the left of the play controls Clicking on this button cycles through these options Priay once only the default option 86 SCRATCH User Guide PP Repeat play in either direction Playback repeats in the same direction once the end of the sequence is reached Ping Pong or bounce play MINI TIMELINE A mini timeline is displayed underneath the Play Controls You can scrub through the timeline by clicking and dragging inside the mini timeline window When multiple shots are loaded the mini timeline alternates between light and dark blue to show each individual shot The number slates to the left and right of the mini timeline display the frame number of the IN and OUT marks By default the IN and OUT are set to the first and last frame of the sequence unless changed by pressing the IN and OUT buttons RANGE CONTROL You can adjust the range of frames that are played back in the Player by using the RANGE button With no IN and OUT marks selected and multiple shots are loaded into the Player the RANGE button automatically focuses the Player on the current shot All play back is limited to this range of frames until the RANGE button is un selected at which time the Player returns focus to the entire clip or timeline When a range is defined the mini timeline and all frame
4. PROGRAM FILES The main software is installed at C Program Files Assimilate This is where files which are updated with each software installation are located This is also where the ReleaseNotes txt file can be found The Release Notes contain additional SCRATCH operational information in a short form manual In the C Program Files Assimilate directory are the following folders Bin This folder contains the SCRATCH executable application and all supporting dll files There are also three additional executable programs in the bin folder acopy exe diskio exe and crypt3dl exe These are command line utilities that are used for copying media analyzing disk performance and encrypting 3D LUTs respectively See Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES for details on these utilities Fonts The SCRATCH UI can be customized to use any font loaded under Windows These fonts are loaded simply to ensure that a default font is available See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more information about customizing the SCRATCH UI Settings This is the location for many of the SCRATCH configuration files used for setting up features such as external control surfaces SCRATCH Remote and deck control functionality Configuration of these files is covered in detail in Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH The Settings folder also contains a LUT sub folder This folder contians a number of pre defined Look Up Tables The list of files is also cover
5. REDCODE GLOBAL SETTINGS When a native RED R3D file is loaded into the player you can access a number of special controls in the FX Controls menu Details of the controls and the processing of the R3D file format are described in special documents on the ASSIMILATE support site PROCESSING Processing is the act of writing out new image files which are the end result of all the effects and adjustments that you have made within SCRATCH Each CONstruct will always have a default location defined for the output processing Initially this will be set to a folder under the Media Directory with the same name as the CONstruct If there is already a folder with that name SCRATCH will append a _1 to the folder name to ensure that it is unique You can initiate processing either from the CONstruct as a background task or from within the Player as a foreground task FROM THE PLAYER While you are in the Player you can launch a processing task using the Quick Key F12 This will process only the current shot that you are parked on Note When an Output Node is loaded into the Player it is considered a single shot even though shot markers will be visible in the mini timeline The markers are strictly for reference and will not be respected as individual shots for processing To process all shots within the current Range use the Quick Key Control F12 Note If no IN and OUT points have been set and the Range button is deactivated the en
6. The following Quick Keys can be used in the Event Grid O Quick Key Control A x Select all rows O Quick Key Control D x Deselect all rows O Quick Key Control Left Click x Add or remove row in selection O Quick Key Shift Left Click x Select all rows between selected row and current selection O Quick Key Spacebar Left Click x Pan through the Event Grid EDIT CONTROLS The Edit controls allow you to modify the current EDL using the following commands Reset events Reset the selected events to their default values Insert event Add a new EDL event before the currently selected event The new event has a Source timecode of zero so initially the row will be shown disabled The Record timecode of the new event will match the outgoing timecode of the preceding event and the incoming timecode of the next event Bin events Delete all selected events SCRATCH User Guide 73 Ripple TC When active this will ripple the record timecode on all events after the current event An increase of the outgoing timecode of the current event will update in and out record timecode of all events after Before increasing the timecode of the next event first any existing gaps between the outgoing timecode of an event and the incoming timecode of the next event will be closed Fit record Updates the record timecode of selected event to match the record in and out of events before and after the selected event This is
7. 108 SCRATCH User Guide LENGTH This value indicates the total length of the current slot You can change this number and the overall length of the current slot adjusts to the new value The behavior of slots after the current slot is determined by the status of the Ripple button in the Configure Timeline section LOOP MODE A shot can be shorter than the slot in which it is placed The LOOP MODE controls how a shot behaves if the slot is longer than the actual source clip s IN and OUT points Once The source clip plays normally until the source OUT point is reached After that point the final image is held as a freeze frame until the end of the slot Loop The source clip plays normally until the source OUT point is reached After that point the clip loops back to the source IN point and continues looping in this way until the end of the slot Bounce The source clip plays normally until the OUT point is reached After that point the clip plays in reverse until the source IN point is reached The source clip continues to bounce in this way until the end of the slot Reverse The source clip plays in reverse beginning at the source OUT point and playing backward until the source IN point is reached After that point the IN point image are held as a freeze frame until the end of the slot This is essentially the same as the ONCE mode but in reverse Reverse Loop This is the same as the LOOP mode but in reverse
8. E g The cursor starts to flicker on swap buffer no_admin Allow running without Administrative privileges Treated as a clip specification and loaded directly into the player by passing project user selections filename Nothing is saved in this mode E g Run as Zone 1 1 ae oO 3 3 SCRATCH Configuration Variables in SConfig txt By uncommenting configuration variables in the SConfig file you can modify the default behavior of SCRATCH When this is set audio is not disabled during play out which otherwise will be the ee automatically disabled When dual view is disabled this option will force all control pages to half size and copy them to the second display to get a proper display in stereo mode The Player when in dual view mode is the only exception of course AS_DISABLE_DUALVIEW Disable to use of Dual Head in SCRATCH when the GFX board is setup in a spanning mode AS_DISABLE_FBO_SDI_API Disable the NVidia SDI FBO API Needed for dual stream output AS_DISABLE_PBO_RB Disable the use of PBO s for readback from the GFX board Disables the SDI output which is automatically enabled when available The SDI mode used AS_DISABLE_SDI_OUTPUT is the last mode selected through the NVidia control panel which has to be turned OFF in order for this to work AS_DISABLE_SWAPGROUP Disables the use of the Swap Group extension Set to disable the use of the swap interval extension used for more accurate playback and AS D
9. Normally you cannot delete source media from within SCRATCH The BIN MEDIA button in the CONstruct only bins deletes media that has been generated by SCRATCH such as cache files This is done as a precaution so that users can trust that no matter what their original source media will remain intact However there are some instances where being able to delete source media from within SCRATCH could be useful Enabling ALLOW BIN SHOT replaces the normal BIN MEDIA button with BIN MEDIA amp REF This allows you to delete not only media that SCRATCH has created but also the original reference source media Note Because the ALLOW BIN SHOT option is so potentially destructive it is not persistent between sessions Once you exit from a Project you must go to the User Settings Menu and enable ALLOW BIN SHOT again if you want to use it when entering another Project AUDIO SET SYNC When playing back footage SCRATCH automatically switches the Sync Mode of the Player to the most logical option based on the system configuration For example if the NVIDIA SDI Option is present the Player defaults to using VIDEO as the Sync Mode There may be times where this automatic selection is not what is desired This option forces the Player s Sync Mode to Audio when you start playback rather than automatically switching Sync Modes This is useful for ensuring that playback always remains in sync with your audio See Chapter 5 THE PLAYER for more detail
10. SCRATCH User Guide version 4 3 April 2009 ASSIMILATE INC OF INTRODUCTION secciceas nccetsnctastecs cect ccascsseti dei ctaeesssceanacesuaceeavusnescatesceandecusacadspesceastedueteuasssscsssasueredes 4 WHAT IS SCRATCH ANA Hee 4 FEATURES ocio A A A ida daras 4 CONFIGURATIONS AND LICENSING s coincide a aiiis 4 FULLY LICENSED SCRATCH WORKFLOW DIAGRAM iii A O di ie 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS coi asian 8 02 GETTING STARTED sccanswuaasccisanssiaannnqnanassssanaiereadamaaanadssndeaanthensvananswandhddes deanananaansGaNanGbaneretmnenaaade 10 INTRODUCTION sciri naan ar ngs Pet ia 10 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION cis ita A E ONERE AIEEE NAET ENAN A TEREE A A 10 STARTING THE SOFTWARE A E EE a A A A A 17 03 THE STARTUP SCREEN asian siispalans dico aaa AA EAEra dd a a 28 INTRODUCTION con iii 28 MENU BAR BUTTON Sisi A A A A abeee 29 USERS PROJEGT MENU 2 asis a A aa bdo 30 USER SETTINGS MENU Prison nanendra A E A aenkdvednanieeiebteceveendda 30 PROJECT SETTINGS MENU sie ii A A a dai ales 33 SYSTEM SETTINGS MENU Sii a 36 04 THE CONSTRUCT vincsctencaxacas saasnnehinoncstuanaiedscnamirenendadenndanndssantpersvascnansaah tds Aena sanan iad ARMS CEAPA 40 INTRODUCTION o a ra 40 THE VIEWIPO R Toninas AN 40 THE MAIN MENU A A a o ida oa 46 INTERACTING WITH SHOTS sion a da A e 47 GLOBAL BUTTONS airis A A A AA A tence AE 56 SETTINGS MENU 0 a a ga s cd 58 MEDIA MENU io ad A A a See A A 63 TRAY MENU secpicsteccresdicesacssdeaaqcsdsewbescdaedaiade
11. There are four curves that can be manipulated overall luminance red green and blue Each curve can be selected using the buttons to the right of the curve display Each curve has a base mid and peak control point that can be adjusted within the curve display There are also Bezier handles on each point that allow you to adjust the shape of the curve through the three control points The horizontal axis of the curve display represents the source image range from low to high The vertical axis represents the resulting range New values are calculated by projecting up from the horizontal axis at a particular value and then the intersection point with the curve is projected left to the resulting value The curve display is in essence a visual representation of a Look Up Table that allows you to easily make interactive adjustments By clicking the Curve Editor button the Animate Curve Editor is opened where the parameters can be adjusted over time The Curve Editor is discussed in more detail elsewhere in this chapter There are two default adjustments available Log to Lin and Lin to Log These can also be applied to the individual colors or to the overall luminance of the shot To temporary bypass or reset all adjustments to the curves the corresponding buttons can be used LUT The LUT interface allows you to load any custom LUT as a primary grade on the image LUTs must be in a format that SCRATCH can read See the LUT section in Chapter
12. e Scaffold 3 Bin Group Recursive Opacity 100 000 Show Matte ACTIVATE AND DEACTIVATE A SCAFFOLD Scaffolds automatically become active once a Canvas is created or a Qualifier adjustment is made An active Scaffold is indicated by an upper case A on the button to the right side of the Scaffold Hierarchy List SCRATCH User Guide 139 You can change the active state of a Scaffold by clicking on this button The button changes to a lower case a indicating the Scaffold is deactivated To re activate the Scaffold click again on the button to toggle the state An inactive Scaffold is not processed as part of the color grade and all of its information will remain Tip You can deactivate all Scaffolds for the entire CONstruct by turning off the View Scaffolds button in the Player Settings menu Primary grades will still be visible but all Scaffolds will not be processed The Scaffolds will still be present but are simply switched off at a global level GROUPING SCAFFOLDS You can select multiple SCAFFOLDS by holding the Ctrl key down You can then Group these SCAFFOLDS together with the Group button A group can be switched on and off as a whole as well as moving its position within the complete list of SCAFFOLDS You can also update the name of a group making a large amount of SCAFFOLDS more manageable A group can be un grouped by selecting the group and clicking the Un Grp button Scaffold 4 Group 6 Scaffold 3
13. Cages can be customized separately from within the Guides menu To create a custom guide first select an existing preset and press the Add Copy button This creates a new guide in the list with the same base name as the preset from which it was copied You can rename the guide by clicking in the Text Slate and typing a new name Now you can modify this guide using the X Y Width and Height Numerical Slates A guide has an anchor point which is the lower left corner of the rectangular area it is defined from that point by Width and Height All values are specified in pixels Specify the values you want to use for each parameter The guide updates immediately with the new values If you want to delete a custom guide select it from the list and press the Bin button Note Only user created custom guides can be deleted the standard presets cannot 100 SCRATCH User Guide DISPLAY OPTIONS The Display Options section of the Guides menu controls which Cages of the guide will be visible Clicking on a button activates that particular Cage Each Cage can have its own color which is set with the color pot to the right of each display option Clicking on one of these color pots opens the Color Selection Palette where you can choose the color for that particular Cage You can also adjust properties of certain Cages such as the opacity of the Blanking the percentage size of the Action and Text safe areas by entering new values into the Numerical
14. Finished Offline Test 40 User Guide Tip Swipe left to show and hide the Project Overview List O Swipe Action Left x Show hide the Project Overview List To manage the Project List e g creating new items renaming and setting order there are a number of controls at the bottom of the list The Add button will create a new CONstruct in the currently selected group With the Show button you can toggle the appearance of all the Project List items to one of three states Collapsed show Proxy show Note See below for a more elaborate explanation of these states By clicking on the Edit button an additional row of controls will appear and the Project list will turn into edit mode New Group Edit Show Switching the Project List into Edit mode by clicking on the Edit button will mean that you can e Create additional groups with the New Group button e Change the names of the Project List items by clicking on them e Mark an item for deletion by clicking on the bin icon behind the item To remove the items permanently you need to click the Bin Selected button at the bottom of the list Project UserGuide 4 My Group Sources Finishec Offline Changing the order of CONstruct within a Group the order of Groups or moving a CONstruct from one Group to another id done by dragging and dropping the item You start a drag action by clicking on the item and holding the left mouse button down for a short moment The item will the
15. If there are these will show in the Global Presets list section Note Preset are by default stored on in the plugin folder of the curent project You can however navigate to the global plugin folder or copy preset files to the folder through Windows Explorer APPLY SELECTION Clicking the Apply Selection will close the Plugins Browser and open the plug in parameter menu If a preset was selected the values of that preset will have been applied PLUG IN CONFIGURATION The Plug in Browser relies on plug ins being arranged in a proper structure so that it can work out the Vendor Grouping and the Plug in Image This structure is slightly different depending on the type of plug in e NATIVE ASSIMILATE PLUG INS These exist in SCRATCH s bin folder and have the file extension node If there is also an image present with the same name and a tif file extension then it will be displayed instead of the standard ASSIMILATE logo e SPEEDSIX PLUG INS These exist in their own SpeedSix folder in SCRATCH s plug in folder and have the file extension node If there is also an image present with the same name and a tif file extension then it will be displayed instead of the standard ASSIMILATE logo e OFX PLUG INS The structure for OFX plug ins differ slightly with each Vendor The general standard is for them to exist in the folder C Program Files Common Files OFX Plugins Depending on how the Vendor has arranged their plug ins ther
16. Load Save Fetch Enable Camera Enable Depth Levels Color Numeric Angle 1 000 Vectors Curves LUT Near 1 00 Canvas Qualifier Texture Far 10706 43 Camera Config Options CAMERA CONTROLS ENABLE CAMERA The Enable Camera button activates the 3D camera space This enables the 3D transformation such as Translate Z Rotate X Rotate Y and Pivot Z ANGLE The Angle parameter defines the width of the camera s viewing range A wider viewing angle means more distortion as images move to the edges of the frame A narrower viewing angle decreases the distortion of images near the edge Since the base image must always fit within the camera angle changing the angle is the equivalent in actual camera terms of a dolly out while zooming in NEAR The Near parameter defines the distance to the near clipping plane of the camera s field of view Any object closer than this will be clipped from the scene SCRATCH User Guide 157 FAR The Far parameter defines the distance to the far clipping plane of the camera s field of view Any object further than this will be clipped from the scene ENABLE DEPTH With Enable Depth activated each Scaffold is layered based on its distance from the camera This allows Scaffolds to interact within the 3D space When Enable Depth is deactivated Scaffolds are layered based on their order in the Scaffold Hierarchy List and their distance from the camera is ignored for the purposes of prioritizing the l
17. Once a shot has been loaded as an input you have several controls that can be used to determine how the shot is applied SLIP The Slip control allows you to offset the relationship between the current base frame and the frame being used for the input You can use the Frame Slip to align the timing of several shots so that all elements are synchronized LENGTH The Length control determines how many frames from the source shot will be used You can use the Length control in conjunction with Slip and the Loop mode to specify how a shot will behave when applied as an input LOOP MODE The Loop mode controls the behavior of a clip if there are fewer frames than the base shot There are three options Repeat Loop and Bounce Repeat The Repeat mode holds the last frame of the sequence for the remaining duration of the base shot Loop The Loop mode jump back to the first frame of the sequence and continues looping the entire sequence for the remaining duration of the base shot Bounce The Bounce mode alternates between forward and backward playback of the sequence for the duration of the shot For example if you have a base shot that is 100 frames long and you load a shot for a Background input and set that input s length to 25 frames the Loop mode will determine what frame is used from frames 26 to 100 If the Loop mode is set to Repeat frame 25 of the input shot will be held for the remaining 74 frames of the base shot Loo
18. Reverse Bounce This is the same as the BOUNCE mode but in reverse RIPPLE When Ripple is active any changes to the current slot duration ripple down the timeline This causes all slots after the current slot to be shifted in time by the amount the current slot was lengthened or shortened This amouns includes any Variable Speed settings FIT SHOT The Fit Shot button updates the duration of the current slot to match the IN and OUT points set for the source clip in the Configure Node section All slots following the current slot are rippled regardless of the state of the Ripple button You can also use the O Quick Key F to perform a Fit Shot operation O Quick Key F x Fit time slot to shot length TRANSITION On the second row of buttons in the Configure Timeline section are the Transition controls These parameters determine the transition from the previous slot into the currently selected slot TYPE This pull down allows you to define the type of transition between the previous slot and the current slot CUT This defines the transition as an instantaneous change from one shot to the next SCRATCH User Guide 109 DISSOLVE This defines the transition as a video style dissolve with one image disappearing as another appears OPTICAL This defines the transition as a more traditional film style dissolve simulating the optical process of printing each image onto film ADDITIVE This defines the transition as an additi
19. You can choose from ten different Blending Modes for each Scaffold The blending mode determines how the pixels in the Scaffold blend with the pixels in the original image and any other layers that are below it Blend Subtract Over Multiply Inv Over Screen Inv Blend Lighten Add Darken Blend Blend is a simple non pre multiplied overlay of the image using the value of the alpha channel to determine the opacity of each pixel Over Over is similar to Blend except the foreground image is assumed to be pre multiplied Inverse Over Inverse Over is the same as Over but with an inverted alpha channel Inverse Blend Inverse Blend is the same as Blend but with an inverted alpha channel Add The foreground and background colors are added together The overall value is multiplied by the alpha channel to determine the final amount that is added to the image 150 SCRATCH User Guide Subtract Subtract is the inverse of Add where the foreground color is subtracted from the background color Multiply Multiply looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the background color by the foreground color Screen Screen is the opposite of Multiply where the background is multiplied by the inverse of the foreground color Lighten Lighten uses the lighter value between foreground and background images Whichever value is higher is used in the resulting image This is evaluated individually for each chann
20. You have the same functionality for creating and selecting Trays that is available in the CONstruct but there are several additional capabilities of the Trays in the Player TIMELINE In the Player a Timeline Tray is shown in the list of available Trays This Tray shows each clip in the timeline This is useful for being able to quickly navigate through the timeline using visual thumbnails Each shot in the Tray is a live link to a slot in the timeline Clicking on a thumbnail in the Tray will move the play cursor to the beginning of that slot in the timeline CREATING NEW REFERENCES You can add new references and or presets to a Tray using the Add Reference Shot Ref and Frame Ref buttons Managing Shots inside the tray is done the same way as inside the trays CONstruct module ADD REFERENCE The Add Reference button functions in the same way as it does in the CONstruct Clicking on this button will add the current shot as a reference shot within the Tray The entire shot will be added as a live link in the Tray and clicking on the reference will jump the timeline play cursor to the beginning of that shot SHOT REF Clicking the Shot Ref button will create a preset from the current shot This will NOT be a live link to the shot but rather a static preset which contains the values of any color grade framing and animation parameters of the shot which can then be copied and pasted to other shots in the timeline FRAME REF Clickin
21. dd must be OUTSIDE the double quotes The most recent list of command line parameters is in the ReleaseNotes txt file located at C Program Files Assimilate WACOM TABLET SCRATCH is designed to be used with a pen and tablet as easily as with a mouse In fact there are several aspects of the interface that make SCRATCH exceptionally comfortable when using a pen For example buttons and controls are large reducing the amount of precision that must be used to click on a particular control Also pull down menus will remain open with just a single click and then the pressure on the pen can be released By keeping the menu open after a single click and release SCRATCH reduces the amount of strain on your hand and minimizes the fatigue of operating the software over long periods of time Having on screen numerical entry also reduces the amount of back and forth between the pen and keyboard making for faster overall operation First install the tablet according to the manufacturer s instructions The tablet should function normally within Windows before configuring for SCRATCH For a Wacom tablet to function with SCRATCH there are two main areas that must be addressed re mapping the tablet area and modifying the pen button mapping RE MAPPING THE TABLET AREA The tablet area must be re mapped so that only a portion of the tablet is mapped to the entire screen This creates a zone around the edge of the tablet that allows the swipe funct
22. number at which the slot begins Timecode This displays the CONstruct Timecode at which the slot begins This Timecode is based on the current frame rate of the CONstruct Source TC This displays the source Timecode that is being used at the first frame of the slot Events This displays the event number of the slot This is useful for comparing to EDLs that have been conformed within SCRATCH Slot Length This is a two part display The first number indicates the slot number and the second number is the duration in frames of the slot Times This displays the duration of the slot as a Timecode This Timecode is based on the current frame rate of the CONstruct Keycode This displays the source Keycode that is being used at the first frame of the slot Names This displays the slot name as assigned by the user see the section about slots earlier in this chapter SCRATCH User Guide 69 PROXY INFO This pull down determines what information is displayed in the upper left corner of the thumbnail images None No information is displayed Timecode The source Timecode of the currently displayed frame in the thumbnail is shown This number is updated as the thumbnail image is scrubbed Keycode The source Keycode of the currently displayed frame in the thumbnail is shown This number is updated as the thumbnail image is scrubbed SORT The Sort function will let you change the order of the shots in the CONstruct
23. shot is seen in the Version Stack This dummy shot has a film can icon to show that there is no actual media associated with the shot As soon as a lower layer is selected the dummy shot is removed from the stack Clicking on the button creates a copy of the currently selected shot and places it at the bottom of the stack Any color grading or shot framing that has been applied is also copied This is the same as using the Copy command in the CONstruct and placing the copied shot at the bottom of the same slot as the source Typically you add versions to the stack to create multiple color grading or framing option which you can then review by selecting each version in the stack Clicking on the button removes the currently selected shot from the stack User Guide 125 USING TRAYS FOR COLOR GRADING The Tray menu is primarily used when color grading When the Tray menu is opened from the Matrix menu additional buttons become available for managing the color grade between shots in the Tray and the current shot in the timeline 1342 Show All Show Notes APPLYING GRADES FROM THE TRAY COPY REF COLOR To copy information from a shot in the Tray onto the current shot select the source shot in the Tray and click the Copy Ref Color button This will load the information from the shot in the Tray into the copy buffer You can then use the Paste commands to apply this information to the current shot TRIM TRAY COLORS The Trim Tray
24. the Qualifier will be set to your new values GAIN The Gain adjustment allows you to boost the value of the key signal generated by the Qualifier This has the effect of increasing the affected range without having to change the Qualifier settings PRE BLUR The Blur adjustment allows you to apply a blur to the image as it is processed by the Qualifier The actual image is not blurred it s just the way SCRATCH interprets the image This is useful for reducing grain noise when trying to isolate particular color ranges INVERT The Invert button reverses the Qualifier so that ranges other than the selected range are affected In essence it inverts the key signal generated by the Qualifier RGB KEYER The RGB Keyer is targeted at isolating specific color ranges based on the Red Green and Blue color channels When selected a color selection pot and three color selection sliders appear which allow you to designate the color range of the RGB Keyer You can choose the color either by selecting colors directly off the current image or by using the color selection sliders DIRECT COLOR SELECTION When the RGB Keyer is first activated a 50 percent gray color is selected by default To change this color click on the color pot hold the mouse button down and drag over the View Port Continue to hold down the mouse button and as you drag around the image you will be sampling values for the keyer The results of this selection are shown u
25. 35090 01 1 P ASCIO OOO SO 17 woo 4 h 4 mn gt mi From the Pan and Scan menu you can set the format scale filtering and cropping for a shot FORMAT The Format defines the width height and aspect ratio of the resulting image from the Pan and Scan plug in Several presets are available from the pull down menu You can also create your own formats by setting the desired values for width height and aspect ratio in the appropriate Slates Type a name for your new format in the Text Slate and click on the Add format button The new format is added to the pull down list To delete a format from the pull down list select the format and click the Delete format button The format is removed from the pull down list Note For details on setting proper aspect ratios and using the Scale parameter see the PROJECT SETTINGS MENU section in Chapter 1 SCALE The Scale parameters determine how the source image will be resized The pull down menu has several common scaling options or you can set the scaling to any custom value you require using the Scale X and Scale Y Numerical Slates The pull down options are No Scaling SCRATCH User Guide 169 The image remains centered at a 1 to 1 pixel ratio with the Pan and Scan s new resolution Scale Uniform The image is scaled equally in both X and Y so that its longest axis fits within the Pan and Scan s new resolution Scale fit X The image is scaled equally in both X and Y so
26. 5 for more details on LUT formats The Create Curve button will transform the loaded LUT into a curve that can be viewed in the Curves menu After a curve is created the adjustments cannot be bypassed or reset through the LUT menu but can be altered in the Cuves menu SCRATCH User Guide 119 REFERENCE TOOLS HISTOGRAM The Histogram display provides a visual representation of the balance of color and luminance in the current image The horizontal axis of the Histogram is the range of values from O to 1 0 The vertical height of the histogram at any point along the horizontal axis represents the amount of that value present in the image The higher the histogram the more prevalent that value is This allows you to quickly evaluate the balance of an image For example a very dark image would have a high peak in the histogram on the left side as in the example below This indicates that there are a high amount of pixels with values in the darker ranges You can open the Histogram display by clicking on the Histogram button in the View Port Control Bar or by using the Quick Key U O Quick Key U x Toggle the Histogram on and off When first opened the Histogram is in Minimal mode and displays only the luminance distribution for the current image This minimal view updates in real time so you can monitor the luminance distribution as you are playing back Clicking on the Full button expands the Histogram to show a more detailed view that inc
27. A004_C216 The Timecode filter will include a shot when the timecode is between the IN and OUT timecode of the shot The other filters take their value from a selection in the list and can be activated deactivated by clicking them The column header will show whether a filter is active on the specific column even if the filter controls are not visible if the Filter button has been switched off The Clear button next to the Filter button in the right lower corner of the Media Browser will remove all filters at once The Construct grouping bars can also act as filters clicking on the Group or Construct name will filter out all shots not part of that Group of CONstruct EDITING MULTIPLE SHOT PROPERTIES When one or more shots are selected in the grid the frame rate aspect ratio and format Lin Log or XYZ can be changed simultaniously by using the buttons below the grid All updated properties will show in yellow The changes will only be applied after clicking the Apply Changes button The aspect ratio has a number of pre selects When selecting Custom the Scale numeric control is enabled and can set a non standard aspect ratio In and Out Handles In the Grid the in and out handles are presented as the number of frames after the start In and the number of frames before the end Out of the shot The I and O numerical slates allow you to increment or decrement the current in and out handles of the selected shots If you click an indi
28. Area as you would do normally to select a slot Hold down the and click in the Slot Information Area of another slot All slots between the selected slot and the slot you shift clicked on are selected or de selected when it was selected in the first place You can also hold down the and click in the Slot Information Area at the bottom of the slot This will toggle the selection state of the slot To clear a selection all at once click on the slot outside the information area abes cia coor thy 27 AN ey ee iy Beat tate v Ata CIA NY ie AOS CIDN 00017817 sr 004 CINA AICA a 44 User Guide O Quick Key Control Left Click x Disable Enable Slot O Quick Key Shift Left Click x Toggle Disable Enable state for range of Slots DISABLING COPYING REMOVING SLOTS When you have selected one or more Slots can disable copy or remove them with the menu buttons on the right of the CONstruct menu bar Enable Copy Selection Paste Slots Bin Selection You can disable individual Slots so that they will not be considered part of the playback when the Construct is loaded into the Player To disable a Slot you can use the Enable toggle button When a Slot is disabled the icon at the bottom left of the slot turns red When you have multiple Slots on the CONstruct disabled you can quickly enable them by activating one of the disabled Slot and then select the All button before clicking the Enable button Note Slots can a
29. CONstruct items within a Group completely by clicking on the arrow icon on the left of a Group item Project UserGuide 4 My Group Sources Sources material Date received 21 nov date processed 23 nov Finished Offline Test vy Second group If the Project List becomes too long to fit on the screen you can use the scroll bar at the left of the Project List to scroll down and up SLOTS The central area of the View Port is the SCRATCH CONstruct The CONstruct serves two main purposes First it is a holding place for source material when building a conformed timeline or building a structured set of shots to be used in a review session Second the CONstruct represents a timeline with each slot from left to right representing a single shot within the timeline and different versions of each shot stacking up vertically within a slot 42 SCRATCH User Guide gt ALC Or fr tT da gt me o MACHAN 15 02 ADT P T ers wes POE I ng ADA CI OROIDT 4 MA CHA WIAD 1 TORE MOLCIN 140900 417 ee Doo da Ll voa gt T azt LE og ROO CIMA MOT T ajast h MA CHA 00040 1 1 OD ADOL 234 DIOS IT Phon am Chl A e a e a aa A A The number of slots as well as the number of clips within as slot can quickly amount to a number that will not fit on a single screen The following Quick Keys are available for navigating the CONstruct and slots Spacebar and drag x Pan across the CONstruct horizontally drag inside slo
30. Colors button will apply the current Trim grade to all shots in the current Tray This is a quick way of making equal adjustments to all shots in a Tray Make the necessary adjustment to one of the shots in the tray and then click the Trim Tray Colors button and that adjustment will be applied to all shots in the Tray ANIMATION The Matrix and Process menus have parameters that can be animated over time The animation of these parameters is controlled by a block of buttons that are located at the bottom right side of the Matrix and Process menus ANIMATION LOCATION The text in parenthesis above the animation controls indicates which parameters the animation controls are currently affecting In the screenshot above the animation controls are affecting the color tools This allows you to quickly determine what parameters you are animating ANIMATION MODES The animation controls have several modes that are represented by the three buttons at the top Off Manual and Auto The state of these buttons indicates the current mode Grayed Out 126 SCRATCH User Guide When there are no animatable parameters in the current menu the animation controls will be grayed out This can happen with certain Plug Ins and Effects that do not allow for animatable values Off Once there are animatable parameters in the current menu the animation controls become active but switched off At this point you can choose how you would like to set keyfram
31. ConstructName lt desk gt lt reel gt first lt reel gt lt slot_name gt name lt slot_name gt lt layer gt 0 lt layer gt SCRATCH User Guide 205 lt length gt 0 lt length gt lt clipname gt LocalClipName lt clipname gt lt reel_id gt v1001 2 lt reel_id gt lt aspect gt 1 0 lt aspect gt lt fps gt 24 0 lt fps gt lt handles gt 25 100 lt handles gt lt timecode gt 01 01 01 01 lt timecode gt lt userbits gt 0 lt userbits gt lt offset gt 100 200 lt offset gt lt scale gt 120 120 lt scale gt lt rotate gt 20 lt rotate gt lt c_offset gt 0 0 0 lt c_offset gt lt lift gt 10 10 10 lt c_lift gt lt c_gamma gt 0 10 0 lt c_gamma gt lt c_gain gt 10 0 10 lt c_gain gt lt c_lut gt c path file lut lt c_lut gt lt audioclip gt c path file wav lt audioclip gt lt audioslip gt 0 lt audioslip gt lt note gt This annotation will be added lt note gt lt command gt lt commands gt The Command XML file is similar to the Project XML file in many ways there are just more options available The first line is the XML header line This is the same as the Project XML file and defines the file as XML Each command in a Command XML file is started and ended with a lt commands gt tag Within the lt commands gt tag multiple individual commands can be specified This is similar to the lt deskgroup gt tag in Project XML files Following the lt com
32. F1 key By default SCRATCH always plays back the bottom row of any layered stack 80 SCRATCH User Guide Note SCRATCH always considers the bottom row to be number O not 1 LOADING AN OUTPUT NODE You can also load an Output Node into the Player In this case rather than loading the individual shots into the Player you are loading the end result of the CONstruct COMstruct D Any previous color grading or shot framing you have done for individual shots in the CONstruct is represented as a flattened image in the Output Node However you can still use all the Player s tools to add more color grading and or framing at the Output Node level This provides you with another level of control over your finished sequence COMMON PLAYER ELEMENTS There are several common elements of the Player interface that are present and can be accessed at all times while you re in the Player VIEW PORT CONTROL BAR The View Port Control Bar has several tools for controlling how a shot is displayed within the User Interface View Port Swipe the cursor to the top of the screen to show the View Port Control Bar Tip Swipe markers Wacom pen and arrow icons remind you of the various swipe directions Note When interacting with any User Interface elements play back does not need to be stopped The User Interface is always kept live The current project resolution and CONstruct are displayed at the left side of the View Port Cont
33. Grade you can use the Histogram view discussed later in this chapter as a guide for visualizing the Source and Target RGB values After selecting the Source color you will see the Histogram displaying a lower split This indicates where your Source Levels fall across the Luminance and RGB ranges Source R G and B level markers After selecting the Target color the Histogram displays a second set of markers indicating the RGB values that represent how the levels will be shifted if a Match Grade is executed Target R G and B level markers THE NUMERIC MENU The Numeric menu can be accessed by clicking on the Numeric button or using the Quick Key N to toggle between the Numeric and Levels menus SCRATCH User Guide 117 O Quick Key N x Toggle between the Numeric and Levels menus The Numeric Menu gives you access to the widest range of color adjustments within a single menu From this one menu you can access Offset Color A Lift Gamma Gain Color B Contrast S Curve and Defocus adjustments You can modify any parameter by changing the value in the Numeric Slates Note Remember that the Numeric menu is just another view of the same parameters Any adjustments made in the Color or Levels menu are also shown here Tip The Numeric menu is the only menu that allows you to access Color A and Color B Lightness adjustments VECTORS The Vector interface offers you six possible color selections or vectors that can be i
34. I O stc dt editada 180 LUT EXPORT ion 181 LWT ENCRYPTION coi i A A A A O aE ES a a haa 181 REMOTE veraia A A aks Re i Ea 181 PLAVOUT o as eie ES ro o a cit 182 A CORY aiseanna aaa E E a aaa a a e E aa r a a a E Eia 184 BESA LO PAPA A 185 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH sascss sonsvtcseseawacsnssasnearneepeceansdanancasedsisesentsswsasadaaandasseuseadans aiad aSa a asaan 186 USER INTERFACE si ia 186 CUSTOM PULLSDOW NS ci A id EEEE 188 CONTROLE SURFACES uo do 189 THIRD PARTY PLUGINS socio e A cd A 201 DECK CONTROL Guia A A ios 201 SCRATCH AM A caos 203 SCRATCH REMOTE a A a NEE a E AA O a EE hates 209 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES sisii aaea laa 210 WACOM TABLED coco das a evens 212 OPTIMIZING SCRATCH PERFORMANCE crias a A ide 215 GET FULLVASSIMILATED 0 Res 217 Guide Appendix A Command Line and Configuration Parameters ccccccccnccnconnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnanannnnnennnnns 218 SCRATCH Command Line parameters essnee niona rene en ee ete enna eee 218 SCRATCH Configuration Variables in SCOnfigG txt arce mooss nee A N a Ea D 218 Guide Appendix B Quick KeyS OVervieW coccmcnonocnoracnnnnranracnnnnrannnrncnnrnnnnrnnnrnnnnrnrnnrnnrannnrnrnnrananancanas 221 SCRATCH User Guide 3 01 INTRODUCTION WHAT IS SCRATCH ASSIMILATE s SCRATCH a Digital Intermediate Process Solution is the essential mix that gives post production facilities and filmmakers an end to end data pipeline for visually complex 2k 4k film HD SD Stereoscopic 3D and digital film proje
35. Insert edits are frame accurate edits that begin and end with clean edits This means timecode and control track are not broken as part of the edit This requires the tape to already have valid control track and timecode for the edit to be performed ASSEMBLE When Assemble is activated PLAYOUT performs an ASSEMBLE EDIT to the VTR Assemble edits start with a clean edit but the end of the edit breaks any control track on the VTR Assemble edits do not require the entire tape to be pre striped with control track and timecode These signals are regenerated by the VTR as part of the record process However if the tape does have pre striped control track the out point of the ASSEMBLE EDIT breaks the continuity of this control track Note Be sure your VTR is set up correctly to regenerate proper timecode for the format you are recording onto Tip You can de activate both INSERT and ASSEMBLE to preview the edit without actually performing a RECORD operation to the tape REGENERATE TC When Assemble is set you can select the timecode that is to be send to the VCR Either the CONstruct timeline timecode Rec TC is send or the source timecodes of the individual shots S TC is passed along AUDIO When Audio is available and enabled in the Player you can activate the audio channel on the VCR TRANSPORT CONTROLS EE e wina the VTR towards the beginning of the tape MI co back 1 frame on the VTR gt the VTR in Play Mode MIA o forward 1 f
36. Lift Gamma and Gain as well as Auto Grade and Match Grade functions Note The Contrast S Curve and Defocus parameters remain visible on the Levels menu so they can still be adjusted SCRATCH User Guide 115 COLOR BALANCE SLIDERS The Offset and Pre Gain sliders are used to affect an overall change to the image before any of the Color menu adjustments are applied In this way they can be used to adjust and or neutralize the image s color so that the subsequent color adjustments properly track throughout their range For example if an image is skewed slightly into the green a Pre Gain and Offset adjustment can correct the skew This is done so that Gamma adjustments do not skew the image further into the green as the Gamma is increased OFFSET Offset The Offset controls are similar to the traditional Hazeltine printer light controls from optical color timing By adjusting the sliders you can shift the overall image towards a certain color or luminance The total range of color and luminance remains the same but the values are increased or decreased by the offset amount The sliders can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the hash mark indicator within the slider Use the Quick Key Shift to alter the responsiveness of the sliders O Quick Key Shift x Modifies the sensitivity of the Tracker Balls Clicking on the small arrows at the top and bottom of each slider adjusts the slider by a preset amount Note The Offset can
37. Link Bar disappears and the Slates are unlocked This can be done in any direction but you must start dragging from an area of the UI that has no other interface elements on it If the indicator line does not appear then your start point was not valid Slates can be locked back together using the same method COLOR SELECTION PALETTES There are several areas in SCRATCH where you will either need to sample a color from an image or designate a specific color In these situations the Color Selection Palette appears This UI element allows you to designate a color in several ways RGB SLIDERS The top row contains Sliders for Red Green and Blue levels These can be adjusted by clicking inside the color area and dragging the indicator to the desired level You can also use the Quick Key Shift to modify the sensitivity of the sliders O Quick Key Shift x Modify slider sensitivity Note The sliders response is based on the settings for Control Gearing in the User Settings menu of the Startup Screen By default the Quick Key Shift will increase the sensitivity of the sliders However if the values for Control Gearing have been altered the sliders will behave in accordance with those settings CURRENT COLOR POT In the center of the top row of the Color Selection Palette is the Current Color Pot This area displays the currently selected color and has the values for each color channel superimposed over it The values displayed are based on t
38. MB Blocks 16 MB Blocks set Wallpaper Clear The currently selected option will have its text highlighted The option under the cursor will have the background of the button highlighted Options that are not available will be grayed out Click on any option to select it and close the list Pull down menus will stay open after a single click with the mouse or pen There is no need to keep the mouse or pen depressed while selecting from a pull down menu This makes the SCRATCH UI easier to use with less strain on the muscles of the hand Text Entry Slates are areas where specific alpha numeric information can be entered They are flat non shaded areas Examples of Text Entry Slates are the New User and New Project areas on the Startup Screen Clicking on a Text Entry Slate will change the cursor from the default cross to an I Beam indicating that the software is ready for text input Text can then be entered from the keyboard and confirmed with the ENTER key which will end the text input Be sure to hit ENTER after completing a text entry Clicking on another part of the UI will revert the text entry back to its previous version and cancel any new text entry Text Entry Slates follow all of the usual text editing rules for Windows such as Cut and Paste using CTRL C and CTRL V partial selection backspace etc Text Selection Slates are lists of options that can be selected They are similar to a pull down menu except all options a
39. Media Browser and place the attached shots on a different CONstruct slot Close Closes the Media Browser The current state of the Media Browser is maintained as long as the current project is loaded 78 SCRATCH User Guide The Player is where a lot of additional functionality of SCRATCH is located Beyond merely playing back shots the SCRATCH Player gives you access via its own floating Command Menu to specific tools for manipulating attributes of each shot such as Editing Color Grading Lookup Tables and more RED RED ADM C329 CISU RICANS CII FRESU 0010 le 4 gt The illustration below shows the basic relationship between shots the CONstruct and Output Nodes zs w quicktime CONstruct COCO CO o ada output add Output El A CONstruct is made up of a sequence of shots The structure of the shots is defined by the CONstruct and the final result is represented by the Main Output Node From the Main Output Node multiple additional Output Nodes can be created and defined for different format outputs Each of these elements can be loaded into the Player The Player is a generic tool for viewing and manipulating either individual shots or whole CONstructs What you will see in the Player is completely dependent on what you select in the CONstruct before you enter the Player User Guide 79 LOADING AN INDIVIDUAL SHOT An individual shot can be loaded from the CONstruct into the Player for viewing This allows
40. Play All command loads the entire CONstruct into the SCRATCH Player This is the same action as clicking on the center Play P button on the Menu Bar or using the Quick Key Fi O Quick Key F1 x Load the entire CONstruct into the Player PLAY SHOT The Play Shot command loads only the shot that is under the cursor into the Player If the Command Menu is opened when the cursor is not over a particular shot this option will be grayed out The entire shot is loaded into the Player with this command regardless of any edit decisions applied to the shot within the CONstruct You can also use the Quick Key Escape to load the shot under the cursor into the Player O Quick Key Escape x Load the shot under the cursor into the Player EDITOR The Editor command loads the entire CONstruct into the Player and switches directly to the Edit menu Normally the Player remembers which menu you were in previously and will return you to that same menu However using the Editor command bypasses this action and switches you directly to the Edit menu so you can begin making editorial decisions Note Loading CONstructs and Shots into the Player is discussed in detail in Chapter 5 COMPARE You can use the Compare function to select multiple shots in the CONstruct and then compare them to each other inside the Player This is useful for viewing related shots without actually moving the shots within the CONstruct To use the Compare function hold down the Q
41. Project you must first exit the Project and return to the Start up Screen Then you can exit SCRATCH The EXIT button requires a confirmation The EXIT button is only available when the User Project Menu Button is selected on the left side of the Start up Screen Main Menu If any other Menu Button is active the EXIT button is grayed out User Guide 29 USERS PROJECT MENU When the Users Projects Menu button is selected the Main Menu shows three sections of information The first area on the left is the User List then the Project List followed by a block of buttons showing default information about the currently selected Project This is where you can create new Users and Projects Note The User Settings and Project Settings buttons are grayed out in the screenshot above since no Users or Projects have been defined yet CREATE A NEW USER A SCRATCH User identifies a particular UI configuration Each SCRATCH User can tailor the UI to his or her preference The details of what can be customized are covered in the USER SETTINGS MENU later in this chapter To add a new User click on the New User Text Entry Slate and type in the name of the User you wish to create Press ENTER and then press the ADD button to the right of the Text Entry Slate CREATE A NEW PROJECT A SCRATCH Project is nothing more than a group of SCRATCH CONstructs that have a logical link to one another Typically a separate Project is defined for each production fo
42. RESET 196 SCRATCH User Guide KeyX_ R1 RGB Key upper Range value KeyX_ S1 RGB Key upper Softness value VALUE RESET HMS Tone Tone value for Highlight Shadow or Midtone in the VALUE RESET HMS Offset Offset for Highlight Shadow or Midtone in the VALUE RESET Md for Highlight Shadow or Midtone in the RS VALUE RESET Mi EC CI CIN A TRATO II ee MS ACI o Solar Color Hue and Saturation Saturation F Reset CA Full reset of Color A X F Reset Lift Full reset of Lift X F Reset Gamma Full reset of Gamma X SCRATCH User Guide 197 F Reset Gain Full reset of Gain F Reset CB Full reset of Color B x C Reset A Reset only the Hue for Color A x OffsetR RESET OffsetG OffsetB PreGainM AutoGrade AutoGrade on Levels menu X Lightness A Lightness for Color A LIGHTNESS RESET 198 SCRATCH User Guide Lightness B Lightness for Color B LIGHTNESS Select Scf Scaffold selection VALUE DESELECT Create Scaf Create a new Scaffold Opacity Opacity of a Scaffold VALUE RESET Blend Mode KeyMode Framing SX Framing SY Framing DX Framing DY Shot Ref Add a Shot Reference to a Tray X Frame Ref Add a Frame Reference to a Tray X SCRATCH User Guide 199 Tray Open the Tray menu Animations Open the Animation menu Histogram Open the Histogram window TROUBLESHOOTING CONTROL SURFACE PROBLEMS If communication wi
43. Scaffold 4 Scaffold 5 COPY A SCAFFOLD You can create a copy of a Scaffold for use within the same shot or even to copy to another shot The copy retains all settings and animations from the original Scaffold To copy a Scaffold select it in the Hierarchy List Hold down the Quick Key Control and click on the Scaffold again attaching it to the cursor You can then release the Control key and drop the Scaffold to a new location When you drop the Scaffold in place a copy is made with a 1 appended to the end of the name to distinguish it from the original Note Once a Scaffold is attached to the cursor you can navigate to another shot on the timeline and drop the Scaffold on that shot This creates a copy of the Scaffold on the new shot This is a quick way to duplicate the same Scaffold between multiple shots You do not have to hold down the Quick Key Control when copying Scaffolds between shots BIN A SCAFFOLD To delete or bin a Scaffold you can select the Scaffold from the Hierarchy List and press the Bin button or you can pick up the Scaffold and drop it on the Bin button Either method requires confirming the action RESET A SCAFFOLD Resetting a Scaffold returns the color grade values to their defaults This does not remove any Canvas shapes Texture adjustments or animations it simply resets the color grade values To reset a Scaffold you must select it from the Hierarchy List and press the Reset button on the right side o
44. TIFF SGI or JPEG200 file is selected as the output format RECORD TIMECODE The value set here is used as the starting timecode for the first frame of the CONstruct This is the timecode that will be written into the header of DPX files when the CONstruct is processed SCAN MODE The Scan Mode determines whether the processed frames are Progressive or Interlaced Progressive These image files are intended to be viewed on a progressive display system where each line is drawn in order from the top of the image to the bottom Interlace F1 These image files are intended to be viewed on an interlaced display system where all the odd numbered lines are drawn first followed by the even numbered lines Interlace F2 The image files are intended to be viewed on an interlaced display system where all the even numbered lines are drawn first followed by the odd numbered lines Note Once images have been processed into the destination folder the buttons controlling the output format will be grayed out This is to ensure that all images are processed with the same settings throughout the CONstruct To modify any of these values the processed media must be removed using the BIN ALL button REGENERATE This option will when set generate new time code on output processing rather than passing through the input time code MEDIA MENU The Media Menu has all the controls for loading clips into a CONstruct conforming new CONstructs based on ED
45. The Scratch List is not a replacement for ASSIMILATE s Technical Support All technical support questions should still be sent to mailto support assimilateinc com While ASSIMILATE employees and technical support representatives do monitor and contribute to the Scratch List only information sent to ASSIMILATE Technical Support can be logged and tracked for proper resolution SCRATCH User Guide 217 Guide Appendix A Command Line and Configuration Parameters SCRATCH Command Line parameters By adding one or more command line parameters to the startup command Windows Shortcut you can modify to change default behavior of SCRATCH d or dd One or more increases the debug level Setup multiprocessing for cpu s overriding the default which is the actual nr of physical available cpu s Eg Hyper treaded virtual cpu s are not taken into account Configure CPU affinity Eg Do select physical cpu s only When running on a Hyper Threading enabled system this flag will ensure the cpu affinity mask to be configured and assign explicit cup s to use for the default threads Overrides all system gamma adjustments and or Monitor LUT settings The graphics adapters gamma LUTs no_gammMa won t be touched Enable the performance counters in the statistics This shows the cpu usage graphs Disables the use of colored cursors This is enabled by default but might be incompatible or slow with some mon cursor graphic boards
46. They are covered in detail in Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES DUAL HEAD The DUAL HEAD EXTENSION allows SCRATCH to be run in a Dual Monitor configuration MEDIA LAYER The MEDIA LAYER EXTENSION allows you to import various additional media files directly into your SCRATCH system such as RED r3d and QuickTime media files CONstruct I O Allows you to save and load entire CONstructs Note This EXTENSION is usually only necessary for base SCRATCH configurations that need the additional functionality of saving and loading CONstructs The save and load functions are included as part of the PROJECTS toolset so this EXTENSION would not be necessary if the PROJETS toolset is licensed LUT EXPORT The LUT EXPORT EXTENSION allows you to save and load LUTs in a standard ASCII format REMOTE The REMOTE EXTENSION allows you to send remote playback commands to other SCRATCH systems This enables multiple SCRATCH seats in multiple locations to be slaved to each other for collaborative review and playback sessions PLAYOUT The PLAYOUT EXTENSION allows you to output the current CONstruct as an SDI signal with real time down and up conversions frame rate conversions color grading and shot framing SCRATCH can control a VTR to perform frame accurate layoffs Note PLAYOUT requires the NVIDIA SDI daughter card option SCRATCH User Guide 7 FULLY LICENSED SCRATCH WORKFLOW DIAGRAM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following non propri
47. a new value in the Numerical Slate or you can interactively drag the markers on the slider Click on an individual marker and drag it to a new location You can also click between the High and Low Clip markers to slide the entire set of markers up and down the slider HSV KEYER The HSV Keyer is targeted at isolating specific color ranges based on Hue Saturation and Value or Lightness When selected a color selection pot and three color selection sliders appear which allow you to designate the color range of the HSV Keyer You can choose the color either by selecting colors directly off the current image or by using the color selection sliders The methods for selecting the color are identical to the RGB Keyer described above except that instead of designating individual Red Green and Blue color ranges you designate Hue Saturation and Value ranges The color selection sliders represent this difference HIGHLIGHTS MIDTONES AND SHADOWS Alternately a Scaffold can be Qualified based on luminance ranges which can be adjusted for precise control The luminance ranges are defined by the shape of a curve The area under the curve represents the luminance ranges that are affected by the Scaffold There are three options for selecting a luminance qualifier Highlights Midtones and Shadows These three options determine the base shape of the curve used to define the luminance range This curve is displayed in the Curve Window area along with T
48. a shot The original thumbnail image is not dimmed in this case Alternatively you can pick up the shot without Quick Key Alt and then click on the Copy Shot button at the far right side of the Main Menu The shot that is attached to the cursor now becomes a copy and the original is returned to its position within the CONstruct the dimmed thumbnail returns to full You can drop this shot down anywhere in the CONstruct You can copy single shots or even multiple selections in this way Tip Shots can be copied between CONstructs by simply picking the shot up changing to a different CONstruct by selecting it in the Project Overview List and then dropping the shot into a new location on the other CONstruct This automatically creates a copy without the need to press the Copy Shot button first There is also a Quick Key available for copying a shot use the Quick Key C while the cursor is over the shot O Quick Key C x Copy the shot under the cursor and attach to the cursor O Quick Key Alt Left Click x Copy the shot that was clicked on PASTE SHOT When a shot has been copied the copy remains in the Copy Buffer The Paste Shot button can be used to insert another copy back into the CONstruct The shot is pasted into the CONstruct at the bottom of the currently selected slot All other shots within that slot are pushed up in the Version Stack the newly pasted shot is placed at the bottom of the stack making it the current version
49. also include 16 bit values Cineon The Cineon file format is virtually identical to the DPX format except that it does not include a file header Tiff The TIFF file format is widely used in animation and VFX applications The TIFF file specification is quite broad and files can be formatted in a variety of ways which may or may not be real time playable JPEG JPEG files are a compressed format that requires CPU processing in order for the files to be decoded into a format that SCRATCH can use As a result JPEG files may not be capable of real time playback OpenEXR OpenEXR is a common file format for saving multi channel images SCRATCH currently only reads the default image channel from OpenEXR The OpenEXR file format is generally not optimized for real time playback Targa The Targa file format is also widely used in animation and VFX applications Targa files may not play back in real time SGI The SGI file format is still used by many 3D animation facilities The SGI format is generally not a real time playable format due to the byte ordering of the files 62 SCRATCH User Guide JPEG 2000 The JPEG2000 file format is used for DCI deliverables It is a compressed format that requires CPU processing in order for the files to be decoded into a format SCRATCH can use COLOR SPACE This allows you to choose the color space for the output files The options are LIN LOG and XYZ Note XYZ is only available when a 16 bit
50. and or CONstructs that are outside of those being modified by XML commands lt length gt value This tag sets the length of the slot explicitly The slot s length can be independent of the clip in which is placed in it When set to 0 the slot automatically uses the length of the bottom shot lt clipname gt text This tag is the name of the clip within the SCRATCH interface This is the name that will appear in the clip s Information Panel lt reel_id gt text This tag is the reel ID of the clip within the SCRATCH interface This is the ID that will appear in the clip s Information Panel lt aspect gt value This tag specifies the aspect ratio to be used for the clip The value set here relates to aspect ratio values that are set in the Aspects cfg file See the section CUSTOM PULL DOWNS in this chapter for more information about what these values mean lt fps gt value This tag specifies the frame rate to be used for the clip The frame rate value is used to determine which Timecode format to use lt handles gt in out This tag specifies the IN and OUT point for the clip The clip s IN point is aligned with the first frame of the slot Both of these values are specified as absolute frame counts from the beginning of the clip This tag is different than the range tag which is used only to control what frames are copied The Handles tag specifies which frames will be used in the CONstruct lt timecode gt HH MM SS FF f
51. and typing a new name for the Tray You can not change the name of the Reference tray SCRATCH User Guide 67 DRAG AND DROP SHOTS TO THE TRAY To add shots into a Tray select the shots in the CONstruct and then click on any selected shot to attach them to the cursor Then drop the shots into the open Tray area and they are added to the Tray If you have multiple shots selected they are added to the Tray in the order you selected them ADD REFERENCE You can also add shots using the Add Reference button This will add the currently selected shots to the Tray Note If you have multiple shots selected the Add Reference button will create a single entry in the Tray which is a grouping of the selected shots When shots are added to the Tray from the CONstruct they create a live link in the Tray The shots are not duplicated but rather the shot in the Tray is a link back to the original shot which remains in the CONstruct This link is shown by the icon on the shot in the Tray indicating that it is a link to a shot in the CONstruct REFERENCE NAME You can use the Reference Name button to create a new name for a group of shots added using the Add Reference button This allows you to identify the group with a unique name BIN SHOT To remove a shot from the Tray select the shot in the Tray area and click on Bin Shot This will remove the currently selected shot from the Tray Note Removing a shot from a Tray does not remove it from
52. appears and press Enter This opens a DOS command prompt Use the CD command to change to the location of the DISKIO executable By default this is C Program Files Assimilate bin Tip If you don t want to navigate to this folder each time you can add the default location to the Windows Path variable This can be accessed through the Environment Variables settings within Windows See the section ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES in Chapter 4 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more detail on setting Windows Environment Variables Keep in mind this is not a SCRATCH Environment Variable it is an overall Windows variable that already exists You just have to add the path onto the existing variable Type diskio drive directory Tip Open a Windows File Explorer and navigate to the location of the source folder Then drag the folder from the address bar in Explorer into the command prompt window and it will be added to the end of the DISKIO command COMMAND LINE OPTIONS There are several command line options that you can use with DISKIO Command line options are specified immediately after the diskio command and before the source path The g option forces DISKIO to treat the source files as image files Without this option DISKIO simply reads the files as fast as possible without regard for their structure The i option simulates the copy process but no actual copy operations are done This is useful for testing to ensure the an ACOPY command has the i
53. applied Reel ID S TC S TC TC Timecode Key code Source TC Filenames Frames TC Guides Only Frames S TC Nothing The associated metadata line is blank Frames The timeline s absolute frame count is displayed Timecode The timeline s absolute timecode value is displayed Source TC The source timecode of the current clip is displayed Frames TC The timeline s absolute frame count and timecode are both displayed on the same line Frames S TC The timeline s absolute frame count and the source timecode of the current clip are both displayed on the same line Reel ID S TC The Reel ID and the source timecode of the current clip that is displayed are shown on the same line S TC TC The source timecode of the current clip and the frame timecode are both displayed on the same line Key code The source keycode of the current clip is displayed 102 SCRATCH User Guide Filenames The entire path and filename of the current frame is displayed Guides Only Only the base metadata block is shown The Metadata Display area determines what parts of the metadata block are displayed Note This option is only available for the Show line METADATA DISPLAY The other buttons in the Render Metadata section control how the metadata information is displayed Shot Name This button toggles the name of the current shot on and off as part of the metadata text block Guides This button controls whether the Guides alre
54. ce in to the current cursor position O Zoom out from the current cursor position SCRATCH User Guide 223 O Alt Home Zoom image to fit display Sf fr Home Toggle display between the fit image size and current position a a Shift Home Toggle display between the full screen and fit image size Ed oo image guide to fit the display Spacebar 8 Click MM 8 Mouse Wheel Adjust image framing with the mouse Show the Player Command Menu Enable Dual View Exit to the CONstruct view Exit to the CONstruct view Show the Player menu g H a bl sl g El Show the LUT menu a Show the Guides menu a Show the Color menu a Show the Edit menu a Show the Guides menu El Toggle SDI wipe on and off El Show the Tray menu 2 Contra R Display the Red channel only 2 Contra G Display the Green channel only 2 Contra B Display the Blue channel only g O Control L Display the Luminance of the image only Control M Display the channel information as Monochrome O F Toggle the display of a Grade on and off 224 SCRATCH User Guide O Toggle the Histogram on and off Toggle the Color Curves overlay on and off Toggle the Layer Selector on and off Toggle overlay graphics on and off Show hide statistical information ontrol Fi v m D T O Dp lt gt 2 O m hift When pressed all interactive controls are more responsive Activates the Color A interactive control Activates the Lift i
55. draws power from the COM port you need to switch the value of the drsrts from 0 to 1 in the initial vcr configuration line If you are still experiencing problems with controlling a deck contact ASSIMILATE Technical Support SCRATCH XML XML OVERVIEW One of the most powerful features of SCRATCH is the ability to modify the CONstruct from outside the User Interface by using XML files An XML file is simply a text file that is formatted with specific XML commands called tags Each tag defines an action or parameter that SCRATCH can understand and execute The XML file can be thought of as a recipe or list of instructions When SCRATCH is presented with an XML file it begins at the first line and executes the instructions in the order they are listed in the XML file Through XML you can add new clips to a CONstruct create new CONstructs copy files from a remote location on the network to a local drive array create clips within SCRATCH for those new files remove clips from a CONstruct and query SCRATCH for information about the state of a project XML files can be created by hand using a basic text editor like Notepad and saving the text file with an xml extension Alternately XML files can be created automatically by more sophisticated scripts or other programs In this case the XML file is written out by the program based on information it reads from the XML output file of a SCRATCH Project Note XML files are case sensitive Be s
56. editing the PConfig xml file and creating a new line using one of the existing lines as a template Then modify the vcr code of your new entry to match the four digit code reported in the SCRATCH interface Save the file and the next time SCRATCH is run it will use the information from that entry With the PConfig xml file properly edited launch SCRATCH and enter the Player On the PLAYER Menu you will see the PLAYOUT controls with the name of your VTR listed above Use the PLAYOUT controls to ensure SCRATCH is properly controlling the VTR ADJUSTING FRAME ACCURACY With SCRATCH controlling the deck the next step is to dial in the frame accuracy for playouts In the PConfig xml file each VTR definition line looks something like this lt vcr vcr f0 30 preroll 100 edit_delay 7 gfx_delay 6 name D5 3700 gt The values for edit_delay and gfx_delay determine the offset for playback of the deck and playback of the CONstruct respectively By adjusting these values you can ensure the record IN point on the record deck is at the correct frame controlled by edit_delay and the correct source frame from SCRATCH is being recorded to the proper Timecode controlled by gfx_delay To test frame accuracy use material that is easy for distinguishing unique frames a countdown or burned in timecode for example Do a test layoff to tape and then review the tape If the edit point is incorrect adjust the edit_delay value save t
57. first clear the current EDL After pressing the Clear EDL button the Edit EDL button will change back to Load EDL SLOT MANAGEMENT Remember that each slot can have a duration that is separate from the clip in the slot See the section AUTO MAN ICONS earlier in this chapter for more information Because of this there are controls for resolving the differences between the two easily FIT SLOTS The Fit Slots button modifies the length of the selected slot to match the length of the IN and OUT marks on the lowest clip in the Slot This is a quick way of setting the slot s duration to match the marked duration of a clip If the ALL button is selected all slots in the timeline are modified at once FIT INOUT The Fit IN OUT button modifies the IN and OUT marks of a clip to the duration of the Slot in which it is located This is a quick way of setting the duration of a clip to match the Slot If the ALL button is selected all clips on the bottom row of the timeline are modified at once LOCK TIMELINE The Lock Timeline button locks the timeline so that no modifications to the edit durations shot timings or transitions can be made Note If a locked CONstruct is loaded into the Edit module the parameters for adjusting the edits will be grayed out in the Edit menu EXPORTING METADATA EXPORT XML The Export XML button creates an XML output file that is a summary of the current Project in an XML format which can be easily parsed b
58. folder click Next To install to a different folder enter it below or click Browse Folder C Program Files Assimilate Install SCRATCH for yourself or for anyone who uses this computer Everyone O Just me If necessary you can browse to a new location for the installation using the BROWSE button The DISK COST button shows you all of the drives available on the system and estimates of how much space is available on each You can choose to have SCRATCH available only to the current user or to every user on the system The default of EVERYONE is recommended Click NEXT to continue The next dialog indicates that SCRATCH is ready to be installed 12 SCRATCH User Guide 8 SCRATCH ASSIMILATE The installer is ready to install SCRATCH on your computer Click Next to start the installation Click NEXT to continue The SCRATCH software will now be installed The progress bar will indicate the status of the installation process When the installation is complete which should only take a few seconds a final dialog will open to indicate that SCRATCH has been successfully installed 8 SCRATCH ASSIMILATE SCRATCH has been successfully installed Click Close to exit Assimilation completed Click on the CLOSE button to exit the installer INSTALLED FILES After the installation completes the SCRATCH files are located in two separate folders on the system as shown below SCRATCH User Guide 13
59. framing of a shot when you are viewing it in the context of a CONstruct If you load a shot directly into the Player the shot framing controls will not be available Shot framing is made up of five parameters X Scale Y Scale X Offset Y Offset and Rotate You can set these parameters manually by entering values into the Numerical Slates These parameters can also be animated using the SCRATCH Animation tools The Shot Framing area has some additional controls for quickly setting these parameters FRAMING PULL DOWN The Shot Framing pull down is a quick and easy way to create the most common framing situations No Scaling The shot is centered in the frame at a 1 to 1 pixel relationship If the shot s resolution is smaller than the working resolution of the CONstruct you will see black around the edges of the frame If the shot s resolution is larger than the working resolution the image will extend beyond the border of the frame Fit Width The shot is scaled so that the width of the shot matches the width of the working resolution Both X and Y axes are scaled equally to maintain the aspect ratio of the original shot 162 SCRATCH User Guide Fit Height The shot is scaled so that the height of the shot matches the height of the working resolution Both X and Y axes are scaled equally to maintain the aspect ratio of the original shot Custom Custom scaling allows you to specify the exact X and Y scaling you require by enterin
60. grading system which adds extensive control over how individual colors and areas are manipulated This control can sometimes impact the overall performance of the system The View Scaffolds button allows the SCAFFOLDS to be temporarily disabled to improve overall performance The SCAFFOLDS are not deleted but merely disabled until the View Scaffolds button is activated again VIEW TRANSITIONS View Transitions allows any transitions that were applied between shots to be enabled or disabled This can be especially useful when grading individual shots so that the transition does not interfere with the grading MISSING FRAMES When active the Missing Frames button replaces the image in the View Port with a selected color any time the SCRATCH play cursor passes over a frame for which there is no source material available The color to be used can be set by clicking on the Color Chip located just below the Missing Frames button Note If the Missing Frames button is activated the image freezes on the closest available frame that does exist This can be an issue when checking a Conform for validity In this case it is best to have Missing Frames active so that it is very clear when a source frame is not available DUAL VIEWER CONTROLS Initially the View Port is in Single View mode This shows the single output from the timeline You can switch to Dual View mode where you can select the source for the image on either side of the dual viewer as
61. indicators are updated to reflect the current range The IN and OUT buttons Bare used to define a range manually Once set the RANGE button adjusts the Player to focus only on the frames between the two marks Un selecting the RANGE button returns the Player focus to the entire clip or timeline again The IN and OUT marks can be set during playback or they can be set manually by entering values into the text boxes to the left and right of the mini timeline FRAME INDICATORS To the left and right of the play controls are two text boxes The left text box is the current frame counter This shows the current frame count from the beginning of the timeline shot or marked range The right text box is a percentage indicator By increasing the value in this box you can determine the amount of handles added when focusing the range on a single shot A value of 100 for example adds half the duration of the shot as handles to the beginning of the range and half to the end of the range When RANGE is turned on the value in this text box updates to show the total length in frames of the range KEYFRAME SELECT MODE BUTTON To the right of the RANGE button is the Keyframe Select Mode button This button toggles the play controls into Keyframe Select mode so that the previous and next shot buttons are replaced by the previous and next keyframe buttons These buttons allow you to jump between keyframe positions on the current shot This is an easy
62. lt dhcp gt tag to 0 in the device description for each device you have connected This is telling the system to use the values in the device definition for IP addresses subnet and gateway If the computer and panel are the only things on the network it s recommended to leave the IP addresses at their default values If the Tangent panels will be on a network with other computers you need to get the proper IP address gateway and subnet information from your network administrator The remaining lines in the device description can stay at their default values unless you have a reason to change them If your panel configuration in non standard contact ASSIMILATE Technical Support for assistance Once you have set the IP address gateway and subnet information for each device save this file JLCooper Panels To configure the JLCooper control surface the process is similar to the Tangent configuration However since only the MCS Spectrum panel is supported there is only one possible device to configure If you are using the USB Serial interface you only have to enable that device in the cs_devices_init xml file CHANGING THE MAPPING FILE FOR JL COOPER If you are using the JLCooper control surface you need to shuffle a few files around First rename the cs_mappings xml file as cs_mappings_Tangent xml Next make a copy of the cs_mappings_JLC xml file and rename it as cs_mappings xml This sets SCRATCH to use the JLCooper mappings
63. modify the Pivot point interactively by placing the cursor over the center of the Axis indicator The center point will highlight and you can then click and drag the Axis to a new position The Pivot and Translation values are both updated to reflect this change but the overall position of the Canvas is not altered User Guide 147 Note All of the Transformation parameters can be animated over time using the SCRATCH Animation functions See the section on ANIMATION in Chapter 7 for more details about how to animate parameters in SCRATCH SOFTNESS The Softness parameters allow you to create a more seamless transition between the Scaffold and the image below By increasing the Softness you can smooth the edge of the Canvas shape SOFTNESS The Softness parameter determines how far away from the Canvas shape the softness effect will extend When softness is added a second line appears around the Canvas shape to indicate the boundary of the softness effect 148 SCRATCH User Guide In Edit mode each control point has an associated softness point Each softness point is tied to a control point and is added or binned along with the control point The softness points can be repositioned independently from the control points while in the Edit mode SMOOTH By default the soft edge filter uses a Gaussian fall off function to create a more even transition from the Canvas to the image below The Smooth option button is for backward compat
64. on the Output Node indicating that it is being processed A smaller disk icon will also appear in the Project Overview List to show you which CONstructs are queued up for processing Enter Abort Media Browser User Guide 175 The bottom of the Output Node will show a yellow fill gauge which indicates the progress of that particular node You can abort processing at any time by selecting the Output Node and clicking on the Abort button at the bottom of the Node Stack This will abort the current processing and begin the next queued processing task Background processing from the CONstruct is especially useful for queuing up multiple processing tasks to be executed while the system is unattended However background processing does not offer an estimated time of completion and you cannot see the images as they are being processed so all processing must be checked for errors OUTPUT NODES An Output Node represents a final result of a CONstruct You can have multiple Output Nodes for each CONstruct which allows you to create multiple versions of a CONstruct from the same base source THE MAIN OUTPUT Each CONstruct must have a Main Output Node This Output Node is the master output for the CONstruct and it determines the resolution file type and location of the images that are processed out of SCRATCH The Main Output Node is configured from the CONstruct Settings menu and is described in detail in Chapter 1 The concept of the Main Ou
65. or Horizontal Span mode With this EXTENSION available the Dual Head SDI Output controls become active in the Player Settings page Remote Contro Activate SCRATCH User Guide 93 These controls provide independent control of aspect ratio and scaling for the full screen output This can be used to create Standard Definition down conversions from HD or 2K material in real time directly out of SCRATCH ASPECT SELECTION This pull down menu has the standard SCRATCH aspect ratios that are set in the aspects cfg file This will control the aspect ratio of the full screen output You can also enter a Custom Scale factor using the Numerical Slate OVERLAY This button will toggle SCRATCH interface overlays so that they are visible on the full screen output GUIDES This button will toggle SCRATCH guides so that they are visible on the full screen output NO SCALING This button bypasses the Scale adjustment set in the aspect ration pull down REMOTE The REMOTE EXTENSION allows you to send remote playback commands to other SCRATCH systems This allows for multiple SCRATCH seats in multiple locations to be linked to each other for collaborative review and playback sessions Activating the Remote Control button will enable the system to participate in collaborative sessions For details on the REMOTE EXTENSION see Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES TRAYS The Trays button in the Player accesses the list of available Trays
66. scattered throughout the array This usually happens when files are added and removed repeatedly from the array As older files are removed they leave open spaces on the array which will be filled with the next group of files loaded The new files are loaded into any available open space and so the new files can end up being non contiguous even when they have just been copied onto the drive array In this condition the file sequence may not play back in real time as the drives need to search across the entire array to find the next file This added seek time can also affect the drive array s ability to play back the files in real time To minimize or prevent fragmentation it is recommended that the drive array be regularly de fragmented using a de fragmentation utility MONITOR RESOLUTION AND FREQUENCY When using the standard DVI outputs of the NVIDIA card for playback you must set the proper screen resolution and refresh frequency to ensure the onscreen images are displayed without artifacts or dropped frames 216 SCRATCH User Guide FILE FORMAT Not all file formats are made the same The DPX and CINEON file formats are the preferred format for SCRATCH since they are organized in a way that is optimized for real time playback However even within the DPX file format there are variations that can affect real time playback If a particular file sequence is not playing back in real time check that the format is compatible A quick
67. slot The top bottom attribute values place the new clip either at the top or bottom of any existing clips within the slot This is an easy way of ensuring the new clips will be placed at the bottom of a slot for example 1 and 1 can be used instead of top and bottom to accomplish the same end result Note The path and filename specified in the lt clip gt tag must point to a valid path and file If the path or filename is invalid the lt clip gt line will be ignored COMMAND XML The other way of interacting with SCRATCH through XML is by using a Command XML file Command XML files are slightly different than Project XML files in that they are processed simply by being dropped into the SCRATCH Watch Folder The Watch Folder is set up as part of the System Settings in the Start up Screen See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for details about setting up the Watch Folder There are four possible commands that can be executed through a Command XML file LOAD ADDREF REMOVE and QUERY Each of these commands is explained in detail later in this section Command XML files are handled using the following procedure 1 When an XML file is detected in the Watch Folder the file is loaded and then immediately deleted to avoid being read again on the next scan of the Watch Folder 2 A result file is written which holds a confirmation of each command SCRATCH attempts to execute This file will be updated as commands are executed 3 Comm
68. specification OUTPUT MODE The Output Mode pulldown allows you to switch a Project between Single and Dual output mode In Single output mode each CONstruct has a single default output node This is the normal mode for most projects In Dual output mode each CONstruct has TWO default output noded The two nodes relate to the TIMELINE and LAYER 1 of the CONstruct This is used primarily for stereoscopic projects to allow for processing left and right eye material simultaneously For more details on using SCRATCH for stereoscopic projects see the support article on Stereoscopic workflows RENDER SETTINGS This specifies the default render settings for the project s outputs You will be able to specify different outputs once inside the project but this setting will be used as default More important though these settings are used by SCRATCH to setup the frame buffers it uses on the graphics adapter The values entered should correspond with the maximum dimensions you are planning to output specifying the dimensions too high or low does inherently lead to some inefficient use of the limited computer resources SCRATCH User Guide 35 SYSTEM SETTINGS MENU The System Settings Menu defines system wide paths and other configuration information that is used by SCRATCH USER PROJECT DIRECTORY The User Project Directory defines the base location under which all User and Project folders are located This location can be changed using the SET bu
69. that its horizontal axis fits within the Pan and Scan s horizontal resolution Scale fit Y The image is scaled equally in both X and Y so that its vertical axis fits within the Pan and Scan s vertical resolution Scale to fit The image is scaled in X and Y so that both its vertical and horizontal axes fit within the Pan and Scan s vertical and horizontal resolution Note In some cases this will alter the scaling of the image differently in X and Y which results in a distortion of the image Custom You can manually choose the X and Y scaling for the image The pull down automatically switches to this mode if the X or Y scaling are changed manually FILTER You can choose a filtering method for the scaling from the pull down list These are the standard set of SCRATCH filters which control how the image is processed CROPPING The Cropping controls allow you to crop the source image The crop window is defined by a starting Left and Bottom point and by a Width and Height This crop window determines the portion of the source image that is used in the Pan and Scan plug in The crop controls always default to the size of the source image BLANKING The Blanking controls allow you to blank out a portion of the resulting frame with a black mask The blanking window is defined by a starting Left and Bottom point and by a Width and Height This blanking window determines the position of the mask on the resulting image The blanking c
70. the Auto Export option forces an XML export of the current Project every time the Project is either refreshed or exited The export is placed in the directory specified in the Text Slate Use the SET button to browse for the Export Directory The exported XML file contains information about all aspects of the Project and can be used by external programs or scripts to determine the state of a Project even if SCRATCH is not running For more information about the XML output file and SCRATCH XML in general refer to Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH FORMAT Format defines the default resolution frame rate and aspect ratio for each new CONstruct that is created in the Project Clicking on the FORMAT button opens a pull down menu with preset formats Choose any of these formats and the resolution frame rate and aspect ratio information is automatically updated There is also a CUSTOM format that allows you to define each parameter independently Once CUSTOM is selected the Width and Height Numerical Slates will be active Note The maximum size for a CONstruct is 65535 pixels by 65535 pixels and the minimum size is 32 pixels by 32 pixels Tip You can define your own custom image formats that appear in the pull down menu by editing the ImageFormats cfg file See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more information ASPECT The Aspect Ratio is defined in SCRATCH with two controls Aspect and Scale Aspect defines the overall relationship
71. the CONstruct Also any color grading or other modifications that have been made will remain on the shot even after it is removed from the Tray BIN TRAY You can delete an entire Tray by selecting the Bin Tray button This removes the Tray and all of its contents TIMELINE MENU The Timeline menu has several controls for how information is displayed in the CONstruct EXIT PROJECT The EXIT PROJECT button returns you to the SCRATCH Startup Screen The status of the Project is saved so that the next time the Project is entered it will start up on the same CONstruct This action requires a confirmation by clicking on OK Note This is the same as the Exit Project button in the CONstruct Settings menu REFRESH PROJECT The Refresh Project button initiates a refresh of the current Project This is functionally the same as exiting the Project to the Start up Screen and then re entering the Project again Refreshing the Project can be useful when you want to force any pending XML updates to occur immediately For more information on working with XML in SCRATCH see the XML section in Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH ERROR LOG This button will pop up a dialog with any recent errors that might have occured 68 SCRATCH User Guide SHOW INFO When Show Info is active hovering the cursor over any thumbnail in the CONstruct displays the complete Windows path to that clip next to the Show Info button The path includes the filename of the curre
72. the Canvas Each Texture has two parts the Fill and the Matte The Fill is the image that is visible on screen The Matte is a separate image that controls what part of the Texture image will be visible on screen and how it will be blended with the other layers The fill is positioned on the left the matte on the right When activating either of the Fill or Matte buttons the buttons in the middle will apply to selected item When both Fill and Matte are selected the middle controls apply to both and only those controls that can be applied are enabled LOADING THE TEXTURE IMAGE By default the base image is used as the Texture Fill and the Matte image is blank You can modify these defaults in several ways FETCH For a shot to be used as a Texture it must first be loaded into a CONstruct in the current Project When you click on the Fetch button positioned at the top of the main Matrix menu on the left the View Port will show the current CONstruct You can drag and drop a shot into the Fill or Matte thumbnail section When dropping a shot into the Fill or Matte section the View Port will automatically return to the Player view Tip You can abort loading a shot from the CONstruct by clicking on the Close Construct button located on the Menu Bar You can so while the CONstruct view is open CLEAR Click on the Clear button to remove the current Fill or Matte shot and revert back to the default base shot SCRATCH User Guide 155 INS
73. the Player you have all the playback controls that are normally available in the SCRATCH Player for moving through the file sequence Note You cannot run SCRATCH and the File Player at the same time Attempting to do so will result in the following Windows notice Assimilator There is already an instance running To resolve this exit the SCRATCH software and then double click on the file again to launch the File Player PLAYER LUT AND GUIDE MENUS The File Player includes the ability to apply LUT and Guide overlays to the image sequence being viewed These menus can be accessed from the File Player s Command Menu by right clicking anywhere on the screen They behave in the same way as the equivalent SCRATCH menus SETTINGS MENU The File Player has a Settings menu where you can set options for playback sync frame rate and other parameters This menu is similar to the regular SCRATCH Player Settings menu EXITING THE FILE PLAYER To exit the File Player open the Command Menu by right clicking and select EXIT The File Player closes and returns you to the Windows Desktop 104 SCRATCH User Guide 06 THE EDITOR INTRODUCTION The SCRATCH EDITOR provides you with a non linear style timeline representation of the CONstruct From this menu you can adjust the length and timing of shots alter the transitions between shots and perform analysis on shots to detect scene changes automatically The EDITOR is a menu with
74. the resulting de interlaced shot With F1 Dominant active Field 1 comes before Field 2 With the button deactivated Field 2 comes before Field 1 When de interlacing the net result is a shot that has half the vertical resolution since alternating lines were used to make up separate images In order to maintain the same resulting frame size each line is duplicated in the resulting image The mode creates a standard 24 fps to 30 fps cadence correction When converting 24 fps to 30 fps there is a standard equation for how to make up the additional six frames per second E a Da 3 nn A z Y gt CEET Film frames are placed in the individual fields of the 30 fps signal using an alternating pattern of two fields and then three fields This process can be repeated six times per second to create the additional six frames 168 User Guide 3 2 Remove The 3 2 Remove mode is used for extracting 24 fps material that has had a 3 2 cadence previously inserted This is typically found in film based material that was transferred to a 30 fps video standard Note When removing 3 2 you can use the Offset parameter to determine the start point of the 3 2 cadence in the current shot This will control how SCRATCH processes the 3 2 extraction ensuring the correct cadence is removed The Offset can be adjusted between zero and three PAN AND SCAN The Pan and Scan plug in allows you to adjust and animate the size and positioning of shots A
75. the value cannot be incremented any further Control Gearing Normal Shift CALCULATOR Clicking once on the number in a Numerical Slate will invoke the SCRATCH Calculator Tip You can move the Calculator s position by clicking down on the gripper in the lower right of the Calculator panel If you hover over the gripper the main cursor will change to a translate cursor indicating that repositioning is possible To enter a new value simply click on the appropriate numbers and click the enter arrow You can also use the number pad on the computer s keyboard to enter values The numerical entry will update after the Enter key is pressed To remove a single digit entry click on the backspace arrow or to clear the Calculator s entire Entry Slate click on the C button Illegal Value Indicator If you attempt to exceed a value s upper or lower limit the Calculator displays the number in red Use Clear or Backspace to set the Slate to a legal value If you hit ENTER the maximum or minimum value will be inserted automatically Increment and Decrement To increment or decrement an existing value by a pre defined amount first enter the amount and then click on either the up or down arrow at the top right of the Calculator panel Each click on the arrow will increase or decrease the current value by the amount you typed in and the Calculator will display an equation representing the current increment or decrement SCRATCH Use
76. thumbnail This displays a yellow Shuttle Bar that represents the current shuttle position within the entire clip SCRATCH User Guide 47 Information Zone Clicking in the shaded bar at the bottom of each shot opens up an Information Panel that gives you access to detailed information about the shot Res 4096x2304 RED RAW 9 0902SU RDC A004 C329 _0902SU_001 R3D Framerate Aspect Square 23 976 Timecode Reel ID Format Cancel 00 03 27 16 The Information Panel can also be opened by placing the cursor over a shot and pressing the Quick Key I O Quick Key I x Open the Information Panel for the shot under the cursor The Information Panel displays the following details e The original X and Y resolution and color space of the shot e Shot Name You can change the name of the shot by clicking in this Text Slate changing the name and pressing Enter Note This will only change the name used within SCRATCH It does NOT modify the source file s name e The shot s source directory and filename e Framerate This value can be changed by clicking on the Framerate button or entering a new value into the Framerate Numerical Slate e Aspect Ratio and Scale You can adjust these values by clicking on the Aspect button and selecting a new Aspect Ratio or by modifying the Scale Numerical Slate e Source Timecode This is the timecode that is associated with the shot If timecode is present in the header of a DPX
77. to advanced scripting and database integration The different parts of the Command Button definition are CONSTRUCT_CMD This is the name of the environment variable being defined The pound sign is replaced with a number that determines the order of the buttons within the interface BUTTON LABEL The first string of text after the equal sign is the button label This is the text that appears on the button inside the SCRATCH interface A comma separates the Button Label from the remaining sections of the button definition OPTIONS There are several options for how a button behaves within SCRATCH These are defined in this next section of the definition F Adding an F to the command definition generates the following parameters which are passed to the target application e input file ext e output file ext e first frame e last frame e select frame These parameters can be read by the target application and processed as standard input N Without this option set the Command Button only activates if a clip has been picked up The clip can then be dropped onto the button Adding an N to the command definition allows the Command Button to remain active even if no clip is selected but no parameters are generated and passed to the target application SCRATCH User Guide 187 M Adding an M to the command definition causes SCRATCH to minimize itself upon execution of the command TARGET This is t
78. top gt H temp brood2 000000 tif lt clip gt lt clip y bottom gt H temp brood 000000 tif lt clip gt lt reel gt lt reel row 1 gt lt clip y 1 gt H temp brood2 000000 tif lt clip gt lt clip y 1 gt H temp brood 000000 tif lt clip gt lt reel gt lt desktop gt lt deskgroup gt You ll notice that different lines are indented This is simply to make reading the file easier The extra space is ignored by SCRATCH If you look at each section of the file you can see the list of instructions based on the separate XML tags The first line of the file is a standard XML header Every XML file will have this same basic header as the first line It defines the file as XML The next line is the lt deskgroup gt tag This is the tag that marks the beginning of the group of XML commands If you skip to the last line of the file you ll see it is the lt deskgroup gt tag This indicates the end of group of XML commands The extra slash is what makes it an end tag meaning it is ending a particular command Now back up to the top and the next line after the lt deskgroup gt tag is the lt desktop gt tag This tag indicates the start of a section that adds clips to the specified desktop Note In XML CONstructs are referred to as desktops or desks The lt desktop gt tag has an additional attribute that is set as part of the tag Notice that name Default is included within the tag indicators lt and
79. two layers at the same time This is most commonly used when working on stereoscopic projects within SCRATCH When rendering from within the Player using the F12 Quick Key the results of both output nodes will be rendered and linked for playback THE MAIN MENU The Main Menu area of the CONstruct contains all the different menus and buttons for working within the CONstruct view There are four Menu Buttons located on the left side of the Menu Bar that switch the Main Menu between the different menus The specifics of each of these menus are covered in detail later in this chapter 46 SCRATCH User Guide INTERACTING WITH SHOTS While working in the CONstruct you will be interacting with shot in a variety of ways from bringing shots into the CONstruct to getting information about a shot moving and copying shots between slots and CONstructs and arranging shots into specific orders This section describes the many different ways you can interact with a shot in the CONstruct LOADING A SHOT SCRATCH works with sequences of images off disk called clips or shots In order for SCRATCH to recognize a particular shot it must first be loaded into a CONstruct To load a single shot switch to the Media Menu by clicking on the Media button on the left side of the Menu Bar The Main Menu switches to the Media Menu and the Media button is highlighted indicating that it is the current menu On the left side of the Media Menu is the LOAD SHOT but
80. use the base name of EVNT followed by the number of the slot The Z is a default for 3 digit padding on the numbering This can be changed to any value you like Here s an example of a Filename Specification that creates separate folders for each slot named My_Render which will have a 5 digit padded number Inside each folder are files named My_shot with a 6 digit frame number and a proper file extension My_Render 5 My_shot 6 E By modifying the defaults in this way you can customize the output filenames to exactly what is needed for a particular job Input File Name The Input File Name button works in a similar way to the Separate Folders button Clicking on the button adds a string of text to the Filename Specification In this case the string is F which indicates that the source filename should be used as the processed filename as well This preserves the source file s naming into the processed file This can be useful when processing shots for optical or visual effects so that the relationship to the original frames can be seen Input File Numbers The Input File Numbers button works in a similar way to the Input File Name button except that this changes the default 6 file number indicator to amp This uses the source file s frame number as the frame number for the processed file This is yet another way to preserve the input file when passing shots along for visual effects Used in combination with the Separate Folders and I
81. used to automatically fill any record discontinuities in the timeline by extending the selected event to fill in the discontinuity Frame rate Sets the frame rate for the EDL When changing the frame rate all the original timecodes from the EDL will be converted When the conversion causes a loss of data the event will show as disabled and the frame rate button will appear red If the EDL is assembled to a new CONstruct the frame rate will be set as the default for that CONstruct Offset and Apply on Source Add an offset to the source timecode of all selected events The offset will be added to both the in and out timecodes MATCHING OPTIONS At the core of the assemble process is the matching process between the events in the EDL and the shots loaded in SCRATCH The process will compare the source in and out points of an event and shot and determine if there is an match overlap The process will also compare shot name and reel ID of the event and a shot as well as check whether the shot name of the event matches the reel ID of a shot The process might find zero one or more matching shots If more than one matching shot is found SCRATCH will sort the matches giving preference to clips that have been graded and clips that are currently on or closer to the timeline in the source CONstruct There are a number of controls to adjust this matching process to your specific situation Match from Determines the location where SCRATCH will se
82. way to do this is to process a sequence out of SCRATCH and then load these frames back into SCRATCH and play them SCRATCH will always process files in a real time optimized format If the SCRATCH frames play back in real time and the original frames do not there is a good chance the original files are not in a real time play back format The files may need to be converted using an external program or processed through SCRATCH to convert them GET FULLY ASSIMILATED TECHNICAL SUPPORT For Technical Support for SCRATCH send an email to mailto support assimilateinc com Indicate your company what build of SCRATCH you are running your hardware configuration and a clear description of the problem you are experiencing with steps for repeating the problem SCRATCH LIST To keep up to date about the latest developments tips and tricks and general SCRATCH information join the SCRATCH User Group list Send an email to mailto scratch list subscribe googlegroups comfrom the email account you wish to use Once you are authorized you will receive emails that are posted to the Scratch List group Each email is identified with SCRATCH LIST in the message subject so they can be easily identified and sorted in your email reader The Scratch List is an excellent resource for users of any level Post questions opportunities recent projects or any other SCRATCH related topics then watch for feedback from SCRATCH users around the world Note
83. will be played by default This is an easy way to identify the Timeline Clip in a slot that has been slid up or down The currently selected clip s have a thicker white outline around them The color of the outline indicates whether a clip is LOCAL or REMOTE LOCAL clips have a gray outline around them A LOCAL clip is a clip that has been loaded from within the current Project s Media Directory LOCAL clips use the Media Directory as a relative starting point to find the associated media file They always remain connected as long as the media files maintain the same location relative to the Project s Media Directory which can be changed at any time in the Project Settings Menu on the Startup Screen REMOTE clips have a red outline around them Clips that are loaded from outside the current Project s Media Directory are considered REMOTE since they use an absolute path to the associated media files As a result if a REMOTE clip s media files are moved from that absolute location the connection within SCRATCH will be lost TIMECODE KEY CODE PROXY INFO In the upper left corner of each thumbnail you can display the Timecode or Keycode of the current thumbnail frame This option is set in the Timeline Menu See the PROXY INFO section later in this chapter for more information on showing and hiding the Timecode or Keycode Proxy Info Note The Timecode or Keycode text is white if the value is being read from the file s header If the text i
84. with the system s Vertical Synchronization Interval for play back There are five options Automatic Timer Monitor Video and Audio The proper setting depends on your particular play back needs Automatic Automatic sync chooses the most appropriate method for synchronization based on the playback framerate If the monitor frequency is an even multiple of the framerate of the Player the monitor vertical sync interval is used as the SCRATCH refresh interval If the monitor refresh differs from the framerate Timer sync is used to maintain accurate playback timing SCRATCH User Guide 89 Timer Timer sync will run the SCRATCH refresh interval at the true framerate timing regardless of the monitor refresh rate This results in accurate timings for playback but some visual tearing of the image may occur when a SCRATCH refresh does not coincide with the monitor refresh Monitor The monitor vertical sync interval is used as the SCRATCH refresh interval regardless of the Player framerate This will ensure a clean image during playback but may result in skipped frames or stuttering during playback in order to maintain proper playback timing Video Video sync is used in conjunction with the NVIDIA SDI Output option This option locks the SCRATCH refresh rate to the framerate set in the NVIDIA control panel Audio Audio sync runs the SCRATCH refresh interval at the true framerate to ensure synchronization with reference audio playback Som
85. you to use all the Player s tools on just a single shot CON struct To load an individual shot into the Player use one of the following methods 1 Pick up the shot by clicking in the middle of the thumbnail with the cursor and then click on the Play button in the middle of the CONstruct interface 2 Right click on a shot in the CONstruct and select PLAY SHOT 3 Place your cursor over a shot and hit the Escape Quick Key O Quick Key Esc x Play the shot under the cursor Note Playing a single shot outside the CONstruct using any of these methods loads the ENTIRE shot into the Player Any handles used in the CONstruct are ignored and the entire source shot is loaded LOADING AN ENTIRE CONSTRUCT The entire CONstruct can also be loaded into the Player In this case the playback cursor starts at the beginning of whichever slot is currently selected in the CONstruct The selected slot is indicated by the highlight in the Information Area at the bottom of the slot This selection can be changed by either clicking in the Information Area on another slot or by clicking in the Number Slate on the left side of the play controls then typing in a new value to select a slot number a To load the entire CONstruct into the Player use one of the following methods 1 Click on the Play button in the middle of the CONstruct interface without any shot attached to the cursor 2 Right click and select PLAY ALL 3 Hit the
86. 7 THE MATRIX for more information on the export LUT settings Note A license for the COLOR Module is also required because the LUT Save and Load commands are actually contained within the MATRIX itself LUT ENCRYPTION Crypt3dl is a standalone command line utility for the encryption and decryption of 3D LUTs Usage Crypt3dl E key source destination Where E key Encrypt using key Note that the passwords are optional when not set the system id mac address will be used as the key for encryption The default output file will be the same as the input file but with a new extension S3D SCRATCH recognizes encrypted LUTs and will automatically decrypt LUTs with a S3D extension using the system id mac address as the key Note A LUT Export license is required to decrypt S3D files REMOTE The Remote EXTENSION allows you to send remote playback commands to other SCRATCH systems This allows for multiple SCRATCH seats in multiple locations to be slaved to each other for collaborative review and playback sessions The Remote function is activated using a button in the Player s SETTINGS menu When the REMOTE button is active each system can still be controlled locally but any play scrub or search commands are duplicated on all linked systems This is not a master slave relationship but rather a peer to peer setup in which any system can control all the others A typical REMOTE application is for coordinating review a
87. AL clip is a clip that has been loaded from within the current Project s Media Directory Clips that are loaded from outside this directory are considered REMOTE This option allows only LOCAL clips to be flushed Any REMOTE clips that have been cached will be preserved Always Always flushes the cache and re loads from the original files This option slows down the interactivity of SCRATCH as it must re access the files This can be seen for example when panning across a CONstruct As new thumbnails are required there is a slight hesitation while SCRATCH accesses the image file and builds the thumbnail WRITE METHOD This option determines the method SCRATCH uses to write files back onto the drives when processing Async After a frame has been processed by SCRATCH it must be written to the disk Asynchronous or Async writing allows SCRATCH to continue processing the next frame even when the previous frame has not completed writing to disk When the processing of a frame is very intense Async gives you a slight performance gain However older storage systems such as external FireWire or USB disks might have difficulty with this Direct Direct Writing is slightly slower than Async because each frame must complete writing to disk before the next frame can begin processing This can have a small effect on performance but it is more compatible with slower disk sub systems Note The Write Method is a holdover from earlier disk sub syst
88. ATCH User Guide SYSTEM INFORMATION On the far right side of the System Settings Menu are several lines of text which provide information about the status of the current license the version of SCRATCH you are running the system ID the current build of SCRATCH this is different than the version number and general information about the graphics hardware This information is useful for diagnostics and troubleshooting SCRATCH User Guide 39 The CONstruct is the heart of SCRATCH Each CONstruct represents a sequence of clips and the CONstruct view provides a high level overview of your entire Project This is where you perform the larger tasks of loading material into the system grouping clips into a logical order either manually or through an edit list and preparing the media for further manipulation This chapter describes the various functions available for manipulating media creating conformed timelines and setting up output nodes to process the final results out of SCRATCH After you select from the Startup Screen you will be presented with the CONstruct view A Project can contain many different CONstructs and these CONstructs can be organized into Groups The Groups and CONstructs are shown in the list on the left side of the View Port A new Project begins with a single CONstruct and a single Group shown in the Project Overview List As new CONstructs are added they appear in this list Project UserGuide 4 My Group Sources
89. ATCH when the PConfig xml file is read at Start up Be sure you have removed the comment tags before and after the lt remote gt tag lines ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The current version of SCRATCH uses the SConfig txt file in the C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator folder to keep track of a great number of customization settings which are available The file will be automically created and list all options with a default value the first time SCRATCH is started All settings are documented in the ReleaseNotes txt that came with the SCRATCH installation files In previous versions of SCRATCH the customization settings were done with Windows Environment Variables For backward compatibility below is a description on how to set Windows Environment Variables SETTING SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES First right click on the My Computer icon If this icon is not on your desktop it can be accessed via the Windows Start menu or through Windows Explorer Select Properties from the context menu In the Properties dialog choose the Advanced tab at the top At the bottom of the dialog click on the Environment Variables button You mutt De logged on as an Admirsstrator to make most of hese changes Petomance Visual effects processor scheduing memory usage and virtual memory Senge User Profiles Desktop settings misted to your logon _ Segengs ed Sato and Recovery Sytem st
90. Assimilator log file The local storage is determined by the Media Directory set in the Project Settings menu in the Start up Screen This XML output file contains all the information about the CONstructs and clips being used in the Project This file can be parsed by external programs or scripts to determine the location of a particular clip within a CONstruct or other bits of information about the Project If you plan to use the XML output files it is recommended you enable AUTO EXPORT in the Project Settings menu of the Start up Screen This will automatically export an XML output file every time a Project is refreshed or exited In this way you will always have access to the latest state of any Project even if it is not currently opened in SCRATCH These XML output files are also available even when SCRATCH is not running which makes them a much better option for automation RESULT AND LOG FILES After any Command XML file is executed result and log files are written These tags are specified only once per Command XML file and will cover all commands executed within that file lt result file filename gt Designates the absolute path and filename for the result file lt log file filename gt Designates the absolute path and filename for the log file The result file is a basic text file which is itself an XML file Within the result file each command attempted will be listed with a true or false attribute to indicate succ
91. Bottom Nidth nan wm The list can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on the small triangles On the right edge of each parameter is a number indicating the total number of keyframes that exist for that parameter Individual curves can be turned on and off by clicking on the parameter name in the list If a curve is active and being displayed it is be highlighted in the list You can activate as many curves as you need THE CURVE WINDOW The main workspace of the Curve Editor is the Curve Window This is where each animated curve is displayed and where you can manipulate the curve to alter the behavior of the animation The horizontal axis of the Curve Window represents time going from left to right A frame count is shown at the bottom to indicate the number of frames from the beginning of the cut The vertical axis of the Curve Window represents the value of a keyframe The red vertical bar represents the currently displayed frame You can move this bar by plc your cursor over it clicking and dragging the frame indicator to a new location The cursor changes to the Shuttle cursor T when placed over the red bar to indicate that you can click and drag the frame indicator 128 SCRATCH User Guide Zoom Pan and Framing You can zoom and pan the Curve Window in the same way as the main View Port There are the standard SCRATCH icons in the Curve Editor which allow you to zoom in zoom out set the zoom to default and fit the curre
92. CRATCH gives you feedback about which parameters have been animated by placing a white bar called a Keyframe Marker on the side of the Numerical Slate 100 000 SCRATCH User Guide 127 KEYFRAME SELECT MODE You can navigate quickly between keyframes by switching the mini timeline into Keyframe Select Mode To switch on Keyframe Select Mode activate the K button located to the right of the play controls The Previous and Next shot buttons r are replaced by the Previous and Next P lt Keyframe buttons Clicking on the Previous or Next Keyframe button moves the play cursor to the corresponding keyframe Keyframes are also indicated in the mini timeline area as short vertical white lines THE CURVE EDITOR MENU Animated parameters can also be controlled by a dedicated Curve Editor menu This menu is opened by clicking on the Animate button in the Menu Bar Note When the Curve Editor is open you cannot jump between shots on the timeline The timeline will be locked to the current shot To move to another shot close the Curve Editor by clicking on the Animate button move to another shot and then re open the Curve Editor again The Curve Editor menu has three sections the Curve List the Curve Window and the Curve Controls THE CURVE LIST The Curve List displays all the animatable parameters in a hierarchical list Settings Tray Animate a PanScan Scale X Scale Y A Crop Input Left Bottom Width Height A Blanking Left
93. Command XML files lt reel gt value first last This tag specifies the slot in which the clip will be placed Slots are numbered starting at zero on the left If value is larger than the total number of slots extra slots will be added to fill up to the number specified Using first creates a new slot at the beginning of the CONstruct Using last creates a new slot at the end of the CONstruct Note Slots are referred to as reels within Command XML files lt slot_name gt text The tag specifies the name of the slot the clip is placed in The name of the slot will be updated if it already has a name lt layer gt value top bottom This tag specifies the vertical location within the slot in which to place the clip Layers are numbered starting at zero on the bottom If value is larger thanthe total number of layers the clip will fall to the lowest available layer Using top adds the clip to the top of the layer stack Using bottom adds the clip to the bottom of the layer stack This is a good way to ensure the newly added clip is the one played back in the timeline Note The Project XML uses the current state of the CONstruct in evaluating specific attributes such as first last top or bottom Any user interaction that occurs between when a Command XML is generated and when the Project is finally refreshed may create unexpected or undesirable results It is recommended that user interaction during XML processing be limited to Projects
94. DUAL HEAD SDI CONTROLS If you have a valid DUAL HEAD EXTENSION you can use the second DVI output of the NVIDIA graphics card or if installed the SDI Output daughter card as a full screen output This second output will not have the user interface overlaid on it and can be used as a clean feed for projection client monitoring or output to a tape deck When using the second DVI output the display should be configured for Horizontal Span mode in the NVIDIA control panel NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 EN MVIDIA nView allows pou to connect separate displays to a single graphics card Quadro FX 4500 nView Display Settings Performance amp Quality Settings Color Correction Video Overlay Settings Tools NVRotate i Temperature Settings Screen Resolutions amp Refresh Rates Desktop Overlap and Edge Blending Desktop Management Menu Editing nView Display Mode Primary display Secondary display Horizontal Span v Clone Horizontal Span Y Make this the primary display savia oasis If you are using the SDI output configure the SDI Output format in the NVIDIA control panel and ensure that SDI Output is activated in the System Settings menu of the Startup Screen In this case it is possible to configure the SDI Output as a 10 bit signal by setting the proper SCRATCH Environment Variable See the GRAPHICS CONFIGURATION section in Chapter 2 for more details on setting up the SDI Output
95. ECTS MODULE or it can be licensed as a separate EXTENSION if you do not have a PROJECTS MODULE license If this EXTENSION is not licensed the LOAD and SAVE buttons will not appear in the UI SAVE ALL When the User save mode is set to Manual in the User Settings Menu on the Startup Screen an additional Save All button appears on the left side of the interface Clicking on this button saves the state of all CONstructs in the current Project The Save All function an also be executed using the Quick Key ALT S O Quick Key ALT S x Save all CONstructs MODE The Mode pull down determines the overall behavior of the CONstruct There are two modes Time Slot and Free Form Time Slot This is the default mode for CONstructs In this mode the CONstruct appears as a series of Slots with each Slot representing a specific portion of the Timeline This is a very structured representation with a clear delineation of each shot s position in time This mode is useful for building structured timelines for playback Free Form In Free Form mode the CONstruct is not limited to specific Slots The CONstruct is an open structure less space in which clips can be placed in any order they can overlap one another or you can group as you see fit When the CONstruct is in Free Form mode the Play button is grayed out Since the Free Form CONstruct has no structure there is no indication of time This mode is useful for creating a loose association of c
96. ERFACE In an Ethernet configuration each control surface is assigned an IP address on the network This IP address identifies the control surface on the network so that SCRATCH can communicate with it In most cases this really just means the control surfaces and computer must have the same first three numbers in the IP address For example 192 168 10 xxx This will be covered in detail in the section about CONFIGURING THE CONTROL SURFACES later in this chapter First make all the physical connections Be sure to use Ethernet CAT5 cables that are configured as standard Ethernet patch cables Do NOT use crossover or null cables or other cables that have standard Ethernet connectors but non standard Ethernet wiring within the cable If the computer is on a network already then the control surfaces need to be on the same physical network but they can go through a network switch or hub if necessary It s recommended that you keep the control surfaces as close to the computer on the network as possible Meaning there are a minimal number of network switches or other network appliances in between them If necessary consult a network administrator or IT manager for proper network setup between the SCRATCH computer and the Ethernet control surfaces If the network has a DHCP server that assigns IP addresses it is possible to just use this to assign the IP address to the control surfaces If however there is no DHCP server or if you are conn
97. ERT The Insert button will show a list of plug in effects from which you can select to apply to the Fill or Matte After selecting a plug in effect a new node is created on the construct with the shot that was selected for the Fill or Matte and the added plug in effect You can see this new shot node in the Version Stack in the View Port by swiping to the right of the screen You can also use the Quick Key Q to reveal the Version Stack O Quick Key Q x Show Version Stack To edit the ne shot node select it on the Version stack and open the Process section of SCRATCH See chapter 9 for a complete explanation on the Processing module MODIFYING THE TEXTURE IMAGE When a shot is loaded as a Fill or Matte you can control how that shot behaves in relation to the base clip with a number of control FRAME SLIP The Frame Slip allows you to offset the relationship between the current base frame and the frame being used for the Fill or Matte texture You can use the Frame Slip to align the timing of several shots so that all elements are synchronized Note Frame Slip is only active when an alternate image has been loaded It is not possible to slip the default image IN OUT The IN and OUT controls allow you to further synchronize the relation of the base shot and the shot used for the Fill or Matte texture by setting the in and out points of that shot LOOP MODE The LOOP MODE controls how the shot that is used for the Fill or Matte behaves i
98. Examples of these are the EXIT and ENTER PROJECT buttons shown on the Startup Screen If a button is grayed out then the function that button performs is not currently available CONFIRMING SINGLE ACTION BUTTONS Some single action buttons will require a confirmation to ensure that you really do want to perform the operation In these cases the button will be replaced by a confirmation button which is really two buttons in one Click on the OK part of the button to confirm the action or click on the ESC part of the button to cancel the action The Enter key on the keyboard can also be used to confirm the action Moving your cursor off the button will cancel the action automatically O Quick Key Enter x Confirm Action O Quick Key Esc x Cancel Action MENU BUTTONS Menu Buttons are used to select between different sub menus within the Main Menu The Menu Button will highlight to indicate which sub menu has been selected and the Main Menu will update to display that sub menu An example of this are the four Menu Buttons on the left side of the Startup Screen User Project User Settings Project Settings System Settings Each of these will call up a different sub menu PULL DOWN MENUS Clicking on a pull down menu will open a list of options for that button SCRATCH User Guide 19 Image IO settings Remote References C Fluch Never 1 MB Blocks Async Writes Auto Logon Missing Seq Frames 2 MB Blocks Count From 1 4 MB Blocks 8
99. For more information about Scaffolds see Chapter 8 SCAFFOLDS The Paste FWD button will paste the current clipboard onto every shot from the current shot to the end of the timeline This is a very fast way of applying the same grade to every shot Note The Quick Key Control V will use the last settings in the Paste dialog box to determine what will be pasted onto the new shot These can be changed at any time by pressing the Paste button to open the dialog box THE VERSION STACK Swiping off the right side of the screen reveals the Version Stack 124 SCRATCH User Guide A004_C332_0902NR 7 1342 A004 C332_0902NRIG i 1342 p Qs A004 C332_0902NR 4 1342 A004_C332_0902NR 5 1342 Add Version Bin Version Reset This stack shows all the shots in the current slot You can also use the Quick Key Q to toggle the Version Stack on and off Q x Display Hide the Version Stack From the version stack you can add and remove shots using the buttons at the bottom of the stack Changes made using these buttons are reflected in the CONstruct as well You can also select which version you will be viewing by clicking on the thumbnail in the stack to select a shot The selected layer continues to be active as you move between shots if you select the second layer and move to the next shot the second layer of that slot will be displayed If no shot exists at that level a missing frame indicator is shown and a dummy
100. H up and running takes just three easy steps 1 1 Install the SCRATCH software 2 2 Generate an initial log file and send it to the ASSIMILATE licensing email address 3 3 Place the license file you receive back from ASSIMILATE into the correct folder SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SCRATCH s real time performance relies primarily on the speed of the graphics accelerator and disk sub system in your host computer system System RAM and CPU type are also important but with more latitude The basic system requirements are listed below HARDWARE e Dual processor workstation o AMD Athlon64 o AMD Opteron o Intel Pentium4 o Intel Xeon e PCI Express support e 3GB Memory minimum e High speed disk sub system o SCSI Ultra 320 o SATA RAID o 2GB or 4GB Fibre channel e NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 5600 graphics accelerator o Optional NVIDIA SDI Output card for direct SDI output from SCRATCH Disk sub systems are available in a variety of types from local storage to high speed SAN solutions SCRATCH plays back media files directly from the disk drives without converting to an intermediate file format therefore the performance of SCRATCH is tied directly to the performance of the disk sub system Running SCRATCH on a platform configuration or technology not tested or recommended by ASSIMILATE could result in unacceptable performance For information on qualified hardware and recommended graphics and disk systems check out the ASSIMILATE website and support
101. I OUTPUT When an NVIDIA SDI Option card is detected this button is enabled and opens the NVIDIA settings dialog window SCRATCH User Guide 37 This dialog panel let s you configure a number of your SDI Settings The signal formats listed depend on the version of the NVIDIA SDI Option card The SCRATCH SDI Configuration panel will override any settings made in the NVIDIA Control Panel Next to dimension and frame rate output format and sync settings you can select e A specific color space The full range spaces enable super white and super black Alternatively you can set the NO CS matrix option to use the default color space you have set with the NVIDIA control panel e By setting the Show Warning option SCRATCH will show a warning in the player when frames are dropped during regular playback e With the Dual View switch you can temporarily enable or disable SCRATCH to play out to SDI which might influence performance When new settings are applied SCRATCH will automatically restart to initialize the SDI card with the new settings Finaly a warning may be displayed at the bottom of the panel indicating that the selected signal and any external sync do not correspond This is an internal NVIDIA driver message Note With the NO CS matrix option set SCRATCH will not explicitly set the color space at start up In that case the color space that has been set through the NVIDIA settings panel will be used However a
102. ISABLE SWARINTERVAL allow for non v sync locked modes 218 SCRATCH User Guide AS_ENABLE_DUALVIEW AS_ENABLE_LARGE_IO AS_ENCODE_HIGHBITS AS_FG_TRANSPOSE AS_FP16_BUFFERS AS_FULL_FLOAT_LUT AS_IO_ALIGNMENT AS_LARGE_TX_BUFFERS AS_MAX_FRAMEBUFFERS AS_NO_16BIT_FP AS_NO_GL_TIMER_EXT AS_NO_GL_TIMER_EXT AS_NO_TABLET AS_NUM_IO_THREADS AS_QT_GAMMA AS_RESET_GFX AS_RNDR_CVT_10 AS_RNDR_CVT_16 AS_SHARE_PROJECTS Enable the second window when the GFX board is configured for Dual View mode This is by default disabled better performance can be achieved using the Spanning modes When set no break value for large transfers will be configured Not using a break value can cause overrunning the IO address range for very large transfers which then backfires by also splitting up smaller transfers Enabled by default Encode R3D data into 11 11 10 bit mode For bug on ATI graphics cards Try to use 2K FP16 sized texture transfer buffers Force the use of full 32 bit floating point 1D LUTs This is more accurate but slow on older hardware Align io requests on a specific boundary The variable should be set to the alignment value in KB e g Default is AS_IO_ALIGNMENT 8 Try to use the max texture size transfer buffers instead of the 2K default size Limited to 4K Set a maximum 5 number of framebuffers to avoid GFX memory issues 0 Auto config depending on available GPU memory conservat
103. L or ALE files for timecode or Keycode based conforms and outputting metadata information back out of SCRATCH PROJECT AND CONstruct INFORMATION The far left area of the Media Menu displays information about the current Project and CONstruct Project This lists the name of the current Project Resolution This lists the default resolution for the current Project Any new CONstructs are created using this resolution setting SCRATCH User Guide 63 Media This lists the Media Directory path which is set in the Project Settings menu of the Startup Screen Construct This lists the name of the current CONstruct Resolution This lists the working resolution of the current CONstruct LOAD SHOT The LOAD SHOT button allows you to load a single shot into the CONstruct When this button is selected a SCRATCH Browser will open and you can navigate to the location of the file sequence you would like to load a a E gt a e e SCRATCH recognizes entire file sequences and groups them together into a single entry in the Browser by default The number of frames in a sequence is shown in square brackets You can load a clip by selecting it in the Browser and pressing the Open button or by double clicking on the clip name Once the clip is loaded it is attached to the SCRATCH cursor and you can select which slot to drop the clip into You do not need to co
104. LT to the beginning or end of the name to indicate that it is an ALT modified encoder Once the ALT key has been mapped you can create Mapping Pairs just as you would normally except before creating the pair activate the Alt Key interface button located just to the right of the Active Group Numerical Slate on the left side of the Configuration Interface Tip Be sure to de activate the Alt Key button when you are finished creating Alt Key mappings To use the new Alt Key mapping hold down the button you assigned as the ALT key and then use the button or encoder you assigned When you release the ALT key the corresponding control reverts back to its normal function SCRATCH CONTROL LIST The following is a list of all SCRATCH Controls that can be mapped to panel controls For each Control the function of each Map parameter is shown VALUE indicates the parameter has a value that can be controlled These are usually mapped to encoders such as Trackballs or Knobs An X indicates the parameter is a single action button with no value associated These are usually mapped to buttons on the control surface A dash indicates that nothing is associated with that particular Map MO me P MM FCI A MA a AC A MO E A o AC A ME A FC pa a pe AA Stop Stop playback X 2 SCRATCH User Guide 195 JogFwd Jog one frame forward Home Zoomin KeyX_ SO RGB Key lower Softness value VALUE RESET KeyX_ RO RGB Key lower Range value VALUE
105. Map On Canvas With Map On Canvas set the image is mapped onto the Canvas surface This means it is affected by any change in orientation of the Canvas This is the equivalent of the Texture image being painted onto the Canvas If the Canvas is rotated the image rotates as well COLOR CHANNELS You can control which color channels Red Green Blue and Alpha are used for the Fill and Matte by activating the individual color channel buttons The I button inverts the selected channels Note When individual color channels are selected they are represented as a grayscale image TRANS X TRANS Y The Trans X and Trans Y parameters determine how the Fill or Matte image is positioned on the Canvas You can adjust the positioning by entering new values for these parameters They can also be animated using the SCRATCH animation tools SCALE X SCALE Y Scale X and Scale Y determine the scaling of the Fill or Matte image onto the Canvas This allows you to resize an image being used as a Texture The Scale values can be animated using the SCRATCH Animation tools BLUR Each Fill and Matte has its own independent Blur setting CAMERA The Camera is not a part of the Scaffolds directly however it does affect how Scaffolds can be manipulated and how they are processed for final output The entire Scaffold interface exists in 3D space When the Camera is enabled each Scaffold can be manipulated within this 3D space Matrix Primaries 0
106. Note The current slot is indicated by a highlight in the Slot Information Area Keep in mind that the currently selected slot may not be visible within the View Port MULTIPLE SHOT SELECTIONS 54 SCRATCH User Guide You can also select multiple shots to be moved or copied There are different ways to select multiple shots One way is to hold down Shift of Control key and drag mouse from an empty section on the CONstruct over multiple clips All shots that are partly covered by the semi transparent rectangle will be selected or de selected when the status of the clip was selected in the first place Alternatively there are multiple Quick Keys to select more than one shot a single shot Oo Oo Oo Oo oO Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Quick Key Control A Control D Shift Left Click Control Left Click Shift 3 Left Click drag Control Left Click drag Control 1 9 1 9 Play All Control R x Select all shots in the CONstruct x De select all shots in the CONstruct x Extend contiguous selection till shot that was clicked on x Toggle selection of shot clicked on allows for non contiguous selection x Add all shots partially overlapped by area select to the main selection x Toggle selection mode of all shots that are partially overlapped by the area selection x Selects a
107. OFX_PLUGIN_PATH QT_EXCLUDE_CODECS 220 SCRATCH User Guide Set this to configure only a single buffer for texture transfers Double buffering the default does improve texture subload performance a lot Bit also sometimes results in slowing down IO Enable the use of volatile textures NVIDIA GFX OpenGL settings When set specifies the home directory The default is derived from the executable s path Specifies the path to search for plug ins The path will be searched recursively and the directory hierarchy will also be reflected eventually in the plug in selection list Specifies the path to search for OFX plug ins Exclude codec s from selection list Guide Appendix B Quick Keys overview The availability of some Quick Keys depends on the particular SCRATCH license The list below assumes a full license The third column in the table below indicates whether the Quick Key is an actual key stroke O or a swipe action O or a mouse action 4 WINDOWS DESKTOP Make SCRATCH the front window Make SCRATCH the back window Exit SCRATCH Minimize SCRATCH FROM ANY POP UP Unless any other swipe is specified a swipe will always PANEL escape any pop up Close and Abort the pop up Close and Confirm the pop up CONTEXT SENSITIVE HELP CONstruct O Right Show Hide the Output Node stack Ry Spacebar Click and drag Pan horizontally across the CONstruct SCRATCH User Guide 221 gt Right Arrow Pan t
108. PLE REGION The inner box represents the sample region The pixels within this box are used as the initial sample that is searched for subsequent frames To resize the sample region place the cursor over the sample box It will highlight and you can click and drag the sample box to change its size Note It is possible to make the sample region larger than the search region 158 SCRATCH User Guide SEARCH REGION The outer box represents the search region This is the area within the tracker that will search subsequent frames for a match of the sampled pixels To resize the search region place the cursor over the search box It will highlight and you can click and drag the search box to change its size SETTING UP A TRACK MULTIPLE TRACKING POINTS The Track pull down menu allows you to select between 1 and 2 point tracking The corresponding number of trackers appears in the View Port 1 Point Tracking A single tracker allows you to set X and Y Translation values for the Canvas This is the most common type of tracking and works for most situations 2 Point Tracking With two trackers the Canvas is animated in X and Y Translation and also X and Y Scale The change in distance between the two trackers determines the X and Y Scale offset Tip When working with 2 point trackers try to choose tracking points that are as far apart as possible A larger distance between trackers will yield better results SHOW TRACE When Show Tr
109. RATCH software is installed any CIN or DPX files associate automatically to the ASSIMILATE File Player Associated files show a SCRATCH Player icon in Windows Explorer SCRATCH User Guide 103 De CR yes Foote Tools te Q O B a rm m Actes E CAMEDIA DRIVEIHO Argentnaihiet Dm o fe 0000072 dpx oas 0000108 dpx F det 0000144 dex Ne aed Folder Tasks y ox fe 0000073 dex Eje 0000109 dex Etter 0000145 dere PMs 0000501 dr Eker 0000217 Het 0000074 dpx P ikes 0000110 dox fet 0000146 dpx Eiet 0000182x fies 00002 La dex rated z ter 0000075 dox Fher 0000113 de Pier 0000147 401 Geter 0000503 dox Pe 000019 dor Move y i Met 0000076 dx PY Cooy tis Me K ft 0000077 dx fies 00001 12 dex Ofte 0000143 Eilet 0000105 dox WO Pukah this He to the Wed E Her 000007 dex P fies 0000114 dox Piet 1000150 dr Ple 0000106 ES Coat teste dow fet 0000079dpx fle1 000011S dpe Pel 0000151 dp Grier ooed Efer 0000152 dx A DK Colin ia Pl les 0000117 dpx isei 0000153401 He 00001 18 dox Efte 0000154 dix 9 00001 19 dex 1 0000120 dp 10000121 de 4 00001 22 dex 100001 23 done 9 00001 12 dex E Met 0000148 41 Elie 0000104 dox Bes 0000720 de Type DPX Fe Date Modified 4 15 2007 4 20 PM Saw 7 91 NO The ASSIMILATE File Player is a limited version of the SCRATCH Player LOADING A SEQUENCE Double click on any file in the sequence and the File Player is launched with the entire sequence loaded Once in
110. RAY Menu Buttons work as toggles The first time they are clicked the appropriate menu appears Clicking the same button again toggles between that menu and the Timeline Menu The Menu Button is highlighted to indicate which menu is currently active NAVIGATION CONTROLS The Navigation Controls allow you to quickly pan through the CONstruct The Navigation Controls do NOT change the slot is currently selected They are simply a means for moving the CONstruct within the View Port 56 SCRATCH User Guide FIRST SLOT Pans the CONstruct to reveal the first slot PREVIOUS SLOT Pans the CONstruct one slot to the right this results in revealing a slot on the left side of the CONstruct PLAY Loads the entire CONstruct into the Player see Chapter 5 THE PLAYER for details about entering the Player NEXT SLOT Pans the CONstruct one slot to the left this results in revealing a slot on the right side of the CONstruct LAST SLOT Pans the CONstruct to reveal the last slot NAVIGATION SLIDER The area just below the Navigation Buttons is the Navigation Slider The tick marks in the Navigation Slider area represent individual slots within the CONstruct The Slider within this area shows the portion of the CONstruct that is currently visible in the View Port Moving the Slider left and right pans the View Port across the CONstruct This is a quick way of navigating and having a sense of where you are within a large CONstruct You can also p
111. RONMENT VARIABLES in Chapter 4 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more detail on setting Windows Environment Variables But keep in mind this is not a SCRATCH Environment Variable it is an overall Windows variable that already exists You just have to add the path onto the existing variable Type acopy source destination The destination path is optional If it is not specified then the current location is used Tip Open two Windows File Explorers and navigate to the location of the source files in one explorer and the destination location in the other Then drag the folders from the address bar in Explorer into the command prompt window they will be added to the end of the ACOPY command ACOPY displays the current source and destination file being copied as it works At the end of the copy process a summary is displayed in the DOS shell window COMMAND LINE OPTIONS There are several command line options that you can use with ACOPY Command line options are specified immediately after the acopy command and before the source and destination paths The r option allows ACOPY to copy all the directories under the specified source Without this option ACOPY only copies the files found in the specified source folder it does not work its way recursively through all sub directories The s option simulates the copy process but no actual copy operations are done This is useful for testing to be sure an ACOPY command will have the intended result
112. SPLIT The Insert Split button creates a new edit at the current frame marker s location by splitting the current clip and slot into two pieces A new slot now exists in the CONstruct for the new clip SCRATCH User Guide 111 You can also use the following Quick Key O Quick Key Insert x Split the current clip slot at the current frame marker location BIN EDIT If you are parked exactly on an edit point the Insert Split button changes to the Bin Edit button Pressing this button removes the current edit point The incoming shot will be removed along with its corresponding slot The outgoing shot is extended to fill the timeline up to the next slot Note Since this is a destructive action you will be asked to confirm the Bin Edit command You can also use the following Quick Key O Quick Key Delete x Remove the current edit point PROCESS TRANSITIONS The Process Transitions button can be used to process out all the transitions in the current timeline The frames are written to the current output folder using the proper file numbers for their position in the timeline This is helpful for systems which cannot support real time playback of dissolves so that they can be viewed properly SAVING AND LOADING EDITS You can save all your editorial changes with the Load and Save options This only saves the edit information and not the shots contained on the Timeline itself This can be used to save versions of an edit independe
113. Slates for each part BORDER The Border corresponds to the working resolution of the CONstruct This Cage gives you a visual representation of the total area that is processed as an output by SCRATCH CROP When the Crop button is active any portion of an image that extends beyond the Border Cage is blanked out so that it will not appear in the interface If Crop is deactivated then you see the portion of the image that extends beyond the Border Cage it will be darkened slightly so that it is visually different than the portion of the image within the Border Cage GUIDES Activating the Guides button turns on the currently active guide from the preset list This is the overall on off button for Guides Each Cage such as Blanking Action and Text has its own separate button so that each individual Cage can be turned on or off as well BLANKING Blanking determines whether or not the area of the image outside the currently selected preset guide is blanked out Blanking is used in many cases to create letterboxed or matted images representing alternate aspect ratio versions The blanking option also has an opacity setting that allows you to control how much of the blanking color is mixed in with the image Note The Blanking button is only available if the overall Guides button has been activated ACTION The Action button toggles an Action Safe Cage This Cage is designated as a percentage of the image size This Cage is generally used
114. This pull down changes how color ranges are expressed within SCRATCH The actual bit depth is not changed it simply alters the value ranges that are displayed within the interface e 8 bit values range from O to 255 e 10 bit values range from O to 1023 e 16 bit values range from O to 65535 e 0 0 1 0 values range from 0 0 to 1 0 SAVE There are two options for saving Automatic and Manual When set to Automatic SCRATCH automatically saves the changes made to the CONstruct whenever moving between the CONstruct and Player or vice versa when starting to process a CONstruct or when exiting a Project Both when set to Automatic or Manual you can manually initiate a save at any time by using the Save All button or the Quick Key Control S O Quick Key Control s x Save current CONstruct When set to Manual SCRATCH will asks if changes should be saved or not when exiting a Project by displaying an option in the Menu Bar Save changes to the current project Press ESCAPE to abort and continue 32 SCRATCH User Guide Clicking on OK saves the changes to the current CONstruct Pressing ESCAPE or swiping aborts the exit and returns you back to the CONstruct without saving anything Clicking on any other area of the UI does NOT save the changes and WILL exit the Project This reverts the CONstruct back to the state it was in when the session began All changes made during the most recent session are then permanently lost ALLOW BIN SHOT
115. V values so that you can enter these values directly in addition to using the sliders OK CANCEL On the left side of the Color Selection Palette are the OK and Cancel buttons To accept the current color selection you must either press the OK button use the Quick Key Enter or swipe the cursor off the left or right side of the screen O Quick Key Enter x Accept the current color selection O Swipe Action Left or Right x Accept the current color selection To cancel the current color selection and return to the previous selection you must either press the Cancel button use the Quick Key Escape or swipe the cursor off the top or bottom of the screen O Quick Key Escape x Cancel the current color selection O Swipe Action Up or Down x Cancel the current color selection 24 SCRATCH User Guide There are many other interface elements in SCRATCH that are dedicated to a specific purpose for example the Tracker Ball interface in the COLOR toolset The specifics of these interface elements is described in their respective chapters SCRATCH uses a custom File Browser for navigating the file system This Browser provides specialized functions for working with image sequences and folders The Browser will pop up over the View Port area whenever SCRATCH requires you to navigate to a particular file or folder LEERLO rerererrere eevee NAVIGATION Each sub folder is shown in its own column Select a sub folder to open the
116. X Controis SCRATCHER The Scratcher plug in allows you to apply paint effects to shots Scratcher is used primarily for dirt and scratch fixes and general image retouching FX Controls Scratcher works on a frame by frame basis As you paint on a frame a new image file is created in a sub folder of the original shot The original shot is never affected but SCRATCH will recognize the painted frames as processed images and will play them back in place of the original image You can remove the Scratcher effect and return to the original shot by deleting the Scratcher node from the CONstruct Note The original shot is preserved in the CONstruct as well When the Scratcher plug in is added a new shot version is created The original shot is moved up one layer in the version stack This is the standard behavior for all Scratch plug ins There are three types of brushes available Color Clone and Reveal You can adjust the size of the brush by using the Brush Numerical Slate COLOR The Color brush lets you paint with a solid color soft edged circular brush You choose the color by clicking on the color pot to the right of the brush size and using the Color Selection Palette to select a color To paint click and drag in the View Port Tip If you use a Wacom tablet the brush is pressure sensitive 172 SCRATCH User Guide CLONE When you choose Clone from the brush pull down the Clone Copy controls will become active The Clo
117. XML file which is the result of the Command XML file Because of this a Project must be refreshed before the results of a Command XML will be seen This is necessary to avoid XML scripts conflicting with actual user interaction within the CONstruct REMOVE The REMOVE command deletes existing source files from the local storage Files cannot be deleted from a network location using the REMOVE command Once the files are deleted any CONstructs that reference those files will be updated The REMOVE command only requires either a lt source gt ora lt user gt tag to identify the files to be deleted Note This command can be VERY destructive if not used properly Be sure you understand the consequences of using the REMOVE command before working with sensitive material QUERY The QUERY command forces SCRATCH to create an XML output file of the Project specified in the lt project gt tag If the Project specified is not the current active project then the specified Project must have Auto Export enabled for the QUERY command to work The QUERY command can also use the lt source gt tag to specify a particular filename for the export The file should be indicated as path filename xml If no lt source gt tag is specified the export file will be written to the location set in the Export Directory of the Project Settings menu in the Start up Screen The current local storage free space info is also 208 SCRATCH User Guide written to the
118. ace is active the path connecting each keyframe in the track is shown in the View Port This is helpful for finding errors in the tracking or generally visualizing the tracking path PRE TRACKING As you position trackers on the image SCRATCH will perform the tracking on the next 10 frames in the shot and show you the results as a set of crosshairs This is a pre track of the shot and can be used to determine the quality of a tracking point If the pre tracked information does not follow an expected path the sample area may not be ideal In this case you can relocate the tracker to another sample area or adjust the sample and or search regions A new set of pre track information is generated based on the new settings You can continue in this way until a satisfactory sample area is found To adjust the number of frames in the pre track change the Pretrack Numerical Slate value Tip When choosing a tracking point areas that contain high contrast and more distinct detail produce the best tracking results In the case of fast motion you may have to expand the search region so that the Tracker looks at a larger portion of the image for a match to the sample region COLOR CHANNELS AND FILTER With the R G and B buttons you can selectively track on individual color channels The LPF button adds a Low Pass Filter option to the tracker to help with tracking on images with high frequency noise such as film grain PERFORM A TRACK There ar
119. ady set up are displayed as part of the metadata information This is used to burn guides into processed outputs Backdrop This button toggles a semi transparent backdrop on and off behind the metadata text block Turning this backdrop on helps the readability of metadata text in many cases Notes This button toggles the Sticky Note text on and off as part of the metadata information The text is displayed as a third line in the metadata text block X and Y Numerical Slates The X and Y Numerical Slates control the horizontal and vertical position of the metadata text block over the image Note The horizontal value only adjusts the Show information The Shot Name Notes and Add information are always left justified Font This button controls the size of the font used for the metadata text block Note Metadata is only shown on the interface In order to render metadata into an output image file a dedicated Output Node must be used Note See Chapter 9 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING for details on output nodes and rendering metadata CONTROLLING THE AMBILIGHT EFFECT To control an Ambilight effect you first need to enable a Guide and then enable blanking You should now see the Ambilight effect You can choose between varying degrees of the effect s strength by changing between the Relaxed Moderate and Dynamic modes You can also use your own color selection by simply using the Fixed mode THE FILE BASED PLAYER Once the SC
120. ail indicates that a Color Grade has been applied to the shot A yellow bar indicates a Sticky Note is present If both a Color Grade and Sticky Note are applied the bar will be half orange and half yellow as shown in the image below A004_C244 0902J8 5 1 L MOVING A SHOT Shots can be moved from one slot to another by clicking in the middle of the thumbnail and picking up the shot By holding down the mouse button momentarily the shot thumbnail becomes attached to the cursor The amount of time it takes before a move starts can be set in the user settings see Chapter 3 The Startup Screen Also notice that when starting a move action the original location of the shot is shown by a dimmed thumbnail image You can then drop the shot into any other slot by clicking over that slot Note A shot can be inserted below an existing shot by clicking in the open area just below the other shot The shot on the cursor is then inserted below the other shot and all shots above are pushed up in the Version Stack Note You cannot move a shot from one CONstruct to another When a shot is attached to the cursor and you navigate to a different CONstruct a copy is made of the shot automatically and the original is left untouched COPYING A SHOT The process for copying a shot is similar to moving a shot When you press the Quick Key Alt when picking up a shot a copy is created and attached to the cursor You can drop this copy just like when moving
121. ain Output Node s directory However the Process Shot button on the Process menu allows you to process all shots with plug in effect to their individual destination directories You must initiate this using the Process Shot button on the Process menu not the Quick Keys Also Process Shot will always process ALL plug in effects in the current Range To process individual plug ins you must click the Range button so that the timeline is focused on just that shot Then use the Process Shot button FROM THE CONSTRUCT From the CONstruct you cannot process at the shot level All processing will be done to an entire CONstruct The processing will however be launched as a background task This means you will not be locked out of the interface and can continue to work You can also queue up multiple CONstructs to be processed They will be processed in the order in which they are queued 174 SCRATCH User Guide To start a background processing task you must first select and Output Node Use the or the to reveal the Node Stack if it isn t already visible Right x Show Hide the Output Node stack ors x Show the CONstruct Command Menu Media Browser With the Node Stack visible select the Output Node you want to process it will be highlighted with a white outline Now press the Process button at the bottom of the Node Stack This will start the processing Project UserGuide 4 My Group Sources Final Offline A disk icon will appear
122. al Ethernet ports you can use one port to connect to the control surfaces and the other port as a standard Internet connection They simply need be configured properly in the Network Connections part of the Windows Control Panel To check if there is proper communication between the computer and an individual panel you can use a DOS command called ping Open a DOS window by clicking on START and selecting Run Type in cmd without the quotes and hit ENTER You ll get a DOS window At the DOS prompt type ping 192 168 10 36 again without the quotes or whatever IP address you set up in cs_devices_init xml You should start getting a response from the panel If you do not get a response then there is most likely a problem with the configuration of the IP addresses Check the cs_devices_init xml file for possible errors Also check the physical connections verify that the cables are proper Ethernet cables be sure you are using the proper Ethernet port on the computer and check that the cables are fully inserted into the Ethernet jacks on the computer and control surfaces It is sometimes necessary to reboot the computer for network changes to take effect Have the control surfaces connected and powered up when you reboot Finally be sure you have run SCRATCH at least once The control surfaces will not be properly configured until SCRATCH is running and you have at least entered a project and gone into the PLAYER Thi
123. an across the CONstruct using the Quick Key Spacebar and then clicking with the mouse and dragging left or right By dragging and releasing the mouse you can engage the Auto Pan which continues to pan the CONstruct in the direction you initially dragged You can click anywhere in the CONstruct to stop the Auto Pan Note Using the Navigation Slider or Quick Key Spacebar panning does not change the currently selected Slot The slot selection remains the same allowing you to view a different section of the CONstruct while still preserving your currently selected slot The following Quick Keys are available for navigating the CONstruct O Quick Key Spacebar and drag x Pan across the CONstruct O Quick Key Spacebar drag and x Auto Pan across the CONstruct release Pb Quick Key Right Arrow x Reveal one slot to the right in the CONstruct 4 Quick Key Left Arrow x Reveal one slot to the left in the CONstruct CURRENT SLOT NUMBER The Numerical Slate to the left of the Navigation Slider indicates the currently selected slot number Slots are numbered from left to right starting either at zero or one depending on the value set in the Settings Menu on the Startup Screen You can select a particular slot directly by clicking on the Slot Number Slate and entering a new value The Slot Information Area for the selected slot is highlighted and the View Port automatically pans to that slot Tip Use Control Gearing to change the Current Slot Number i
124. anaanead A A A A A A A ia ia rs 67 TIMELINE MENU ocn A des 68 COMMAND MENU creian a a a ea a A avdewds sianadeateanwee 70 CONFORMING saree sccaicscit szcateinticininnciel a EE ETEN 71 MEDIA BROWSER oisscasiaiaccmctva A A Aa EET 76 05 THE PLAYER sisscdsisccacenacancsacecatssssnendmuacsanccnsebenanancuseundaadanr ius ebselcmandsusasaunalanengsssunsseseisertaenesumenceses 79 INTRODUCTION iran aida A A A Vaden eddie pi 79 PLAY ER BASICS a 79 COMMON PLAYER ELEMENTS comic e nE aii iain 81 PLAYER MENU cto dd A ad 88 PLAYER SETTINGS MENU sie ciecscie 8 cicrisieiectainsin inicio E a a EEEO EA EEEE E NT Ea 88 TRA St A An A A Ai 94 PLAYER COMMAND MENU Loc iia A ada aa 95 LUT AAA o 4 E E aa aa aa E eE a dnddluc putea aeieeieaele dada a Daaa EE aE 96 GUIDES om daa 100 THE FILESBASED PLAYER coin a A news dle gns cine ve 103 06 THE A O 105 INTRODUCTION suscita ai 105 SCRATCH User Guide 1 ENTERING THE EDITOR wiccessessecctzcemssecneatstadens A A A AA e eats 105 THE TIMELINE capita 105 NAVIGATION A A A tana 106 NUMERICAL CONTROL iaa 107 INTERACTIVE EDITING sii adan 110 EDIT CONTROLS ciana A A A A Is 110 SAVING AND LOADING EDITS cin a iia aE 112 07 THE MATRIX ccnocoronecirararonand s cda na diana REA dan andas 113 INTRODUCTION ascii n 113 THE PRIMARY GRADING INTERFACE cuco A bai 113 THE COLOR MEN ui oi 113 THE LEVEES INTERFACES oa 115 THE NUMERIC MENU je cscisecssasieedenscenia a a 117 VECTORS st caciahscisadceactaue
125. ands are executed one by one LOAD commands initiate the copy operation and only continue processing once the copy has completed If an error is encountered the LOAD command stops and logs an error in the Assimilator log file and registers a failure in the results file specified for the Command XML file 4 As commands finish executing they add an entry into the specified log file for the Command XML file and enter this information into the Project database For commands that add clips into the Project a Project XML file is created which is executed the next time the Project is opened or refreshed Note Because XML files are deleted as soon as they are processed SCRATCH XML files should be created and archived in a separate folder and only copied into the Watch folder when they need to be executed Do not write files directly into the Watch folder The following is an example of a Command XML file for a LOAD command lt xml version 1 0 gt lt commands gt lt result file Machine mount path result txt gt lt result gt lt log file Machine mount path log txt gt lt log gt lt command name LOAD gt lt project gt ProjectName lt project gt lt source gt NetworkPath Pathname first_image000 dpx lt source gt lt range gt 20 120 lt range gt lt image_mode gt true lt image_mode gt lt user gt MyClipId001 lt user gt lt path gt pathname lt path gt lt group gt GroupName lt group gt lt desk gt
126. anipulate a shape without going back to reposition all the softness points as well Even with Link Softness active a softness point can be repositioned relative to the associated control point It s only when a main control point is moved that the associated softness point is moved along with it TRANSFORMATIONS Each Canvas shape has parameters for Translation Scale Rotation and Pivot These values are shown in the Numerical Slates on the Canvas menu Note By default only two dimensional transformations are available There are three dimensional transforms Translate Z Rotate X Y and Pivot Z These are grayed out until the Camera component is activated See later in this chapter for information about the Camera You can adjust the numerical values of any of these parameters at any time regardless of which Canvas mode you are in When the Axis mode is active the transformations can be controlled through on screen manipulators A bounding box surrounds the Canvas shape and an Axis indicator shows the location of the current Pivot point TRANSLATION Translation is the X and Y position of the Canvas on the image To change the Canvas position place the cursor within the bounding box of the Canvas shape The cursor changes to the translation cursor Click down with the left mouse button and drag the Canvas to a new location You can drag the Canvas in any direction 144 SCRATCH User Guide You can also place the cursor di
127. annel values at each point or node within this cube In the header section of the lut you can include lutname My Company Lut SCRATCH will then show My Company Lut in the Load text slate and in the LUT pull down menu This way other users do not need to know where a specific LUT resides on the system Together with the Crypt3dl utility see Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS for encrypting LUTs you can protect any investments you made in creating a LUT GUIDES The Guides menu is accessed from the Player s Command Menu and is divided into four sections Guide Presets and Settings Display Options Render Metadata and Ambilight GUIDE PRESETS AND SETTINGS Guides are on screen displays that can be used to visualize different rectangular areas of interest on an image Guides are commonly used to show aspect ratios to be extracted from the current CONstruct or customized positions within the image They are completely flexible and customizable to the specific needs of your production ACTIVATING PRESET GUIDES To activate a guide select one of the presets from the list on the left side of the Guides menu The guide can then be turned on in the interface by activating the Guides button in the Display Options section You can switch guides at any time by selecting a new preset from the list CREATING CUSTOM GUIDES A guide is made up of several parts or Cages the base guide area blanking action and text safe regions Each of these
128. apter 6 THE EDITOR for a more in depth look at the SCRATCH Edit toolset Matrix This option opens the Matrix Color Grading interface This requires at least a COLOR MODULE license See Chapter 7 THE MATRIX and Chapter 8 SCAFFOLDS for an in depth look at the Matrix tools Process This option opens the Process menu This requires a PROCESS MODULE license See Chapter 9 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING for an in depth look at the Process tools Guides This option opens the Guides menu The details of the Guides menu are covered later in this chapter Keep The KEEP button forces the Command Menu to remain visible at all times When SCRATCH is run for the first time the Command Menu is on screen at all times By deactivating the KEEP button you can clear the Command Menu by swiping off the screen Then you can call up the Command Menu at any time by right clicking anywhere on the screen or swiping off the left or right sides of the screen The KEEP button is only available on the square Command Menu O Quick Key or x Show the Player Command Menu The square Player Command Menu can be repositioned on the screen by clicking on the gripper in the lower right corner and then moving the menu to a new location and clicking again to release The circular Command Menu appears at the location where you right click You can also use the following Quick Keys to switch to the various toolset menus O Quick Key F1 x Exit to the CONstruct view O Qu
129. arameters have two Maps Map 0 is the parameter s value and Map 1 is the reset for the parameter So creating a Mapping Pair using Map O links the panel control to the actual SCRATCH parameter s value and creates a second Mapping Pair usually using a button using Map 1 links that panel control to resetting the SCRATCH parameter A complete list of each SCRATCH Control and its associated Maps is at the end of this section EDITING THE GROUP TEXT LABELS The text that appears on each display can be edited to represent the functions currently available Each Group can have its own text display which allows you to show the proper information when the Group is selected When a Group is selected from the Groups List in the Configuration Interface the associated text appears in the Group Text Labels area on the right side Each line represents a single display line on a panel Note The order of these lines is determined in the cs_devices_init xml file by the lt display gt and lt lines gt tags Details on this are in the notes just above these tags in the cs_devices_init xml file 194 SCRATCH User Guide To edit the text select the line from the list click in the Text Slate at the bottom and enter or edit the text Press Enter to accept the new text and it will appear immediately on the control surface The Text Labels work in the same way as the Groups in that any line left empty will be transparent to the text from the Group belo
130. arch for matching shots Options are CONstruct Group or Project Match TC Source shots must have a timecode overlap with the EDL event to successfully match If switched off the overlap will still be used for ranking multiple matches Match Reel The source shot s Reel ID must match with the EDL tape ID to successfully match If switched off the match will still be used for ranking multiple matches Match Name The source shot s Clip name must match with the FROM CLIP NAME comment in the EDL to successfully match If switched off the match will still be used for ranking multiple matches Match Reel on Name The source shot s Reel ID must match with the FROM CLIP NAME comment in the EDL to successfully match If switched off the match will still be used for ranking multiple matches Note This option is incompatible with Match Name and Match Reel Reverse Assemble This feature is used for splitting a single clip into several events using the Record IN and OUT points from the current EDL All events are matched with the first clip on the current CONstruct and assembled accordingly The Offset value allows you to set a difference between the source clip s timecode and the Record timecode in the EDL in order to get a correct assemble Auto Rematch 74 SCRATCH User Guide The list of matching clips is automatically updated each time the match criteria are changed When re opening the Assembler window from a different CONs
131. artup system faire and debugging rivmaron Cox tm The next dialog has two sections User Variables at the top and System Variables at the bottom In the SYSTEM section select New 210 SCRATCH User Guide Erirorment Variables 28 bier vanables for tomycac Vanade Vave The Documents and Setings tonycac Lo dew Jl eat j _ pee zyster ADA arisbie aue Q CLASSPATH C Program Fies ova yrel 5 0_027 Comspec C WINDOWS system3 TV emd exe PP_MO_HOST_C NO MEER OF P 1 O ndows y l mem JM ed Oejete ox Cancel In the dialog that pops up you set the name of the environment variable in the top text box and the value for this variable in the bottom text box New System Variable a Vanable pame AS ENABLE DUALVIEW Vanabie valve ox Cancel Most SCRATCH environment variables do not require a specific value to be set they simply have to exist A good practice is to set the value to 1 unless a specific value is needed such as with the AS_SDIOPTION variable Click OK to create the new variable then click OK to close the Environment Variable window and OK once more to close the system properties window The environment variable is now set and will take effect the next time SCRATCH is run COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS In addition to environment variables SCRATCH has several command line parameters that can change how SCRATCH is run Most of these command line parameters are used f
132. as Layers SCRATCH User Guide 137 The SCAFFOLDS toolset brings additional functionality to the Matrix With SCAFFOLDS you can create unlimited layers of color grading on top of the primary grade Each layer can have its own color grade shape softness color qualifier animation tracking and even separate images Scaffolds are created and maintained from a floating Scaffolds Hierarchy List You can open the List through the top View Port Control Bar of the Player Swipe the cursor to the top of the screen to show the View Port Control Bar and click the Scaffolds menu item gt Construct 1 1920x1080 24fps Histogram Color Crv Scaffolds PipeLine x You must have a valid SCAFFOLDS license in order for the Scaffold menus to be active Primaries Scaffold 1 Scaffold 1 Create Bin Group Blend Recursive Opacity 100 000 Show Matte EN x You can move the SCAFFOLDS panel s position on the screen by position by clicking down on the gripper in the lower right of the panel If you hover over the gripper the main cursor will change to a translate cursor indicating that repositioning is possible In the Scaffolds Panel you can create a new Scaffolds with the button The first time SCRATCH creates two entries in the Scaffold Hierarchy List and The Primary layer is the basic primary grade for the current shot The Primary grade is only visible in the Scaffold list when there are other Scaffolds When there is only the prima
133. as four options None Rectangle Circle and Free Form SCRATCH User Guide 141 None Rectangle Circle Free form 2 Depth New Axis Edit Add Trans X 0 000 Scale X 100 000 Trans Y 0 000 Scale Y 100 000 Reset Softness 0 000 None Selecting the None option from the pull down menu disables any existing Canvas shape so that there is no restriction on which part of the image will be affected Note The Canvas works in conjunction with the Qualifier to determine which part of the image will be affected by the Scaffold If a Qualifier is active it may still restrict the Scaffold to only part of the image The Qualifier is covered later in this chapter Rectangle Selecting the Rectangle option from the pull down menu automatically creates a rectangular canvas that matches the working resolution of the CONstruct This shape can be edited afterwards using the Canvas editing tools Circle Selecting the Circle option from the pull down menu automatically creates a circular canvas with a diameter that matches the horizontal or vertical resolution of the CONstruct whichever is smaller This shape can be edited afterwards using the Canvas editing tools Free Form Selecting the Free form option from the pull down menu switches to the Free form shape creation mode The SCRATCH cursor switches to a green crosshair when placed over the View Port In this mode you can click in the View Port to create control points that define the sha
134. ating it has detected the presence of keyframes Width Scale 1 0094 Add format n PAINT Scale x 100 00 q Scale Y 0 i Bottom 0 Width 0 Bottom 0 Width Tip You can quickly tell how many keyframes a menu item has by reading the K value now written over the Animate button Once the green Anim cursor is active release the mouse button and the Curve Editor will automatically open with the selected parameter already highlighted and ready for editing SAVING AND LOADING Entire color grades can be saved as presets to be loaded onto other shots archived for backup or moved between SCRATCH systems SAVING A MATRIX To save the current color gradeyou can click on the Save button on the left side of the Color menu A SCRATCH Browser opens and you can navigate to the location where the color grade will be saved Color grades are saved in SCRATCH s internal format by default These files end with a ccr extension SCRATCH User Guide 133 LOADING A MATRIX Pressing the Load button opens a SCRATCH Browser where you can navigate to a previously saved ccr file When you load the new color grade the previous color grade is completely overwritten and replaced with the loaded grade SAVING LUTs In addition to saving a color grade in the SCRATCH ccr format you also have the option of saving the current grade as a 1D or 3D LUT You can select the type of file to save by clicking on the File Type pull down within the SCRATCH Brow
135. automatically moving images rendered on other systems onto the local SCRATCH drive array for real time playback The clip inside SCRATCH also remembers the location of the original source files in the event the local copies are deleted Note Tracking the remote location of source files is dependent on the REMOTE REFERENCES setting which is configured in the System Settings menu of the Start up Screen The following is a list of all the parameters for the LOAD command lt project gt text This tag specifies the SCRATCH Project for the LOAD command If the Project does not exist the LOAD command will not be executed However the copy operation will still be completed This can be used as a means for moving files across the network without creating clips within SCRATCH lt source gt text This tag specifies the source files for the copy operation The text for this tag should be the absolute path and filename of the first frame used in the copy operation lt range gt first last This tag specifies the first and last frames to be copied from the source These numbers should be the 206 SCRATCH User Guide actual frame numbers used in the filename Use this tag to only copy the portion of the frames that will be needed For example if only 100 frames out of a 2000 frame sequence are needed in the CONstruct you can limit the range of the copy operation to avoid unnecessary time and disk space usage lt image_mode gt true This tag sp
136. ayering Note A Camera Z Space license is required to have access to the Camera functions TRACKING You can use the Tracker in SCRATCH to lock a Scaffold animation to an object within the shot The Tracker uses a sample of pixels from the image and looks for that same group of pixels on the next frame Once found the difference in position between the two frames is used to control the position scale and rotation of the Scaffold In order to apply tracking the Scaffold must have a Canvas shape It s recommended that you create a shape that corresponds to the area you want to track Once a shape exists the Track button becomes active To track a Canvas click the Track button on the Canvas menu This opens the Tracking menu When the Tracking menu opens all other Scaffolds are hidden and a single tracker is visible in the View Port The image also switches back to its native size if any Shot Framing has been added THE TRACKER Each tracker consists of three parts a position point a sample region and a search region POSITION POINT The position point is represented by the crosshair at the center of the tracker This is the X and Y position of the tracker which is used to determine the transforms of the Scaffold When you place the cursor over the position point the entire tracker will highlight indicating you can move the tracker by clicking on the position point to drag the tracker to a new location on the screen SAM
137. based on 3 different criteria Source Timecode Name and Length This is a permanent operation and there is no UNDO You should make a copy or save the CONstruct first if you need to go back to the previous order The function is useful if you are processing a timeline and need the results to have a different order or in combination with PLAYOUT to assemble to tape while recording the Source TC of the shot on the tape PRUNE CONSTRUCT The Prune function will delete any EMPTY slots within the current CONstruct CUSTOM INTERFACE BUTTONS The middle section of the Timeline menu is available for custom buttons that can link to external applications or scripts These links are created through special Windows Environment Variables See Chapter 11 Customizing SCRATCH for more detail on creating custom interface buttons COMMAND MENU The CONstruct Command Menu provides you with additional functions not available in the regular menus as well as alternate ways of accessing some of the Main Menu functions The Command Menu can be accessed by right clicking anywhere in the CONstruct The menu opens at the current cursor location You can also use the following Quick Key to access the Command Menu O Quick Key or x Access the CONstruct Command Menu SCRATCH Play All Editor Insert Slot Bin Slot lt Exit Project gt COMMAND MENU FUNCTIONS The functions available from the Command Menu are 70 SCRATCH User Guide PLAY ALL The
138. based on offset values in printer light units These values can then be used by the color timer in a film lab LEAD IN The Lead In value is used to set an offset for the first frame number of the CDL file Normally the CDL starts at frame 1 FRACTIONAL Enabling the Fractional button expresses the printer light values in the CDL as fractions instead of decimal values TRAY MENU WORKING WITH TRAYS The Tray menu is available from within both the CONstruct and the Player You can access the Trays by clicking on the Tray button or clicking on the small triangle to the right of the button ngs Tray v Anir This opens a pull down menu from which you can select an existing Tray to open or create a new Tray You can use Trays to quickly navigate a Timeline group shots together so they can be modified using the Matrix color tools or build a library of preset color grades that can then be quickly applied to other shots within the Projects Selecting Shots inside a Tray to move to make a copy or to delete is done the same way as on the CONstruct You cannot use the regular Paste button for placing Shots in a tray though as that is reserved for the CONstruct to paste shots use the Add Reference button Initially there is a Tray called Reference but you can add as many Trays as needed NAME Each Tray has a name which is shown in the Text Slate at the left of the menu You can change the name of the current Tray by clicking in the Text Slate
139. be calibrated to match the specifications of a film lab by adjusting the Luma Weight and Print Light settings in the Config Options menu of the Matrix This menu is covered in detail later in this chapter You can also adjust the sliders using the Numerical Slates at the bottom of each slider These behave like all other Numerical Slates in SCRATCH PRE GAIN Pre Gain The Pre Gain adjustments allow you to scale the individual color channels around preset pivot points which are determined by the black and white level pivot point described in the PIVOTS section below Pre Gain is typically used in conjunction with the Offset adjustments to balance the overall luminance red green and blue levels in an image This has the effect of neutralizing the color balance of the image in preparation for further manipulation INVERT The Invert button inverts the color channels of the image All color adjustments are done after the inversion 116 SCRATCH User Guide COLOR CHANNEL MIXER With the color channel mixer you can alternate the position of red green and blue components to handle and process e g BGR images instead of regular RGB formatted images PIVOTS The three color pots control the pivot points for black mid and white point adjustments The pivot points also determine the reference points used for Autograding The left color pot controls the pivot point for Gain adjustments while the right color pot controls the pivot point f
140. bination of Shot Framing and the SCRATCH Tracker can be used to stabilize a shot This can be used for correcting camera shake during acquisition or for locking down a particular point in the image You access the Stabilizer from the Shot Config menu s Shot Framing controls Shot Framing No Scaling Al X Scale 100 000 Y Scale Stabilize X Offset Y Offset Rotate Clicking on the Stabilize button opens the Tracking menu and displays a Tracker in the center of the View Port The Stabilizer works in the same way as the Tracker except instead of moving a Canvas shape the selected stabilizing points are locked in position in the frame For details on setting up and working with the Tracker see the section TRACKING in Chapter 8 Once you have completed the tracking deactivate the Stabilize button to return to the Shot Config menu The tracking information is applied to the shot framing parameters as a standard SCRATCH animation which you can then modify with the Animation controls SCRATCH User Guide 163 The menu is where you access the controls and settings for a plug in When no plug in has been selected for the loaded shot the menu will show only the button This button will open the Plugins Browser for selecting a plug in The Plugins Browser will be explained in detail later in this chapter Inserting a plug in creates a new node on the bottom layer of the current slot The original shot remains in the slot on the layer a
141. bout the source timecode name and or reel id for each shot in the timeline It also provides a record timecode that describes where the shot is located within the timeline To load an EDL click the Load EDL button on the CONstruct Media menu This opens a SCRATCH Browser from which you can navigate to the location of the EDL file By default the Browser starts in the EDL folder within the current project Note The EDL folder is created the first time the LOAD EDL button is used within the Project SCRATCH User Guide 71 Use Windows Explorer to copy any EDLs needed for the Project into the Project s EDL folder This will allow you quick access without having to navigate through the directory structure SCRATCH supports EDLs in the CMX 3600 format A typical EDL will be formatted like this example TITLE MY_SCRATCH_DI FCM NON DROP FRAME 001 BL Y C 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 10 00 FROM CLIP NAME RPT BLACK 002 STK01 V C 01 02 00 00 01 02 55 09 01 00 10 00 00 01 05 09 FROM CLIP NAME ANIM_01 003 vT012 V C 12 02 19 11 12 02 38 04 00 01 05 09 00 01 24 02 FROM CLIP NAME POE_09_v22 004 VTOO7 V C 07 02 51 02 07 02 57 08 00 01 24 02 00 01 30 08 FROM CLIP NAME POE_11_v17 005 VT018 V 18 03 16 03 18 03 23 18 00 01 30 08 00 01 37 23 FROM CLIP NAME POE_15_v08 After selecting the EDL SCRATCH will show the EDL Assembler window The Assembler provides con
142. bove the new plug in A plug in is simply a new version of a shot As such you can manipulate the plug in s node just as you would any other shot Most plug ins have additional parameters that can be set and animated from this menu The controls that appear are specific to the current plug in When the plug in needs more controls than can fit on a single page tab buttons will appear right of the button with which you can browse through all parameters Additionally after selecting a plug in the and buttons on the left Process Menu become enabled Through these buttons you can load or save control presets Presets are stored in a proprietary format with a extension The default folder for storing to and loading from is the subfolder in the folder of the current project A preset is linked to a specific plug in Loading a preset from a different plug in will result in an error FRAMING COLOR GRADE AND METADATA BURN IN When you are viewing the Process menu for an Output Node the FX controls menu offers a number additional options You can adjust the framing for the output node and can add a LUT to the output Furthermore two extra buttons and are available With these buttons enabled the corresponding information will be added to the Output Node s final processing This only applies to additional Output Nodes that have been added Since the Main Output Node is the clean version of the CONstruct you cannot apply additional col
143. ce in this section control how a 1D LUT is generated when the Save function is used The D parameter is a pull down menu to choose the bit depth for the resulting values in the LUT The choices are 8 10 12 and 16 bits The S parameter is a pull down menu to choose the number of entries in the resulting LUT The choices are 256 1024 and 4096 This value represents the precision of the generated LUT The higher the number the more precise the LUT However more precision generates a much larger LUT file 3D LUT SETTINGS The 3D LUT Settings have Depth and Size parameters similar to the 1D LUT The Depth parameter has the same options of 8 10 12 and 16 bits as the 1D LUT and functions in the same way to determine the bit depth of the resulting values in the LUT The Size parameter is an incremental value that can be set between 8 and 64 This determines the number of divisions on each axis of the 3D cube which defines the LUT The higher the number the more precise the LUT However more precision generates a much larger LUT file INCLUDE 3D LUT There is an option button for including the 3D Monitor LUT that is set in the LUT menu as part of the saved LUT When this button is active any monitor LUTs that are set are then combined with the current color grade and exported as a new 3D LUT This can be used for saving both 1D and 3D LUTs MATRIX USER INTERFACE SETTINGS The last group of buttons in the Config Options menu contro
144. ch the Main Menu between the different configuration menus User and Project Settings are only available if the PROJECTS toolset has been licensed If the PROJECTS toolset is not licensed the Start up Screen displays a slightly different version of the System Settings Menu as shown below 28 User Guide LOG FILES The LOG FILES button located on the right side of the Menu Bar allows quick access to the SCRATCH log files Clicking on this button opens a separate Windows Explorer to the location of the SCRATCH log files You may occasionally be asked to send a log file to Technical Support or ASSIMILATE Licensing This is a quick way to access the logs without having to browse to a specific location ENTER PROJECT In the middle of the Menu Bar is the ENTER PROJECT button This button is grayed out unless a User and Project are selected Clicking on the ENTER PROJECT button opens the selected Project using the User s settings that you ve selected SCRATCH will keep the Project files locked when entering a project preventing other other stations from opening the same project If you attempt to open a Project that does not have a Media Directory defined you will get an error message Use the Project Settings Menu to define the Media Directory and then enter the Project EXIT On the left side of the Menu Bar is the EXIT button The Start up Screen is the only location from which you can access the EXIT button If you are already in a
145. color adjustments automatically switch the Trim buffer off this returns the view to the current grade The adjustments you make are applied to the current grade and the Trim buffer remains as it was In the same example if Auto Restore is active and a color adjustment is made while viewing the Trim buffer then the Trim buffer is automatically restored as the current view any color adjustments are then made to the newly restored grade This is the equivalent of pressing the Restore button while viewing the Trim grade and then making color adjustments Note Auto Restore is a destructive operation If any color adjustments are made while viewing the Trim buffer the current grade will be overwritten by the grade from the Trim buffer without a confirmation In most cases this is exactly the desired result If you make the modification while looking at the Trim buffer then you are expecting that modification to be made to that image If Auto Restore is turned off then the view reverts back to the current grade and modifications will be made to that image PREVIOUS NEXT COLOR SELECTION The Previous Next Color Selection buttons are an extension of the Trim buffer These controls allow you to load the grade from other shots on the timeline into the Trim buffer of the current shot When a grade is loaded the Trim buffer is automatically switched on You can determine which shot s color grade is being used by clicking on the Previous MXN Next Mi bu
146. covered in detail later in this chapter TRAY The Tray menu is covered in detail later in this chapter See also Chapter 4 THE CONstruct and Chapter 7 THE MATRIX for additional details on using the Tray ANIMATE See Chapter 7 THE MATRIX for details on using the Animate menu PLAYER MENU When you first enter the Player the Player menu is displayed If you have a valid PLAYOUT EXTENSION license the VTR controls will be active If you do not have a valid PLAYOUT license these controls are grayed out For details on using the PLAYOUT EXTENSION see Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES PLAYER SETTINGS MENU Clicking on the Settings button displays the Player s Settings menu Here you can control various aspects of how the images are displayed within the SCRATCH Player The left side of the Settings Menu shows the current screen resolution refresh rate and also the resolution of the current CONstruct 88 SCRATCH User Guide GENERAL CONTROLS OUTPUT VIEW SELECTOR The pull down on the left side of the Player Settings menu controls how SCRATCH processes and displays frames in the View Port The options for the pull down are Disable Output Enable Output View Output and Process On Play Settings Tray y Animate Player Display 1920x1200 60 Hz Outnut 40904y3112 24 Hz Sync Monitor Disable Output Framerate Enable Output View Output Process On Play Configure Panels Disable Output With Di
147. ctory or all subfolders and files Select Apply changes to all subfolders and files and press OK Depending on the number of files and subfolders on the drive this may take some time Allow the process to finish completely before working with the drive again NVIDIA DRIVER SCRATCH relies heavily on the NVIDIA GPU for real time processing An incorrect NVIDIA driver can impact the performance of the system The latest approved NVIDIA driver for use with SCRATCH can be found on the ASSIMILATE website www assimilateinc com Ensure that you have the correct version of the driver and if necessary remove and re install the driver DRIVE ARRAY FORMATTING On large striped disk arrays the cluster size used to format the volume is important For NTFS volumes the recommended value is 64Kb This can be set from within the drive controller application during initial setup of the drives For more information consult the user manual for your drive controller SCSI CONTROLLERS When using SCSI controllers for the SCRATCH media drives the maximum transfer size is determined by a registry key located within the SCSI adapter s settings This value MaximumSGList is the number of 4Kb or 8Kb blocks 1 that can be transferred at a time The maximum value is OxFF or 255 which enables 1MB transfers NTFS TWEAK This is a registry modification that adds two new keys within the Windows Registry These keys optimize the performance of large NTFS volume
148. cts in a single real time easy to use streamlined resolution independent workflow With its robust feature set SCRATCH enables you to quickly work from frames to finished footage as well as increase productivity create experiment and deliver multi resolution multi format high quality output on time and on budget Plugins 0 Film Scan Playback 2k 4k Review HO Effects Viewing Copy Film Out FEATURES e Project wide data management infrastructure e Assemble edit conform review playback and finish e Advanced primary and secondary color grading with unlimited layering six vector controls e Support for third party 1D 3D and customer developed Look Up Tables LUTs color management systems colorist panels plug ins for visual effects e Audio playback e Real time output to any SMPTE format CONFIGURATIONS AND LICENSING SCRATCH is a modular product that can be licensed in a variety of ways to provide individual suites with custom capability tailored to specific tasks For example one SCRATCH workstation might be configured as a CONFORM station with tools for conforming EDLs and adjusting edits while another SCRATCH station could be configured as a Colorist station with Primary and Secondary color grading tools but no editorial capabilities This allows each station to perform a specific function without the risk of changing important data For example the Colorist would not be able to alter the edit accidentall
149. cursor over the timeline and interactively zoom and pan the timeline to focus on a particular area To Zoom and Pan use the following Quick Keys O Quick Key Alt Drag Left Right x Zoom the Timeline in or out O Quick Key Spacebar x Pan across the Timeline O Quick Key Home x Zoom out to display the entire timeline O Quick Key Control Home x Zoom so that the current shot fills the width of the Edit menu O Quick Key x Zoom in on the whole timeline O Quick Key x Zoom out on the whole timeline There are also buttons in the Edit menu for controlling the timeline zoom factor Zoom out on the Timeline This always zooms around the current frame position which will become centered in the Timeline become centered in the Timeline Zoom out to display the entire timeline Zoom in on the Timeline This always zooms around the current frame position which will Zoom so that the current shot fills the width of the Edit menu 106 SCRATCH User Guide NUMERICAL CONTROL The upper part of the EDIT menu is divided into several sections Two of these Configure Node and Configure Timeline allow you to manipulate the current event in the timeline by modifying the values which define that event CONFIGURE NODE The Configure Node section can be thought of as the source side of the timeline editor This is where you can control the parameters for how a clip is positioned within a slot There are Numerical Slates
150. de PLAYBACK CONTROLS The main transport controls are located in the center of the Menu Bar The function of each button is as follows gt H4 i4 M y v a w A y Play repeat options Jump to the first frame Jump to the previous shot in the timeline Jog backward one frame at a time or play backward if held down Play backward Pause stop playback Play forward Jog forward one frame at a time or play forward if held down Jump to the next shot in the timeline Jump to the last frame Mark IN point Mark OUT point En disable audio Playback Quick Keys O A Swipe Action Left Right x Play backward forward full screen only Quick Key Up Arrow x Play forward Quick Key Down Arrow x Play backward Quick Key Right Arrow x Jog forward auto repeat if held down Quick Key Left Arrow x Jog backward auto repeat if held down Quick Key Enter x Stop start play Quick Key Control Right Arrow x Jump forward to the next shot Quick Key Control Left Arrow x Jump backward to the previous shot Quick Key I x Set IN point to current frame Quick Key O x Set OUT point to current frame SCRATCH User Guide 85 O Quick Key P x Toggle through play repeat modes O Quick Key R x Focus on the currently marked range PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE MONITOR The following Quick Key toggles the Playback Performance Monitor at the top of the View Port O Quick Key Control F1 x Show hide statistical information The Perf
151. down for 24 to NTSC conversions and 24 to 25 fps for PAL conversions Tip You can output just a portion of a CONstruct by setting the IN and OUT points to define the range that will be used by PLAYOUT PLAYOUT controls are grayed out if there is no valid PLAYOUT license OR if no VTR is currently connected Note PLAYOUT requires an NVIDIA SDI card The desired output resolution must be set in the NVIDIA control panel before running SCRATCH and the proper SDI framing must be set in the Player Settings menu Note The control protocol is Sony standard via an RS 232 connection An RS 422 to RS 232 converter is required when connecting the serial port from the SCRATCH system to the remote input of the VTR SDI AND VCR The text above the PLAYOUT controls shows the SDI output signal and the type of VTR currently connected If a four digit value is shown then the current deck has not been configured in the PConfig xml file See CHAPTER 11 the section on DECK CONTROL for details on configuring the VTR TIMECODE DISPLAY The timecode displayed above the PLAYOUT controls shows the current timecode being read from the connected VTR CONNECT The Connect button is used to establish communications with the VTR Pressing the Connect button sends standard connection information through the serial control cable and awaits a proper response from the deck If no response is received the PLAYOUT controls are not activated RECORD The Record butto
152. dows environment variable ASSIMILATE_PLUGINS can be set to any path and SCRATCH looks for Third Party Plug ins under that path OPEN FX DOCUMENTATION If you are interested in creating your own custom OFX plug ins documentation for the OFX SKD is available at the following web site http openfx sourceforge net DECK CONTROL The SCRATCH PLAYOUT EXTENSION allows you to take control of a connected VTR and perform frame accurate layoffs directly out of SCRATCH To do this you must make the physical connections between the SCRATCH system and the VTR then edit a configuration file to enable deck control and adjust the timings for frame accuracy SCRATCH User Guide 201 PHYSICAL CONNECTIONS There are two connections that must be made between the SCRATCH system and the VTR First the SDI video output from the NVIDIA SDI Option card s OUTPUT is connected to the VTR s SDI INPUT This is done through a standard video BNC connector cable Second the connection is the control link that allows SCRATCH to communicate with the VTR This connection is made from the serial port of the SCRATCH system to the REMOTE IN port of the VTR The serial port uses a communication protocol called RS 232 while the VTR uses a protocol called RS 422 In order for this connection to be made properly the RS 232 signal coming from the SCRATCH system must be converted to an RS 422 signal the VTR will understand This is done using an RS 232 to RS 422 convert
153. duration Note Regardless of whether a slot is set to AUTO or MAN you can still alter its duration using the editing functions See Chapter 6 THE EDITOR Once you have manually altered the duration of a slot it switches to the MAN icon and remains in that state Slots cannot be switched back to AUTO once they have been set manually OUTPUT NODE STACK Output Nodes represent the end result of a CONstruct By default each CONstruct must have one Output Node but you can also define multiple Output Nodes from a single CONstruct This allows for multiple versions to be created from a single CONstruct and any change made to that CONstruct is reflected in all the Output Nodes SCRATCH User Guide 45 Ja organo The details of creating and working with Output Nodes are covered later in this chapter and also as part of Chapter 9 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING You can show and hide the Output Node Stack using the Quick Key Q or by swiping off the right side of the interface O Quick Key Q x Show Hide the Output Node stack O Swipe Action Right x Show Hide the Output Node stack Final Seconday Output Dual Output When the Dual Output option has been set in the Project settings SCRATCH will create two output nodes by default The bottom output node is linked to the bottom layer of the CONstruct while the second output node is linked to the second layer of the CONstruct Each node can be configured separately to allow rendering of
154. e s description Everything in between these two tags describes particular settings for that device There are only a few lines in each device description that you need to be concerned with The first is in the lt device name gt tag itself You will need to change the disabled setting to enabled This will tell SCRATCH to look for this device Go through each section and enable the devices you have connected Tangent Devices Panels For Tangent Devices you need to provide the serial number ID for each panel The serial number ID is shown on the panel s display when it is powered on Every panel has a unique ID This is set using the lt serial number gt tag Replace the XX between the lt serial_number gt tags with the ID of your panel Repeat this for each device that you have connected Remember the number will be different for each panel The remaining sections of the device definition describe the IP address and other network information for the panel If you are using DHCP be sure the lt dhcp gt tag is set to i for every panel that you have connected 190 SCRATCH User Guide The remaining settings are only necessary to change if you are going to set the IP addresses manually and for some reason need to change them from the default If lt dhcp gt is set to 1 on then the remaining tags for IP address subnet and gateway are ignored To set the IP address of the panel and computer manually first set the
155. e Configure Node area You can also use the following Quick Keys to slip a shot one frame at a time O Quick Key lt or x Decrement the Slip value O Quick Key gt or x Increment the Slip value RE TIME Placing the SCRATCH cursor over a vertical edit point line changes the cursor to the Re timing cursor 1 clicking down and dragging the cursor moves the selected edit point within the timeline This is the equivalent of changing the Start or Length value for a particular slot in the Configure Timeline area The Ripple button status determines how slots after the current slot are affected by the change EDIT CONTROLS ANALYZE The Analyze button opens the Shot Analyzer window 110 SCRATCH User Guide If you have a single clip that has multiple scene changes within the clip you can use the Shot Analyzer to divide up or notch the single clip into its individual cuts Analyzing a clip has two steps the initial analysis and then setting the Sensitivity and Size values which determine where SCRATCH insert edits To start the initial analysis press the Start button in the Shot Analyzer window This begins the analysis of the current clip Don t worry about the Sensitivity and Size parameters They do not affect the analysis A green graph begins to appear in the bottom of the Shot Analyzer window This graph shows the difference SCRATCH is detecting between frames Large vertical spikes indicate big changes in the image w
156. e RGB values of any area of the image The RGB values are displayed on the Color Chip Clicking and dragging on the image continuously samples the RGB values For more information about using the Color Selection Palette see Chapter 2 GETTING STARTED MAGNIFY The MAGNIFY button opens up the Magnifying Glass interface The Magnifying Glass can be dragged around the shot to provide a detailed view of that particular part of the frame You can control the zoom level by clicking on the Up and Down buttons next to the Magnify button 82 SCRATCH User Guide SNAPSHOT The SNAPSHOT button can be used to create JPG or TIF images from the current display The behavior of the SNAPSHOT button can be configured in the USER SETTINGS menu See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for more information on how to configure the SNAPSHOT function VIEWPORT ZOOM CONTROLS By default when entering the Player the shot is displayed at its native resolution The zoom controls at the top of the screen allow you to change how the image is displayed Zoom out on the image this always zooms around the center of the image Zoom in on the image this always zooms around the center of the image EA Home set the image to a 1 to 1 resolution with the native screen resolution so that one pixel of the image is represented by one pixel of the display screen big Fit fit the shot into the current View Port Note The View Port size changes as the visibility
157. e Shot Information Area is not displayed at all FRAMES This displays the current CONstruct frame number TIMECODE This displays the CONstruct Timecode for the current frame based on the frame rate that is set in the CONstruct settings SOURCE TC This displays the source timecode for the current shot 90 SCRATCH User Guide FRAMES TC This displays the current CONstruct frame number and CONstruct timecode FRAMES S TC This displays the current CONstruct frame number and the current shot s source timecode Reel ID S TC The Reel ID and the source timecode of the current clip that is displayed are shown on the same line S TC TC The source timecode of the current clip and the frame timecode are both displayed on the same line KEYCODE This displays the source Keycode information for the current shot FILENAMES This displays the complete path filename and frame number for the current shot Tip Clicking on the actual Shot Information displayed above player controls will also show the options list giving you the option to change the selection outside the settings menu Note When the Player is displaying a processed frame the Shot Information Area turns gold and instead of the source image s name the name of the current CONstruct is displayed along with the selected information This is a good visual indication of which frames in a sequence have been processed VIEW SCAFFOLDS SCAFFOLDS are a part of the SCRATCH color
158. e a number of controls to control a track all controls are mirrored and can also be performed in a reversed direction Once the tracking information is processed you can close the tracking menu using the Close Tracker button This returns you to the Canvas menu SCRATCH User Guide 159 Track gt Start the actual track Bin rt Delete the current selected individual tacking point You can also use the Quick Key Backspace to remove a tracking point O Quick Key Backspace x Remove individual tracking point Step to the next tracking point You can re position the tracker manually When you move the tracker while holding the Control key down will create an the offset track This can be usefull when a tracking point is obscured or moves out of the frame TRANSFORMATION CONFIGURATION These three buttons Translate Scale and Rotate determine what Transformations will be keyframed by the tracker These options are apply to a 2 point track Deactivating any of these buttons removes that transformation from the tracking results INVERSE You can invert the tracking information by activating the Inverse button All tracking information will be inverted This can be useful for advanced shot stabilization TRIMMING THE CANVAS POSITION After tracking is complete the Canvas may not line up exactly with the intended location on the screen In this situation you can adjust all the keyframes by the same offset amount using the Trim Key anima
159. e can be a folder per plug in or a single folder with all the plug ins in it If Scratch cannot find an image with that name it then tries to find one using the Grouping and then the Vendor names If all else fails then the standard Assimilate logo is used SCRATCH NATIVE PLUG INS SCRATCH includes four default plug ins Deinterlacer Pan and Scan QuickTime Export and Scratcher The plug ins are available from the Plugins Browser in the ASSIMILATE INC Native section Each plug in has its own menu A plug in selection will create a new node on the CONstruct with the current shot node as its input DEINTERLACER The De interlacer allows you to work with field based information and either extract or insert fields Interlace The Interlace mode creates a new shot whereby one new frame is built from two successive frames in the source shot The source shots alternate on each line of the new shot The effect of this is to reduce the overall duration of the shot by half SCRATCH User Guide 167 The button allows you to control which image is used for each field in the resulting image With F1 Dominant active the odd lines of the resulting image come from the first frame and the even lines come from the second frame The De Interlace mode splits Field 1 and Field 2 from a single video frame into two separate frames The effect of this is to double the overall duration of the shot The button allows you to control the order of the fields in
160. e recent and 10 being the oldest Only the last 10 log files are kept Older log files are removed each time SCRATCH is run Tip The log files are used to troubleshoot issues with the SCRATCH software Any time you have strange behavior from SCRATCH exit the program and copy the Assimilator log file from the LOGS folder to another location This allows you to preserve it and send it to Technical Support The PLUGINS folder is used to store presets of SCRATCH plug ins Presets that are stored in this folder are available from the Plugin Browser in SCRATCH Note In the Project folder also a PLUGIN sub folder is created Here you can save project specific presets These presets are however not readily available from the Plugin Browser in SCRATCH but you can still load them with the SCRATCH File Browser Users This is the default location for SCRATCH User folders Each User has a separate folder containing their user profile and any customizations they make to the User Interface or Panel Mapping Tip Save your User folder onto a USB Flash Drive so you can take your user settings with you to any SCRATCH system In addition to the files and folders that are created a SCRATCH shortcut icon is created on the desktop This icon can be used to launch the SCRATCH software GENERATING A LOG FILE In order to run SCRATCH you need a license file The license file is generated by ASSIMILATE based on information in the SCRATCH log file Assimilator lo
161. e shot has been picked up in the CONstruct Bin Shot is displayed If multiple shots have been selected Bin Selected is displayed Clicking on the Bin button removes the selected shot or shots from the CONstruct Note Multiple shots cannot be dropped onto the Bin button To bin multiple shots select the shots using the Quick Key Control and then click directly on the Bin Selection button without picking up the shots first BIN MEDIA Any time media is generated by SCRATCH frames are stored in the designated output folder The Bin Media button allows you to purge all of the processed frames from the current CONstruct This does NOT delete original source images only files that have been created as part of the SCRATCH processing of that CONstruct are affected Note Normally you cannot delete source references directly from within SCRATCH However if ALLOW BIN SHOT has been enabled in the User Settings Menu the Bin Media button changes to BIN MEDIA amp REF you will be able to bin both generated media and the original source references at the same time This is potentially very destructive so you must confirm this action again using the button that appears on the right side of the Menu Bar after BIN MEDIA amp REF has been clicked SETTINGS MENU The SETTINGS Menu is where you can create new CONstructs and Groups organize existing CONstructs and Groups Save and Load CONstructs and manage the working resolution for individual CONstructs
162. e visual tearing of the image may occur This is similar to Timing sync FRAMERATE The playback frame rate of the Player can be set in two ways First the FRAME RATE button is a pull down menu of preset frame rates Selecting any of these presets sets the Player s playback to that frame rate You can also set the playback frame rate to any value by typing it into the Text Slate The frame rate can be changed at any time even while the Player is in play mode VIEW ASPECT The VIEW ASPECT button toggles any aspect ratio adjustment on and off This is useful for checking source images without any aspect ratio compensation by SCRATCH ASPECT SELECTION This pull down menu allows you to select the aspect ratio for the Player The options for this pull down are read from the aspects cfg file and follow the same usage as the Project aspect ratio settings For details on working with aspect ratios see the PROJECT SETTINGS MENU section in Chapter 3 SCALE The Scale Numerical Slate is used to set custom aspect ratios as part of the Player s aspect ratio setting Changing the Scale value by entering a new value in the Numerical Slate will automatically switch the aspect ratio to Custom VIEW PORT CONTROLS SHOW The SHOW pull down controls what information is displayed in the Shot Information Area at the bottom of the Player s View Port This information is shown along with the source image s name The options available are NOTHING Th
163. e_03 Shot_06 XTake_01 Take_02 Shot_07 XTake_01 Take_02 Take_03 If you select the Roll_01 folder as the base folder with a Depth setting of 1 all the clips from the base folder down will be loaded into 3 slots Slot 1 would contain all the shots within the Scene_01 folder Slot 2 would contain all the shots within the Scene_02 folder and Slot 3 would contain all the shots within the Scene_03 folder As a second example using the same folder structure but setting the Depth to 2 would result in 7 slots one for each Shot folder In this way you can control how the shots are loaded in so that they maintain the same overall structure once they are loaded into SCRATCH This can be especially useful when loading large numbers of folders but still being able to find a specific shot quickly for review Note The Load Layer function can theoretically take a long time to finish To abort the function press Quick Key Escape ASPECT AND SCALE The Aspect pull down allows you to assign an aspect ratio to shots that are loaded with the Load Shot or Load Layer buttons This aspect ratio is set as a property of the clip and determines how that clip appears in the Player The Scale Numerical Slate takes its value from one of the Aspect presets or you can set the Scale to any value you like and the Aspect pull down will switch to Custom DEFAULT HANDLES The two Numerical Slates In and Out allow you to select a default number of frames
164. ecifies whether the files being copied will be altered to create real time playable files Some image formats such as TIFF for example can be written in ways that are still legal files but cannot be played in real time The lt image_mode gt tag attempts to convert files into a real time playable format as part of the copy process lt user gt text This tag specifies a text string that will be attached to the clip as a user defined low level unique ID This is not the actual name that will be used for the clip within the SCRATCH interface but this ID will be output as part of an XML output file so that a particular clip can be identified even if multiple clips have the same name lt path gt text This tag specifies the destination path for the copied files The path can be either an absolute path ora relative path from the Project s Media Directory When not specified a path will be generated relative to the Project Media Directory based on the specified Group and CONstruct names provided in the lt group gt and lt desk gt tags lt group gt text This tag specifies the Group in which the clip will be placed If the Group does not exist it will be created lt desk gt text This tag specifies the CONstruct in which the clip will be placed If text is PRI_TRAY the shot is added to the main Reference Tray for the Project To specify a particular Tray use TRAY My_new_tray Note CONstructs are referred to as desks within
165. ect gt tags are absolutely required All other parameters use default values if not specified lt c_offset gt R G B Color grading parameters Red Green Blue to adjust the shift of the clip towards a certain color or luminance lt c_lift gt R G B Color grading parameters Red Green Blue to adjust the overall luminance red green and blue levels of the clip lt c_gamma gt R G B Color grading parameters Red Green Blue to adjust the gamma per channel of the image lt c_gain gt R G B Color grading parameters Red Green Blue to adjust the amount of gain per channel of the image lt c_lut gt text Color Grading parameters the full filename of a Look Up Table to be applied on the clip lt audioclip gt text The full filename of the corresponding audio file with the clip lt audioslip gt value Offset to sync audio and clip ADDREF The ADDREF command is very similar to the LOAD command However ADDREF does not copy files it merely adds new clips into SCRATCH Because it is so similar to the LOAD command it uses almost all the same parameters The only parameters not used by the ADDREF command are lt path gt and lt range gt since those are parameters related to the copy operation All other parameters are identical to the LOAD command Note When SCRATCH processes commands that modify the state of the Project the results are not immediately written into the Project Instead SCRATCH creates a Project
166. ecting the control surfaces directly to the computer and there is no other networking connection needed assigning the IP addresses manually is recommended CONFIGURING THE CONTROL SURFACES PREPARING THE CONFIGURATION FILES If you are using a USB Serial or Ethernet connection the proper information about the control surfaces must be provided so that SCRATCH can establish a communication link The configuration of the control surfaces is done through a text file in the SCRATCH installation directory located at C Program Files Assimilate Settings In this directory you will find these three files cs_devices xml cs_mappings xml and cs_mappings_JLC xml cs_devices xml is the file that defines the physical devices which are connected to the system cs_mappings xml and cs_mappings_JLC xml define what SCRATCH function each knob dial and button will control EDITING THE cs_devices xml FILE SCRATCH User Guide 189 Before you edit any of the configuration files you ll want to make a copy of them so that the original file remains intact Make a copy of the cs_devices xml file and rename it cs_devices_init xml When SCRATCH starts up it checks to see if the file cs_devices_init xml exists If it exists SCRATCH reads that file and ignores the cs_devices xml file This way the cs_devices xml file is your backup copy and all changes you make are to the cs_devices_init xml file Open the cs_devices_init xml file in notepad or any oth
167. ed and activates the conversion for any Log flagged clips To bypass this behavior and have a Log to Lin conversion applied at all times switch the pull down to APPLY ALWAYS This ensures that the Log to Lin conversion is applied to all clips regardless of their flagged state Note If there is no header on the file the file is automatically flagged as Log 3D LUT FORMAT The 3D LUT file follows a similar format to the 1D LUT in that there is a header which specifies information about the file followed by the LUT values Header 32x32x32 3dl lookup table lutname My Company LUT o 33 66 99 132 165 198 231 264 297 330 363 396 429 462 495 528 561 594 627 660 693 726 759 792 825 858 891 924 957 990 1023 0 0 0 0 0 37 0 0 74 0 0 110 0 0 146 0 0 182 0 0 217 0 0 253 0 35 0 0 35 37 0 35 74 0 35 110 SCRATCH User Guide 99 o oo0ooooO ooo 74 110 146 182 217 25 oo o S Y JIJI NNN J J W UU Ww NONNNNNNN WI ooo W The header information shows a breakdown of where the sample points are located on each of the 3 axis In the example above the comment indicates that the LUT is a 32x32x32 cube and each of the 32 values is then listed on the following line Each line after that represents the values for the LUT A 3D LUT has three values for each line Each line of the file represents a slice of the 3D cube that defines the boundaries of the LUT The three values represent the individual color ch
168. ed the first screen you will see is the Startup Screen On the Startup Screen the View Port area displays the licensing icons and the SCRATCH logo The Main Menu displays User Project and System Settings options User and Project Settings are only available if the PROJECTS MODULE has been licensed The View Port area of the Startup Screen can be customized with your own logo See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more information MODULE LICENSING The icons on the Startup Screen will show what MODULES and EXTENSIONS have been licensed User Guide 17 For example in the image above the PROJECTS EDIT and COLOR MODULES have been licensed since they appear as full color icons The remaining MODULES have not been licensed since they are grayed out LICENSE DETAILS Hovering your cursor over an icon will highlight it the icon will get slightly larger and also display more information about that icon such as the name of the module This is a quick way of verifying what SCRATCH features have been licensed on your system EXTENSION LICENSING The EXTENSIONS MODULE includes several different features which can all be licensed separately When you hover the cursor over the EXTENSIONS icon any licensed EXTENSIONS will be shown below the icon EXPIRING TEMPORARY LICENSES The icons on the Startup Screen will also indicate when a temporary license is nearing its expiration date SCRATCH licenses can be layered so that temporary licen
169. ed in more detail in Chapter 11 APPLICATION DATA Once the software is run a folder is created at C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator This is where files that carry over between software versions are located These files and folders are not modified when the SCRATCH software is updated This includes files such as SCRATCH license files User settings Project folders SCRATCH log files and also SCRATCH configuration files Note The Application Data folder is hidden by default in Windows In order to see this folder you may need to modify the Windows Explorer settings so that hidden files are shown The C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator folder contains the following sub folders Media This folder is the default location for the SCRATCH Media Library The files contained in this folder are managed by SCRATCH and should not be changed by the user unless directed to do so by Technical Support Project This is the default location for SCRATCH Project folders Everything pertaining to a particular SCRATCH Project is contained within that Project s folder allowing for easy backup and transportation of SCRATCH Projects The location of this folder can be changed within the SCRATCH application This is only necessary in specialized cases For normal operation the default location should be used See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for more information about changing the default location o
170. efined and clips are added to that reel Once all the clips for a particular CONstruct have been added the CONstruct end tag lt desktop gt closes out that section You can continue through the file and see other CONstructs having clips added to them as well The process is the same for each section Finally at the very end of the file is the lt deskgroup gt tag to close the entire group of commands Now that you ve seen how a Project XML file is structured here is a list of each tag and the possible attribute values it can have 204 SCRATCH User Guide lt deskgroup gt starts and ends the group of XML commands lt desktop name deskname gt Indicates the CONstruct into which the new clips will be inserted If deskname does not match an existing CONstruct a new CONstruct will be created called deskname lt reel row value left right gt Indicates the Slot in which the new clips will be inserted Slots are numbered starting at O on the left The left or right attribute values will create a new slot to the left or right of any existing slots This is an easy way of ensuring the new clips will be placed at the beginning of a CONstruct for example lt clip y value top bottom 1 1 gt Specifies the location of a new clip and indicates the vertical location of the new clip within the slot Any value can be specified however clips will automatically drop down to the lowest available position within the
171. el of the image Darken Darken uses the darker value between foreground and background images Whichever value is lower is used in the resulting image This is evaluated individually for each channel of the image OPACITY The Opacity parameter controls the final level at which a Scaffold is mixed with the other layers By lowering the opacity of a layer you can decrease its visibility Opacity can be animated using the SCRATCH animation controls RECURSIVE The Recursive setting determines whether a Scaffold will interact with the layers below it or if it will take the base image as its starting point When Recursive is active for a Scaffold layer the Scaffold will use the results of the layers below it as the starting point for any color grading With Recursive deactivated for a Scaffold the base image will be used Recursive Activated SCRATCH User Guide 151 Recursive Scaffolds can be identified in the Scaffold Hierarchy List by a white dot to the left of the Scaffold This indicates that that Scaffold is set to be Recursive Create Bin Scaffold NonRecursive Primaries O Scaffold Recursive Scaffold NonRecursive You can choose the behavior of every new Scaffold you add by setting the option in the menu See the section MATRIX CONFIGURATION SETTINGS in Chapter 7 for more details SHOW MATTE The Show Matte button toggles the on screen display of the current Qualifier selection see section about Qualifiers later in
172. ell These points can be manipulated independently from the main shape control points See the section about SOFTNESS later in this chapter for more details Tip When the Edit mode is active you can temporarily switch to other mode such as Add Break and Join by pressing the mode s corresponding Quick Key When you release the Quick Key you are returned to the Edit mode Note When a Free form shape is being created the Edit button is replaced by the Close button ADD When the Add mode is active clicking on the Canvas shape curve creates a new control point for the shape The SCRATCH cursor changes to a green crosshair to indicate you are in Add mode Each time you click while in Add mode you add a new point until the mode is deactivated You can use the Quick Key A to activate the Add mode keep key pressed to maintain mode O Quick Key A x Add Mode Tip When you first click to add a new point and hold down the mouse button you can manipulate the point without switching to Edit mode Once the mouse button is released clicking again adds a new point BIN When the Bin mode is active clicking on a Canvas shape control point or a control point s handle deletes the control point from the shape The SCRATCH cursor changes to a bright red crosshair to indicate you are in Bin mode Each time you click on a point while in Bin mode the control point and handles are deleted You can also place the cursor over a segment of the Canva
173. ems that had slower write times With newer faster disk sub systems this issue is less of a concern However the option is still available within SCRATCH to allow for legacy drives Tip If you are experiencing write errors or bad frames when outputting from SCRATCH try switching to Direct Writes BLOCK SIZE This pull down controls how SCRATCH reads TIFF files The options are 1MB 2MB 4MB 8MB and 16MB Different disk sub systems are able to handle larger block sizes which can improve playback performance of TIFF images The TIFF files must be formatted for real time playback regardless of the block size selected See the section FILE FORMAT in Chapter 4 for more details about the TIFF image format and real time playback AUTO LOGON With Auto Logon enabled the initial Startup Screen is bypassed and SCRATCH opens directly to the last CONstruct that was used Tip To enable the Start up Screen again exit a Project and switch to the System Settings Menu deactivate Auto Logon The next time you start SCRATCH you will be presented with the Start up Screen COUNT FROM This option determines whether SCRATCH counts the first frame of a CONstruct as ZERO or ONE Depending on your production you can change this value to ensure that frame counts represented in the CONstruct and Player match with the rest of the production SET WALLPAPER Click on this button to set the Windows background wallpaper to the current image in the View Port SD
174. en applied to the shot will not be copied onto the replacement This can be done from within the Color Module BINNING A SHOT To remove a shot from a CONstruct use the BIN command The Bin button is located just below the Copy and Paste buttons on the right side of the Main Menu It functions similarly to the Copy and Paste buttons and can be used on multiple selections With multiple selections you are asked to confirm the Bin command a second time with a button on the right side of the Menu Bar Note Binning a shot does not remove the original source files it merely removes that instance of the shot from the current CONstruct within SCRATCH GLOBAL BUTTONS There are several interface elements that are available at all times when you are in the CONstruct MENU BAR BUTTONS The following Menu Buttons toggle a particular menu on and off in the Main Menu Settings Media Tray Timeline When a menu is toggled off the Main Menu defaults to the Timeline Menu The currently active menu is highlighted in the Menu Bar Each menu is covered in detail later in this chapter SETTINGS Toggles the Main Menu to the SETTINGS Menu MEDIA Toggles the Main Menu to the MEDIA Menu TRAY Toggles the Main Menu to the TRAY Menu Additional options for selecting and creating new Trays are available by clicking on the small triangle on the right side of the button TIMELINE Toggles the Main Menu to the TIMELINE Menu Note The SETTINGS MEDIA and T
175. ens a SCRATCH Browser from which you can navigate to the LUT to be loaded Once the LUT is selected it is loaded as a Scaffold in the current color grade See Chapter 8 SCAFFOLDS for details on working with Scaffolds You can also load a LUT as part of the primary Mapping tool as covered earlier in this chapter MATRIX CONFIGURATION SETTINGS The Matrix Configuration Settings allow you to control several aspects of the Matrix s behavior Click on Config Options to display the Configuration Settings Menu DEFAULT SETTINGS LUMA WEIGHT The Luma Weights are used to control the color balance which makes up the overall luminance so that Hue adjustments maintain a constant luminance value CONTEMPORARY The Contemporary setting is the default and most common setting for Luma Weights 134 SCRATCH User Guide PAL The PAL Luma Weight was traditionally used for analog PAL video It is preserved here strictly for reference purposes NTSC The NTSC Luma Weight was traditionally used for analog NTSC video It is preserved here strictly for reference purposes CUSTOM Selecting Custom as the Luma Weight allows you to adjust each color channel separately You can use the Numerical Slates to enter a value for each color channel s weight Note These functions should be used with care as they can dramatically affect how color adjustments are calculated PRINT LIGHT DEFAULTS The Print Light Defaults are used in conjunction with the Colo
176. er EDITING THE PCONFIG XML FILE Once the physical connections have been made you must enable deck control for SCRATCH This is done by editing the PConfig xml file located in the C Program Files Assimilate Settings folder This file can be opened in any text editing program such as Notepad Tip Before editing any configuration file create a backup copy so that you can return to a known good state if you make a mistake In the middle of the file you will see several lines like this lt Remove this comment to enable VCR support lt vcr prot COM1 drsrts 0 preroll 100 edit_delay 5 gfx_delay 6 gt gt To enable deck control delete the entire first and third lines shown above Note The lt and gt are the comment start and end tags for XML By removing them the line between is no longer considered a comment but a valid XML command it is interpreted by SCRATCH when the PConfig xml file is read at Start up The remaining lines of the PConfig xml file define different VTR types that will be recognized by SCRATCH When SCRATCH communicates with a VTR the VTR sends a four digit code that identifies what type of deck it is This code is the same for all VTRs of the same type So for example all Panasonic D 5 3700 VTRs are identified by the code f1 30 If your deck is not listed in the PConfig xml file it will be identified in the SCRATCH interface by its four digit code You can add the deck to the list by
177. er range These include Linear Box and Triangle filtering The Linear filter can be done in real time by the NVIDIA graphics card Cubic type Filters Cubic filters use a standard cubic curve for the falloff within the filter range These include Cubic Gaussian Quadric and B Spline Cubic filters create generally softer results FIR type Filters Some filters use a method that is similar to a FIR or Finite Impulse Response filter in that they use a modified bell shaped curve for the falloff within the filter range Since the values for these curves can become negative they have a sharper overall effect than the Cubic filters These include Sinc Mitchell and Lanczos WIDTH This Numerical Slate defines the horizontal working resolution of the CONstruct in pixels HEIGHT This Numerical Slate defines the vertical working resolution of the CONstruct in pixels ASPECT This pull down determines the aspect ratio to be used for the CONstruct The values for the pull down are read from the Aspects cfg file 60 SCRATCH User Guide Note For details on setting proper aspect ratios and using the Scale parameter see the PROJECT SETTINGS MENU section in Chapter 3 SCALE The Scale is a manual control for custom aspect ratios FRAMERATE This pull down determines the frame rate for the CONstruct A specific number can also be entered directly into the Numerical Slate FILENAME The Filename Text Slate has some special functio
178. er text editing program The file is broken into sections defined by the specific XML tags lt xml version 1 0 standalone yes gt lt This file defines the attached control surfaces hardware configurations gt lt Do not modify this file directly instead make a copy and rename that gt lt to cs_ devices _init xml gt lt controlsurface gt lt For each device to be used set the mode attribute to enabled gt lt device name Tangent CP200 BK mode disabled gt lt driver gt CsDrv_TangentCP200 d11 lt driver gt lt entry_data gt lt IMPORTANT The serial number below has to be changed ie it is unique for every tangent device gt lt This number is shown on the display when the device is started lt serial_number gt XX lt serial_number gt lt dhcp gt 0 lt dhcp gt lt ip_address gt 192 168 10 33 lt ip_address gt lt gateway gt 192 168 10 2 lt gateway gt lt netmask gt 255 255 255 0 lt netmask gt lt port gt 33106 lt port gt lt idle_timeout gt 125 lt idle_timeout gt Each section is indented to make it easier to read and identify individual sections Sections that start with the tag lt device name gt identify the beginning of a device description You ll see the name of the device within this tag For example lt device name Tangent CP200 BK mode disabled gt The lt device gt tag identifies the end of that particular devic
179. es manually or automatically Manual By clicking on the Manual button the remaining controls become active allowing you to set new keyframes for the animation The Manual keyframe mode only sets keyframes when the Set Key button is pressed The normal operation is to stop on a frame where you would like to add a keyframe set the parameters to the values you want and then press the Set Key button to create a keyframe or update an existing keyframe with the current values Auto When the Auto mode is engaged keyframes are automatically set any time a parameter is changed This can be a very quick way of setting an animation but it should also be used with care as you can set unwanted keyframes easily Set Key The Set Key button is used to manually set the current values as a keyframe at the current frame Each time the Set Key button is pressed the keyframe values are updated Trim Key and All The Trim Key button can be used to offset a keyframe by the amount that a value has been changed On a single keyframe this is the equivalent of setting the keyframe to the current value However when used with the All button you can offset every keyframe in an animation by the same amount with a single click Reset The Reset button removes all animation from the current menu Individual parameters retain the value they were at when the animation was removed this is not the same as resetting the parameters KEYFRAME INDICATORS S
180. ess or failure Because this file is written in XML format it can easily be parsed by scripts or programs to determine whether all XML commands were performed successfully The format for the results file is as follows lt xml version 1 0 standalone yes gt lt commands gt lt command gt LOAD accept true false lt command gt lt command gt REMOVE accept true false lt command gt lt command gt UPDATE accept true false lt command gt lt command gt QUERY accept true false lt command gt lt commands gt The log file is also a basic text file The main SCRATCH log file Assimilator log will contain information about any errors encountered while processing the Command XML files The XML log file records the success or failure of each XML command SCRATCH REMOTE The REMOTE EXTENSION allows multiple SCRATCH systems to be linked together for playback For this to be possible all SCRATCH systems must be able to communicate via an IP address and a TCP IP and or UDP port Consult your network administrator for details about how to achieve this The configuration of SCRATCH REMOTE is done through the PConfig xml file This is the same file used for configuring deck control for the PLAYOUT EXTENSION The REMOTE information is contained at the beginning of the file lt Player configuration settings gt lt The following section define the remote connection s when remot is enabled Multiple remo
181. ess these adjustments in various ways They are NOT three separate types of grading There is always only one color grade applied the different menus simply present the information in different formats However some information can only be accessed from certain menus The different menus are accessed using the corresponding Menu buttons on the left side of the Main Menu THE COLOR MENU The initial Color menu consists of five Tracker Balls one for each of the following color adjustments Color A Lift Gamma Gain and Color B In addition there are three Numeric Slates on the right side of the Color Menu which control Contrast S Curve and Defocus TRACKER BALLS The order of these Tracker Balls on the menu reflects the ordering of the color adjustments as outlined above with the exception of Gamma which is placed in the center due to its general relationship with Lift and Gain The Tracker Balls can be manipulated either directly or through a Heads up interface DIRECT MANIPULATION The Lift Gamma and Gain Tracker Balls have a crosshair indicator at their center This crosshair indicates the direction and amount of color bias that is being applied for each parameter You can click and hold on the crosshair and drag it in the direction you d like to adjust The display will continuously update as you make adjustments The outer ring around the Lift Gamma and Gain Tracker Balls is the Master offset control for that parameter You can clic
182. etary code is used within SCRATCH and derived applications FreeType uses version 2 1 10 Copyright c 1996 2002 The FreeType Project www freetype org All rights reserved The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library 1 3 3 Copyright C 2003 2002 Milan Ikits lt milan ikits ieee org gt Copyright C 2003 2002 Marcelo E Magallon lt mmagallo debian org gt Copyright C 2002 Lev Povalahev lt levp gmx net gt All rights reserved Half float pixel format type This is the format used on the graphics hardware and the conversion from and to this format is provided through software which is Copyright c 2002 Industrial Light amp Magic a division of Lucas Digital Ltd LLC All rights reserved OpenEXR image format Copyright c 2004 Industrial Light amp Magic a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd Portions contributed and copyright held by others as indicated All rights reserved XML toolkit from the GNOME project libXML2 version 2 6 11 Copyright C 1998 2003 Daniel Veillard All Rights Reserved Additional notices for files contributed to the libXML project Copyright C 2001 Bjorn Reese lt breese users sourceforge net gt 8 SCRATCH User Guide Tiff library Copyright c 1988 1997 Sam Leffler Copyright c 1991 1997 Silicon Graphics Inc Jpeg library The Independent JPEG Group s JPEG software This software is copyright C 1991 1998 Thomas G Lane JPEG 2000 Format image format sup
183. ext Slate can be used to open a SCRATCH Browser where you can navigate to a new location for processed images Note Once images have been processing into the destination folder the BROWSE button changes to BIN ALL At this point the destination path cannot be altered without first deleting any previously processed images This is a safety mechanism to ensure that SCRATCH can properly track processed images and will not accidentally overwrite important data FORMAT The Format pull down operates in the same way as the Format button in the Project Settings Menu of the Startup Screen This sets the working resolution for the CONstruct The values for the pull down are read from the ImageFormats cfg file FILTER The Filter pull down determines what type of default filtering will be used when processing the CONstruct This filter is used for any scaling translation or rotation operations that are made as part of the shot framing within the Process menu For more information on shot framing see Chapter 9 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING The type of filtering determines how a pixel s value is altered depending on the pixels surrounding it as the image is transformed The range of the filter is derived from the amount of scaling applied to the image except in Linear filtering where the filter size is constant SCRATCH filtering falls into three main groups Linear type Filters Linear filters use a constant slope value for the falloff within the filt
184. f SCRATCH Projects The SCRATCH Project Folder contains a sub folder per project created All project data is stored in the ref files in the sub folder Each time you exit a project a new reg file is created with the project data while the previous files are stored as reg file This way automatically 3 backups are maintained Furthermore when SCRATCH terminates abnormally the next time the project is entered again a Crash reg file is saved to maintain an additional backup At the same time the log file written at the moment of the termination is saved to the project sub folder as a CrashLog log file This file can contain information about the underlying reason SCRATCH terminated Settings The SETTINGS folder contains several important configuration files e SConfig txt This is a text file with settings to tailor SCRATCH to your needs The file replaces most of the former Windows Environmental Variables that could be used When the file is not present e g when upgrading from a previous version of SCRATCH the file will be created automatically and copy any values that were set with the Windows Environmental Variables After that the settings in the file will override Environmetal Variables The file 14 SCRATCH User Guide contains a short description of each option The ReleaseNotes txt file located in the C Program Files Assimilate folder will hold a more extensive description See Chapter 11 Customizing SCRATCH for more informa
185. f source media is moved outside of SCRATCH Event Event2 00 00 00 00 aa 00 00 00 21 STICKY NOTES Each shot in the CONstruct can have a Sticky Note associated with it to annotate the shot You can create a Sticky Note for a shot by placing the cursor over a thumbnail and pressing the Quick Key A which will open the Sticky Note editor over that shot 52 SCRATCH User Guide O Quick Key A x Pop up the notes editor 00 02 54 16 Notes can be moved around by clicking on their lower edge You can enter information into the Sticky Note using the keyboard The Enter key creates a line break in the Note When you have finished typing use the Quick Key Esc to close the Note You can also click down anywhere outside the Note to close it Any text that has been entered is preserved O Quick Key Esc x Close the notes editor Notes can be viewed by placing the cursor over a thumbnail and pressing the Quick Key S O Quick Key S x Show hide notes under the cursor A004 C332 0902NR 6 A004_C332_0902NR 5 00 02 54 16 This Quick Key toggles visibility on and off for whichever clip is below the cursor SCRATCH User Guide 53 To edit a note place the cursor over the shot and use the Quick Key A to open the editor again COLOR GRADE AND NOTE INDICATORS If a Color Grade or Sticky Note has been applied to a shot the very bottom edge of the thumbnail changes color An orange bar across the bottom of the thumbn
186. f that shot is shorter than the base shot Once The shot clip plays normally until the OUT point is reached After that point the final image is held as a freeze frame until the end of the base shot Loop The shot plays normally until the OUT point is reached After that point the shot loops back to the IN point and continues looping in this way until the end of the base shot Bounce The shot plays normally until the OUT point is reached After that point the shot plays in reverse until the IN point is reached The source clip continues to bounce in this way until the end of the base shot Reverse The shot plays in reverse beginning at the OUT point and playing backward until the IN point is reached After that point the IN point image are held as a freeze frame until the end of the base shot This is essentially the same as the ONCE mode but in reverse GRADE When set this option will render the Grade of the base shot into the Fill or Matte This can be used to pre build grades or effects in another matrix and bring them in as a layer onto the current matrix TEXTURE MAPPING There are two options Map Projected and Map On Canvas Map Projected When Map Projected is set the image stays in a constant location within the working resolution of the CONstruct In essence the image is projected onto the CONstruct working frame and will not be affected by the orientation of the Canvas 156 SCRATCH User Guide
187. f the Menu Bar Note If Primaries is selected in the Hierarchy List and Reset is pressed all Scaffolds will be deleted and the primary grade is reset This is a quick way of removing all grading from a shot SCAFFOLDS GRADING PROPERTIES Although the Scaffolds Hierarchy List is maintained in the floating Scaffolds Panel most of the grading properties of individual Scaffolds are controlled through four menus in the main Matrix menu Canvas Qualifier Texture and Camera The first three menus represent the individual parts that make up each Scaffold and determine what portion of the image will be affected by the Scaffold The Camera menu controls how the Scaffolds are manipulated 140 SCRATCH User Guide Settings Tray Y Animate Matrix Primaries Load Save Fetch Levels Color Numeric Vectors Curves LUT Canvas Qualifier Texture Camera Config Options Note The properties in these menus will apply to the selected Scaffold When no Scaffold is selected or present all controls in these menus will be disabled CANVAS CREATING AND EDITING THE CANVAS The Canvas is the surface on which the Scaffolds operate You can use the Canvas to designate a portion of the image to be affected or you can allow the Scaffold to affect the entire image There are two ways to designate the shape of the Canvas through the Shape pull down menu just below the player controls or by using the New button NEW SHAPE The Shape pull down h
188. f this is the Active Group buttons in the Default mapping One button has a positive Scale while the other button has a negative Scale The end result is one button increases the Active Group value and the other button decreases the Active Group value Acceleration The Acceleration value controls how quickly the SCRATCH parameter changes depending on how fast the panel control is moved This is most frequently used for encoder knobs or trackballs so that a quick movement increases the SCRATCH parameter by a large amount but a slower movement adjusts the parameter by small increments This allows for very fine control when moving a panel control slowly but more drastic changes when moving a panel control quickly You can adjust the Scale and Acceleration values to get the behavior you want from a particular control Map Several SCRATCH controls have multiple channels or Maps For example the Lift control has three Maps one for the horizontal axis of the color wheel one for the vertical axis of the color wheel and a third for the master adjustment Each of these Maps must be assigned to a different panel control If you look at the default panel mapping under the Default Menu Group there are three Mapping Pairs associated with the Lift control They are assigned to Trackball 1 s X Y and Z axes If you select one of the Mapping Pairs you will see the associated Map value Notice that the Map value is different for each axis Most SCRATCH p
189. file that timecode value is used For files where no timecode is present the frame number of the source file is converted into a timecode based on the Framerate setting from above You can manually alter the timecode of any shot by entering a new value into this Numerical Slate The timecode will be applied to the first frame of the shot and will increment throughout the entire shot 48 SCRATCH User Guide e Reel ID The Reel ID is set when conforming from an EDL that contains a Reel ID or read from the input device field of a DPX header if available The Reel ID is also automatically read from R3D files You can adjust the Reel ID by clicking in this Text Slate changing the name and pressing Enter e The Format and LOG LIN state are shown at the bottom of the Information Panel The LOG LIN state is also read from the header of image files if present This state can be changed at any time by clicking on this button in the Information Panel This alters how SCRATCH treats the file but it will not modify the source file itself The Information Panel can be moved by clicking on the gripper in the lower right corner and moving the Panel to a new location Note You don t need to hold down the mouse or pen while moving the Information Panel A single click picks it up anda single click drops it again This is consistent throughout SCRATCH Changes to the Information Panel can be accepted with the OK button and canceled with the Cancel bu
190. for Slip IN OUT Variable Speed VS for short and Offset SLIP The SLIP parameter determines how many frames there are between the actual first frame of the source clip and the first frame being used in the edit This gives you control over how the shot is positioned within the slot As they are all related adjusting this value also changes the IN and OUT values IN This represents the first frame of the source clip being used within a particular edit segment This number is an absolute frame count from the beginning of the source clip OUT This represents the OUT point that is being used on the source clip This number does not necessarily correspond to the last frame being used in the slot but rather the last frame of the clip that is used to fill the slot If the OUT point is less than the duration of the slot the image freezes on the OUT frame for the remaining duration of the slot If the OUT point is greater than the duration of the slot the clip behaves as normal This number is an absolute frame count from the beginning of the source clip VS Variable Speed This Numerical Slate represents the speed of the current shot as a percentage A value of 100 is normal playback speed A value of 50 would slow down the playback of the shot to half normal speed and a value of 100 would play the clip in reverse Tip To create a single frame edit or hold a single frame in a timeslot use a value of 0 By settng the value to 0 and
191. formation SCRATCH User Guide 121 RESTORE The Restore button copies the grade from the Trim buffer back into the current grade The current grade is overwritten with the information from the Trim buffer update current grade restore Note The Trim Buffer is only one layer deep Each time you update the buffer the previous version is automatically overwritten Tip Because the Trim Buffer is fully independent of the usual Undo Redo and Reset Commands it can be used as a temporary backup of a color grade always restoring you back to the state saved with any Update operation This includes deleting or resetting any SCAFFOLDS or other parameter Just keep in mind that the Trim buffer is flushed any time you move to a different shot in the timeline SPLIT You can use the split screen view to split the View Port between the contents of the Trim Buffer and your current grade Activate the split screen view using the Quick Key S O Quick Key S x Split Screen between current grade and Trim buffer 122 SCRATCH User Guide The split can be adjusted by placing your cursor over the split point then clicking down and dragging the split left or right AUTO RESTORE The Auto Restore option can be set from the Config Options menu in the Matrix This determines how the Trim buffer behaves when color changes are made For example if you are viewing the Trim buffer and Auto Restore is deactivated any changes you make to the
192. ft Gamma and Gain Tracker Balls or the Hue offset of Color A and Color B Tracker Balls O Quick Key Shift x Activate Saturation and Master reset controls O Quick Key Control x Activate Hue and Color reset controls CONTRAST The Contrast adjustment scales the luminance values of an image around the central gray point set in the Levels menu The effect is an increase or decrease in contrast within the image S CURVE The S Curve adjustment modifies the overall contrast of the image but in a much different way than the standard Contrast adjustment The S Curve adjustment will preserve the black and white points of the image which using a smooth transition to higher contrast in the midrange of the image The result is a higher overall level of contrast while still preserving detail in the highlight and shadow regions DEFOCUS Adjusting the Defocus parameter adds a blur to the image This is generally good for slight de graining or softening of an image More extreme defocus effects can be created in the SCAFFOLDS menu THE LEVELS INTERFACE The Levels menu can be accessed by clicking on the Levels button or using the Quick Key L to toggle between the Levels and Numeric menus O Quick Key L x Toggle between the Levels and Numeric menus The Levels menu reveals two sets of color adjustment sliders that were not accessible from the Color menu Offset and Pre Gain In addition there are color pots for setting the pivot points for
193. fter selecting NO CS matrix you should first exit SCRATCH and re set the custom color space through the NVIDIA panel Note The SDI Output only shows images from the Player When you are in the CONstruct or the Startup Screen the SDI Output shows a SCRATCH logo screen or a custom logo if the Startup Screen has been customized See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for details about customizing the Startup Screen Tip If the SDI Output is disabled but an NVIDIA SDI Option card has been installed and configured you will see a SCRATCH logo screen on the SDI output even when in the Player In this case return to the Startup Screen and activate the SDI Output in the System Settings Menu Tip The DUAL YUV 422 option is used for stereoscopic output The two outputs of the NVIDIA SDI card will be configured to show the left and right sides of the SCRATCH DUAL VIEW Details on configuring SCRATCH for stereoscopic projects are covered in a separate support article AUDIO DEVICE This option will show a list of available and supported Audio devices SCRATCH supports any device that uses either the ASIO driver model or the Windows WDM driver model CLEAR DUAL HEAD If SCRATCH is running in dual view this option will determine what the second monitor will display when not in player mode If the option is off the ASSIMILATE logo will show when the option is switched on it will persist the last frame that was displayed in the player 38 SCR
194. g To generate a log file follow these steps 1 Run SCRATCH by double clicking the desktop icon The SCRATCH software launches and you will see the initial Startup Screen There will be a notice in red that no valid license was found This is normal 2 On the right side of the interface is a button labeled LOG FILES Pressing this button opens a Windows Explorer to the location of the SCRATCH log files You will see a single file called Assimilator log inside the folder SCRATCH User Guide 15 3 Exit the SCRATCH software using the EXIT button on the left side of the interface You must confirm the EXIT command by clicking on OK in the EXIT button This exits the SCRATCH software 4 Send an email to mailto licensingO assimilateinc comwith the file attached Indicate your name and company information in the email so that you can be easily identified Your license file will be emailed back to you as an attachment Copy the license file into the folder This is the location where all license files must be located SCRATCH is now licensed for the MODULES you have purchased The folder for SCRATCH licenses is located up one directory from the location of the LOG files You can use the button in SCRATCH to quickly open the log folder and then go up one directory to the folder The SCRATCH software is updated regularly to add new functionality and improve existing features To upgrade to a new version of the software follow
195. g a value into the Numerical Slates Note Any of the framing parameters can be adjusted at any time If the values are changed the framing pull down automatically switches to Custom Apply All The Apply option on the framing pull down is used in conjunction with the All button allowing you to apply the current framing values to all shots in the timeline To use Apply set the framing on the current shot to the desired settings by using either the framing pull down or by manually setting the framing parameters Activate the All button and then select Apply from the framing pull down The current framing values are applied to all shots in the current timeline Tip This is a very quick way to bring a group of shots with mixed resolution all to the same viewing size For example if you have full resolution elements that are 2048 x 1556 and mix those with low resolution offline images that are 512 x 389 you can bring the low resolution shots up to match the full resolution shots This is done by setting the framing controls to Fit Width and then activating All and selecting Apply Now all the shots will be the same size within the CONstruct shots will not pop from one size to the other while playing back TRIM The Trim option allows you to copy the adjustments to the scaling forward to all clips on the CONstruct after the current one Only the adjustment delta will be applied forward not the exact framing STABILIZING A SHOT The com
196. g menu depends on whether an individual shot or CONstruct is loade into the Player or that an Output Node is loaded CLIP NODE When a CONstruct or individual shot is loaded into the Player the Process menu displays information about source clips similar to the Information Window in the CONstruct see Chapter 4 The CONstruct jia E Eval MedialManualiSma Framerate The clip name source path resolution aspect ratio framerate bit depth LOG LIN flag timecode and reel ID are all displayed in the menu You can modify information such as aspect ratio framerate LOG LIN and timecode much like you can in the Information Panel Notice that the filename box is grayed out and shows a N A for the text This is because in the example not an Output Node shown but rather you are looking at the source information for a clip However you can modify the actual source frames that are used for the shot from this menu By clicking on the Browse button to the right of the source path you can browse to a new shot sequence and that sequence will replace the existing shot This is the equivalent of replacing a shot in the CONstruct except you can do it directly from the Player Note Replacing a shot in the CONstruct is described in Chapter 1 OUTPUT NODE When an Output Node is loaded into the Player the Shot Config menu allows you to set the parameters for the output of the node While the menu will look very similar to the standard Shot C
197. g the Frame Ref button will create a preset from the current shot This will NOT be a live link to the shot but rather a static preset which contains the values of any color grade framing or other parameters of the shot which can then be copied and pasted to other shots in the timeline The Frame Reference is different from the Shot Reference in that no animation is saved as part of the preset It is a snapshot of the current values only SHOW To the right of the Tray is a pull down from which you can select what shots will be shown in the Tray This is used in conjunction with the shot disable function in the CONstruct which allows you to temporarily deactivate shots so they are not played back in the Player You can also control each shot s Active state There are three options on this pull down Show All Show Active and Activate 94 SCRATCH User Guide Show All hrs A WVO Sf IOW AC tive Show All With Show All selected in the pull down all shots that are part of the current Tray are shown within the Tray window Shots which have been disabled have their thumbnail image darkened to show that they are not currently enabled Show Active Selecting Show Active removes any disabled shots from the Tray window The shots still remain as part of the Tray they are just not displayed within the Tray window This allows you to focus only on the active shots and remove unneeded shots from the Tray window view Enable Disable When yo
198. ght click menus within SCRATCH The pen button only uses this keystroke when inside the SCRATCH application For other programs and normal Windows operations the regular right click function will be used OPTIMIZING SCRATCH PERFORMANCE Due to the wide variety of systems and configurations on which SCRATCH can run it is impossible to list every optimization that can be made However there are several things you can do to ensure that you are getting the best performance possible Below is a checklist of areas to look into before logging a support call HYPERTHREADING If your processors are capable of Hyper Threading this should be disabled Normally this is done through the mother board BIOS setup Consult your motherboard manual or systems administrator for more details DISK INDEXING Windows maintains an index of files on the drives This allows for faster searching and listing of files However this indexing impacts the performance of the drives On the drive s where SCRATCH media is stored the indexing service should be disabled This can be done from within Windows by right clicking on the drive in Windows Explorer and selecting Properties SCRATCH User Guide 215 On the General tab that opens by default you will see a checkbox at the bottom for Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching Uncheck this box and press Apply You will see another dialog asking if you want to apply this only to the root dire
199. gnize Gamma The Gamma parameter adjusts the overall gamma of the display Soft Clip The Soft Clip parameter creates a smooth roll off on the high end of the gamma curve to ease the transition to clipped values De Sat The De saturation or De Sat parameter allows you to specify the amount of color de saturation that is applied to the RGB values by the 3D LUT BALANCE GAMMA The Balance Gamma button automatically modifies the Monitor and Display Gamma Values to optimize the luminance response of your graphics board and monitor Note The Monitor LUTs Gamma Active command must be switched on in order for Balance Gamma to become active BLACK AND WHITE POINT SELECTION Use these color pots with Log space images to set the black and white levels for the Log to Lin conversion Clicking on a pot invokes the Color Selection Palette which you can use to alter the Color Values AUTO APPLY A Log to Linear conversion is only required to view Log space images on a standard monitor If your CONstruct has a mixture of Logarithmic and Linear images the Linear images must not have a Log to Linear conversion applied in order for them to appear correct on your monitor SCRATCH reads the Log Lin flag written in the header of DPX files This value is kept as a property of the clip within SCRATCH With AUTO APPLY selected when SCRATCH detects a clip with a Linear flag it automatically disables the Log to Lin conversion while that clip is being view
200. gt This tells SCRATCH the name of the desktop or CONstruct to which the following lines will be applied The next line is a lt reel gt tag This tag defines which reel will be used for the new clips The lt reel gt tag also has an additional attribute set as part of the tag The row left attribute specifies which slot to use In this case a new slot will be added to the left of all the existing slots Note In XML Slots are referred to as reels or even rows despite the fact they are vertical columns These are simply carry over terms so do not be confused The next two lines are clip definition lines since they begin with the lt clip gt tag This tag provides information about the source location and filename of the clips to be added The complete path to the first frame of the clip is provided in between the start and end lt clip gt tags The lt clip gt tag also has an additional attribute set as part of the tag The y bottom attribute specifies where vertically the clip is to be placed within the specified slot In this case the clip will be added to the bottom of the slot Each clip gets its own separate lt clip gt line and is ended with the lt clip gt tag which signifies the end of that particular clip definition Since only two clips are being added to this particular slot the next line is the reel end tag lt reel gt which signifies the end of that particular reel definition Another reel is then d
201. he CONstruct left one Slot Sh Clicking on a Shot selects everything on the same layer from the nearest selected Shot to the current position Enables Selection mode dragging over Shots toggles their selection state 4 Le tamon pan the CONstruct right one Slot Click contra Click Toggle selection status of Shot Shift Drag Enables Selection mode dragging over Shots selects them rol D ift 4 ift A A pecnererrmtiraasar A FL oad the CONstruct Timeline into the Player ore os the CONstruct Command Menu r wasome BaP Shot and copy handles speed and framing of the Shot that it was dropped onto E S Show Hide notes under the cursor O PLAYER PLAYBACK O Top Show Hide the View Port Control bar 222 SCRATCH User Guide Toggle Player Main Menu through 3 stages Full Minimal Hidden ee E A i O pr DA IO dc DO E ICA O e Jump forward to the first frame of the next shot Control Shift Right Arrow lp EP Control Left Arrow Jump backward to the first frame of the previous shot Control Sue Jump backward to the middle of the previous shot Left Arrow Jump forward to the middle of the next shot E eee A AE A A E A E AE AAA _ AI CAE Toggle the View Port between the last selected state and the single shot view Toggle the View Port between the single shot view and the dual shot view Alt 8 Click and Zoom in and out by clicking dragging or using the mouse o bs up down wheel h I
202. he Color Format that is selected See below for more details about Color Format Color Picker Whenever the Color Selection Palette is visible you can select colors directly from the View Port When the cursor is over the View Port it changes to the Color Picker cursor Click down on any area in the View Port the color beneath the cursor will be sampled You can also hold down the mouse or pen button and continuously sample colors from the View Port Releasing the mouse or pen button keeps the last sample as the current color Note Pan and Zoom controls are deactivated while the Color Selection Palette is open COPY To the right of the Current Color Pot is the Copy button which copies the value from the Average Color Pot into the Current Color Pot AVERAGE COLOR POT SCRATCH User Guide 23 The Average Color Pot is a running average of all colors that have been sampled since the Color Selection Palette was opened This can be useful for sampling black areas to get an average black level for a particular portion of an image or for selecting a median value for a Qualifier This is covered later in Chapter 8 SCAFFOLDS This color can easily be copied to the Current Color Pot using the Copy button 1 0000 1 0000 1 0000 SAMPLE The sample button determines how many samples will be taken around a certain point when the Color Picker is used This is another way of quickly averaging a selection Using more samples from around the se
203. he file and re try the layoff Once the edit point is correct evaluate if the correct source frame is being recorded at the first frame of the edit If this is incorrect adjust the gfx_delay value save the file and re try the layoff By repeating this procedure you are able to walk in the frame accuracy for that particular deck type 202 SCRATCH User Guide Tip Only adjust one parameter at a time Adjust the edit_delay until it is correct and then move on to the gfx_delay Note These values will be the same for all decks of the same type For example all Panasonic D 5 3700 decks will use the same values There is no need to repeat this for every deck just for every unique type of deck you will use with SCRATCH TROUBLESHOOTING DECK CONTROL If you are unable to establish deck control there are several areas to check First check any physical connections to ensure all cables are securely connected to the proper ports Ensure you are using valid COM cables for the connections A standard 9 pin connector like those used for deck control can be wired many different ways Your cables should follow the standard RS 232 RS 422 pin out Check that the deck has been properly configured for remote control Consult the user manual for your particular deck and more information Check that the PConfig xml file has been edited properly Revert to a backup copy and start over if necessary If you are using an RS 232 to RS 422 converter that
204. he path to the target application The entire path and name of the application must be specified ADDITIONAL INFORMATION When a Command Button is executed the following environment variables are automatically set e SCRATCH_PROJECT Current Project name e SCRATCH_CONSTRUCT Current Construct name These environment variables can be used by the target application to determine additional information about the source of the clip being sent to it CUSTOM PULL DOWNS There are two areas in SCRATCH that use pull down menus which can be customized at a global level They are the Aspect Ratio pull down and the Image Formats pull down These pull downs can be customized by editing the appropriate text file located at C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator Settings ASPECT RATIO To customize the Aspect Ration pull down open the Aspects cfg file in a standard text editor such as Notepad Edit the file and re save The next time you open SCRATCH the new Aspect Ratios appears in the pull down list The file contains several lines of notes at the beginning which can inform you as to how the values in the file are treated After the comments each aspect ratio is listed on a separate line There are two parts to each line Aspect Ratio and Text Aspect Ratio The first part of the line is the value to be used for the aspect ratio Positive values indicate ratios for an image while negative values indicate pixel ratio
205. hich are usually indicative of a change of scene within the clip You can stop the analysis at any time by pressing the Stop button Once the analysis is complete the green graph is overlaid with vertical orange lines that indicate where SCRATCH inserts edits based on the current values for Sensitivity and Size At this point you can modify the Sensitivity and Size values to get the orange lines corresponding to the large spikes found during the analysis Sensitivity The Sensitivity parameter determines how large of a difference must have been detected to insert a new edit The higher the vertical spike on the graph the bigger the difference SCRATCH detected By increasing the Sensitivity SCRATCH will create edits from shorter vertical spikes Lowering the Sensitivity will create edits only for the larger vertical spikes If a spike turns orange an edit will be inserted at that point in the clip Size The Size parameter determines the minimum number of frames that must exist between new edit points The default setting of 10 means that SCRATCH will not create an edit of less than 10 frames duration when the analysis is applied As you adjust the Sensitivity and Size values you see the orange edit indicators updating Once you get the edit indicators lined up to your satisfaction press the Apply button to insert the new edits You can also press the Abort button to close the Shot Analyzer window and leave the timeline unchanged INSERT
206. ia using the XML LOAD command SCRATCH retains the path to the original shot With Remote References active SCRATCH will search for the remote files if the local media is not found For more details on using XML with SCRATCH see Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH MISSING REFERENCE Enabling this option will make SCRATCH to continue referencing shot sequences that cannot be found in their original location SCRATCH will continue to use the meta data it has on the shot eventhough the underlying media is missing it will play but indicate missing frames This option is disabled by default MISSING FRAMES If this option is switched on SCRATCH will ignore missing frames within a sequence This option applies to different situation e g when using the Load Layer function in a CONstruct or when playing a clip of which certain frames are missing SCRATCH will indicate that the frames are missing but continue to process the rest of the sequence normally C FLUSH CACHE FLUSH As you work SCRATCH is continuously caching frames into memory These cached frames can be discarded or flushed from memory to ensure that the most current files are being viewed This applies not only to frames cached while in the Player but also to the thumbnail images that have been cached in the CONstruct Never Cached frames are used if they are present The original images are not re loaded and the cache is never flushed 36 SCRATCH User Guide Local A LOC
207. ibility When switched off the softness function uses a linear interpolation function which was implemented in in older versions of SCRATCH With the linear function two additional parameters become available to fine tune the linear fall off function by implementing additiona gain and gamma to the fall off Z DEPTH The Z Depth button determines whether the selected Scaffold is layered using its position within the 3D Camera s Z space or by its order in the Scaffold Hierarchy List With Z Depth deactivated the Scaffold s order within the Hierarchy List determines the layering priority With Z Depth activated the Scaffold s Z position is evaluated with all other Z Depth activated Scaffolds to determine layering priority and intersections Z Depth can be set for each individual Scaffold independently The Camera Depth must be enabled in the Camera menu in order for Z Depth to be evaluated INVERT The Invert button switches the Canvas so that any color adjustments are applied outside the Canvas shape instead of the default inside the Canvas shape Each Scaffold has a set of controls for determining how the Scaffold is blended with the base image and the other Scaffold layers These controls are Blend Mode Opacity Recursive and Matte They are located on the floating Scaffolds Panel User Guide 149 Primaries O Scaffold 1 Scaffold 1 Create Bin Group Blend Recursive Opacity 100 000 Show Matte gay x BLENDING MODES
208. ick Key F2 x Show the Player Menu O Quick Key F3 x Show the LUT Menu O Quick Key F4 x Show the Guides Menu O Quick Key F5 x Show the Matrix Menu O Quick Key F6 x Show the Edit Menu O Quick Key F7 x Show the Guides Menu Note The modules available from the Command Menu depend on what is licensed on the system LUT The LUT menu is accessed from the Player s Command Menu and is divided into two sections Monitor LUTs and Display LUTs 96 SCRATCH User Guide Monitor and Display LUTs are applied after any Color Correction done in the Matrix toolset They are applied only to the image that is displayed on the SCRATCH monitors they are not burned into any processed images USING MONITOR LUTs 1D LUTs These Look Up Tables are the RAMDAC gamma ramps of your system s graphics board They are loaded either through the OpenGL extension or through the Windows GDI API Both APIs are currently limited to 256 entries The accuracy of the LUT depends on the color depth of the display device but the values are specified with 16 bit accuracy within the graphics card LUT The LUT pull down menu has four options for selecting the Monitor LUT to be applied OFF No LUT adjustments are made to the displays Overall Gamma can still be adjusted using the Value parameter below LOG TO LIN A default Logarithmic to Linear conversion is applied With a LOG TO LIN conversion the Gain and Soft Clip controls can be adjusted to determine
209. ill be interpreted It is important that this value be set correctly before any import or conform operations are performed FILM GAUGE The Film Gauge tells SCRATCH how to count frames using the film s keycode information This is used when conforming using keycode information in ALE files Keycode is a number that is embedded in the film stock and provides a way of identifying an absolute frame on any piece of film stock How the keycode relates to actual frames is dependent on two factors how many sprocket perforations or PERFS each film frame occupies and how many frames are contained in one foot of film FC Based on these two bits of information SCRATCH can determine the relationship between a particular keycode and an image Clicking on the Film Gauge button opens a pull down menu with presets for the three most common types of film 35mm 4perf 35mm 3perf and 16mm S16mm Super 16 Selecting one of these options sets the values for PERF and FC to the appropriate values for that particular film type There is also a CUSTOM option that allows you to set the PERF and FC values in the associated Numerical Slates PROJECT GAMMA Negative This value specifies the gamma used when generating LOG to LIN LUTs on Negative material Source Indicates the gamma of the source material and is used in translation of source material to XYZ colorspace XYZ Digital Cinema DCI specification The gamma used for transforming source material to DCI
210. in the Player that exposes the toolset dedicated to manipulating the timeline ENTERING THE EDITOR The EDITOR is accessed directly from the CONstruct by right clicking and selecting EDITOR from the CONstruct s Command Menu This takes the entire CONstruct into the Player and opens the EDIT menu It is the equivalent of pressing Play All and then switching to the EDIT menu SCRATCH Play All Editor Insert Slot Bin Slot lt Exit Project gt If you are already in the Player you can right click and select EDIT from the Player s Command Menu This opens the EDIT menu within the Player for whatever is currently loaded into the Player Note If you do not have a valid EDIT license the EDIT option does not appear on any Command Menus THE TIMELINE Once the Edit menu is open the entire bottom part of the menu displays the timeline Each slot in the CONstruct is represented by a section of the horizontal bar that stretches across the width of the menu The vertical white lines indicate the cut point between slots The longer vertical red line is the current frame position marker This indicates which frame is currently being shown in the View Port The frame position marker also determines the currently selected clip and slot The information is shown just above the timeline in the Configure Node and Configure Timeline sections These are covered in detail later in this section SCRATCH User Guide 105 The entire length of
211. in video production where the image is over scanned so that a portion of the total image is not visible on consumer television sets TEXT The Text button toggles a Text Safe Cage This Cage is designated as a percentage of the image size This Cage is generally used in video production to designate the limits at which text can be placed so that it will be clearly visible on consumer television sets ABSOLUTE Activating the Absolute button changes all values for the selected Guide to use an absolute pixel count for the positioning of guides With this option turned off guides are scaled to match the resolution and aspect ratio of the current CONstruct ADDING METADATA TO SHOTS The Render Metadata section allows you to add real time metadata text information overlays onto the SCRATCH output This information is read directly from the source clips and or the CONstruct timeline and overlaid onto the image This can be used as a visual reference while working within SCRATCH or the metadata burn in can be output as part of a real time layoff directly to a VTR for client review tapes dailies or audio reference layoffs SCRATCH User Guide 101 Render Metadata Show Nothing Name Guides Backdrop Notes X 1024 Y Font METADATA OPTIONS There are two lines of text that can be applied using the Show and Add pull down menus Each line can contain a different metadata field The following is a list of metadata fields that can be
212. indows audio device for all audio playback Normally this is the on board audio from the system s motherboard However if another device is assigned as the default Windows audio device SCRATCH will use that device for audio playback This can be useful for handling multi channel audio files The audio file format must be in a format that the default audio device can play back With the eight channel buttons you can toggle individual audio input channels SCRATCH does not mix channels if your audio device has only two separate output channels SCRATCH will only play max 2 channels e g when channels 2 4 and 5 are switched on SCRATCH will only play 2 and 4 When only one input channel is selected SCRATCH will play this channel 92 SCRATCH User Guide on both output channels The Scrub Audio button will toggle whether audio is played back while scrubbing through the timeline either by dragging the play cursor or by using the frame forward Pior frame back buttons You can adjust the offset of the audio clip by changing the Slip Numerical Slate When the F button is activated the slip amount will register as a frame offset With the F button deactivated the slip amount is registered as a number of milliseconds Tip The performance for Audio Playback will be dependent on your hardware s capabilities To achieve better performance on audio playback it is recommended to have audio tracks loaded on a separate physical disk from the footage
213. instead of the Tangent mappings SETTING THE IP ADDRESS OF THE COMPUTER Note For the JLCooper USB Serial control surface this step is not necessary If you are using an Ethernet configuration the only thing remaining is to set the computer s IP address to a unique number in the same subnet for example 192 168 10 xxx if you are using the default IP addresses for the control surfaces It s recommended that you set the computer to 192 168 10 100 and use the gateway of 192 168 10 2 since this works well with the default values in the cs_devices_init xml file You change the computer s IP settings through the CONTROL PANEL gt NETWORK CONNECTIONS Find the connection that is the Ethernet port It is usually called Local Area Connection by default There may be two of these if the computer has multiple Ethernet ports Change to the Details view and you will see the status of each connection as either Connected or Network Cable Unplugged If you have connected the computer and control surfaces with an Ethernet cable it will show as Connected If you have multiple connections listed and are unsure which connection is for the control surface simply unplug the cable between the control surface and the computer and watch for which connection switches to Network Cable Unplugged Once you have identified the proper connection you can rename it for easier identification later Right click on the proper network con
214. ion for using the Reference will become active in the source pull down for Dual View SCRATCH maintains within each project a separate Reference Shot for the Matrix and for the Edit module To set the Reference Shot for the Edit menu you need to open the Reference Tray and select a shot while in the Edit module When in dual view you can open the Settings menu and set a Slip value for the current Reference Shot A B B A VIEW The A B and B A modes function similarly to the Dual View mode with the exception that the two images are superimposed and mixed together instead of being side by side The opacity of the mix is controlled with the Opacity Numerical Slate to the right of the view mode pull down menu By switching between A B and B A you can quickly change the priority of the mix If the Opacity is set to 50 that is an even mix between A and B and there will be no difference between A B and B A However if the Opacity is changed to 75 then an A B mix will show image A more opaque than image B Switching to B A will show image B more opaque than image A AUDIO You can load a reference audio file for playback within SCRATCH Audio files can be in either the wav format or aiff Audio Realtek AC97 Audio L Fe Scrub Audio Load Embedded Audio The reference audio is loaded from the Player Settings menu Click the Load button to open a SCRATCH Browser and navigate to the location of the audio file Note SCRATCH uses the default W
215. ion to be detected by SCRATCH Open the Wacom Tablet Properties from the Windows Control Panel Wacom Tolilet Properties m E D Functions Go Pen 212 SCRATCH User Guide Change the Tablet Area pulldown to Portion This opens a new dialog where you can assign the portion of the tablet that will be mapped to the entire display area Portion of Tablet Choose one of the following three ways to define Portion of Tablet 1 Drag Handles Position Rectangle for Tablet Adjust the red outline so that it is slightly inside the tablet area You can also do this numerically using the text boxes in the Enter Coordinates area or use the Select Area Tool to interactively click on the tablet to define the corners Any of these methods is acceptable Once you have set the portion to your satisfaction click OK to close the dialog MODIFYING PEN BUTTON MAPPING Depending on your tablet type the pen button may need to be re mapped On Wacom Graphire series tablets the normal right click function on the pen works with SCRATCH However on Intuos series tablets the pen button needs to be re mapped to a keyboard shortcut in order for it to function properly with SCRATCH To set up this keystroke begin by creating a separate mapping for the SCRATCH application This is necessary so that the right click function behaves properly in Windows and other applications but also to be customized specifically for use wi
216. ion with the current grade so that when you modify a grade on a shot the previous version of the grade is automatically stored into the Trim buffer Note The Trim buffer is only updated automatically the first time you change a grade on a shot It will not automatically update as long as you remain on the current shot You can manually update the Trim buffer using the Update and Restore buttons discussed below The Trim button changes from grayed out to active when there is something saved in the Trim buffer You can display the contents of the Trim buffer by clicking on the Trim button The View Port will update to show the version of the shot that is in the Trim buffer The Trim button highlights to indicate that you are viewing the Trim buffer and not your current grade Update Restore gt The Quick Key W displays the Trim buffer while it is being held down Releasing the Quick Key toggles back to the current color grade O Quick Key W x Open the Trim Buffer You can continue to modify the current grade and compare it with the Trim buffer At any time you can either copy the current grade into the Trim buffer or you can copy the Trim buffer back into the current grade When the Trim buffer is being viewed the Update and Restore buttons are visible to the right of the Trim button UPDATE The Update button copies the current grade into the Trim buffer The grade that was stored in the buffer is overwritten with the new in
217. ive 1 5 Set the absolute maximum Prevent using 16 bit floating point half float for 16 bit image files The GPU has no internal 16 bit formats so the closest format would be FP16 Setting this variable would leave the decision on the format to the GPU and that most likely results in an internal 8 bit format Eg Truncated Use SCRATCH own timer to for measuring redrawing frames by default the timer on the GFX card is used but for some NVIDIA cards this does not work Disable the use of the OpenGL timer extension Disables the use of the tablet interface In some cases the pen pressure is not reported correctly which will prevent proper navigation in SCRATCH When the tablet works ok with windows setting this variable will prevent the use of the tablet specific API Configure the number of IO threads explicitly The default is equal to the number of cpu s in the system up to a maximum of 4 more won t have any gain Default reference gamma value to add to QuickTime movies On initialization Assimilator can do a reset for the current graphics mode Setting this var will enable that Convert 16 bit images to FP16 before rendering Convert 10 bit images to FP16 before rendering Use file sharing on projects Use when you have multiple SCRATCES needing to open the same file AS_SOFTWARE_RENDERS Enable software rendering when possible SCRATCH User Guide 219 AS_TX_SINGLE_BUFFER AS_TX_VOLATILE ASSIMILATE_PLUGINS
218. justments made to the source clip s IN and OUT points With Ripple active extending the length of a shot also extends the following shot The edit point is adjusted based on the amount the source clip is extended HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SCALING E4 KR source images can be flipped along the horizontal and or vertical axes using the following buttons HORIZONTAL Pl This scales the image by 100 horizontally VERTICAL This scales the image by 100 vertically You can also use the following Quick Keys to scale a shot O Quick Key X x Horizontally scale a shot O Quick Key Y x Vertically scale a shot Note The flipping of the image is done using the horizontal and vertical scaling in the Shot Framing parameters for the source clip These buttons are nothing more than quick ways of setting the scale values to 100 in the corresponding axis Keep this in mind as you work with shots that have been changed in this way CONFIGURE TIMELINE The Configure Timeline section can be thought of as the record side of the timeline editor This is where the start frame length and Loop Mode for the current slot are set START This Numerical Slate indicates the absolute frame number in the timeline where the current slot begins You can change this number and the start point for the current slot adjusts to the new value The source clip maintains the same IN point so that the first frame of the slot is the same source frame
219. k on the hash mark indicator and drag the ring clockwise or counterclockwise to increase or decrease the Master level For Color A and Color B the Tracker Balls represent Hue and Saturation adjustments Clicking inside the color wheel area allows you to adjust the Hue offset by rotating the color wheel in the desired direction The color offset is shown as a separate ring inside the color wheel area SCRATCH User Guide 113 The outer ring around Color A and Color B control the Saturation adjustment for each You can click on the hash mark indicator and drag the ring clockwise or counterclockwise to increase or decrease the Saturation All direct manipulations can be modified using the Quick Key Shift to alter their responsiveness O Quick Key Shift x Modifies the sensitivity of the Tracker Balls Note The settings for the Quick Key Shift is made in the Control Gearing section of the User Settings menu in the Start up Screen See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for more information about setting the Control Gearing options HEADS UP MANIPULATION Another method of adjusting the Tracker Balls is to use the Heads Up mode Rather than having to click inside each Tracker Ball you can use several Quick Keys to select a parameter and then make adjustments using the mouse within the View Port The O Quick Keys 1 to 5 on the keyboard activate the Heads Up mode for each Tracker Ball O Quick Key 1 x Control Color A O Quick Key 2 x Co
220. l with the most on a daily basis So creating a working environment tuned to your needs not only makes you more productive but also makes the SCRATCH software feel like part of your facility STARTUP LOGO When SCRATCH is first run the Startup Screen displays a standard SCRATCH logo and the Module licensing information located in the View Port This logo can be changed to any image simply by placing a TIFF formatted file named StartupLogo tif into the C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator Settings folder The next time SCRATCH is launched this image appears as the background for the Start up Screen It will also be used as the output for the Dual Head or SDI monitor if available whenever you are in the Start up Screen or CONstruct INTERFACE FONT AND COLOR The color of each element in the SCRATCH User Interface can be modified as well as the font used throughout the interface These modifications are saved for each individual User To modify the User Interface you must first enter a Project in SCRATCH From either the CONstruct or Player press the Quick Key Control U to open the Interface Settings window Default 4 Player Background Reset A a The overall SCHEME is listed on the pull down in the upper left corner There are three options Color Mono and Custom Color and Mono are preset schemes but the Custom option allows you to modify every aspect of the interface Note You are only able
221. lected pixel reduces the effect of variations caused by film grain or color sub sampling and gives you a more representative value for a particular area of an image If very precise pixel value measurements are required a sample of 1 should be used to ensure that the values returned are exactly the values of the sampled pixel RESET The Reset button returns the Color Selection Palette to its default middle gray color It also resets the Average Color Pot HSV SLIDERS Along the bottom of the Color Selection Palette are the Hue Saturation and Value sliders The current color can be modified by adjusting these sliders if you are more comfortable working in an HSV space as opposed to an RGB space The Hue slider is larger than the others in order to provide more accurate selection COLOR FORMAT To the right of the HSV sliders is the Color Format pull down This pull down changes how color ranges are expressed within the Color Selection Palette The actual bit depth is not changed it simply alters the value ranges that are displayed in the Current Color Pot e 8 bit values range from 0 to 255 e 10 bit values range from 0 to 1023 e 16 bit values range from O to 65535 e 0 0 1 0 values range from 0 0 to 1 0 COLOR SPACE This pull down will change the color space that is used to display values in the Current Color Pot The options are RGB HSV YUV and RGB LOG NUMERIC The Numeric button will toggle Numerical Slates on and off for RGB and HS
222. lips and generally visualizing relationships between clips If the CONstruct mode is switched back to Time Slot SCRATCH attempts to place shots into Slots based on their position in the Free Form workspace Tip In Free Form mode if a single clip is picked up the Play button lights up indicating the shot can be loaded into the Player See Chapter 5 THE PLAYER for more information about loading shots into the Player ADD OUTPUT This button located below the persistent SHOT buttons adds a new Output Node to the Output Node Stack Creating multiple output nodes is covered in detail as part of Chapter 9 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING OUTPUT When multiple Output nodes are created in the Output Node Stack and another node than the master main Output Node is selected you can set the prefix name of the output files SCRATCH User Guide 59 MAIN OUTPUT SETUP The interface buttons at the bottom of the SETTINGS menu define the main output of the current CONstruct Information such as resolution frame rate and output file destination and naming are all set here DESTINATION The large Text Slate shows the destination path for processed images from the current CONstruct By default this path is the Project s Media Directory followed by the name of the CONstruct and its resolution If that is not a unique path an increment is added at the end of the path to ensure that the path is indeed unique The BROWSE button to the right of the T
223. ll the shots on layer 1 etc x Selects all the layers for Play All x Selects all the shots in the slot beneath the cursor Once you have multiple shots selected the Copy command updates itself to become Copy Selection This functions the same as Copy Shot but the entire selection will be copied Likewise multiple shots can be pasted into the CONstruct using the Paste Shots button The shots are pasted into the bottom row of each slot starting with the currently selected slot and moving to the right REPLACING SHOTS When loading copying or moving a shot you can use the Quick Key Control to apply properties such as handles vari speed and shot framing from a shot in the CONstruct onto the shot you are dropping SCRATCH User Guide 55 Select the shot by holding down the Quick Key Control and clicking on the shot The thumbnail gets a thick white border around it indicating that it is selected Release the Quick Key Control and pick up the selected shot Place the cursor over the shot you want to copy the properties from hold down the Quick Key Control again and drop the shot The shot is dropped into the same slot and adopts the handles vari speed and framing from the underlying shot This is an effective way of replacing one shot with another while still maintaining any modifications that have been made O Quick Key Control x Apply properties of underlying shot to shot being loaded Note Any color grading that has be
224. ls the look and behavior of the Matrix interface INTERFACE SCHEME The Scheme pull down allows you to quickly switch the SCRATCH user interface between the default Color scheme a gray scale Mono scheme and a Custom color scheme The Mono scheme is a monochromatic interface scheme which eliminates all color from the SCRATCH interface to minimize color bias The Custom scheme allows you to define custom colors for each interface element Customizing the SCRATCH user interface is covered in detail in Chapter 11 Note The selection you make in the pull down will alter the SCRATCH interface throughout the software not just in the Matrix UI HIGHLIGHTS The UI Highlights button toggles between flat and 3D shading on the Tracker Balls This only affects the Tracker Ball appearance in the interface it does not affect how the Tracker Balls function 136 SCRATCH User Guide KEEP LAYER SELECT The Keep Layer Select button controls how your selected layer will persist when moving between multiple shots on the Timeline or in the Version Stack For example when Keep Layer Select is disabled each time you move to a new shot the layer selection is reset and you must manually select the layer you wish to work on With Keep Layer Select enabled each shot remembers which layer was selected and that layer will remain selected when you return to that shot Note This feature only applies when working with Scaffolds which are sometimes referred to
225. lso be disabled and enabled while in the Player See the TRAYS section in Chapter 5 for more information The Copy Selection button will copy all selected Slots into the copy buffer The Bin Selection button will remove the selected Slots permanently Both buttons only work on Slots that are selected not on the active slot highlighted with the blue information bar at the bottom The Enable button works on the selection when one or more Slots are selected otherwise it works on the active Slot AUTO MAN ICONS Each Slot has an icon at the bottom showing whether the duration of the slot is being determined automatically AUTO or manually MAN The duration of a slot can be set independently from the actual clip that is in the slot Each Slot has an icon at the bottom showing whether the duration of the slot is being determined automatically AUTO or manually MAN The duration of a slot can be set independently from the actual clip that is in the slot By default a slot adapts its duration to the length of the clip that is placed in it When this is the case the slot shows the AUTO icon If the current clip is replaced by a clip of a different duration the slot adapts to the new duration automatically However when conforming from an EDL or ALE file the duration of the slot is dictated by the values coming from the EDL In this case the slot s duration is set to MANUAL to indicate that any new shots placed in that slot will not alter its
226. ludes individual curves on the Histogram for the red green and blue channels The color curves can be disabled by clicking on the Curves button The Histogram can also be repositioned in the interface by clicking on the Gripper in the lower right corner of the Histogram window and moving the Histogram to a new location Tip You can adjust the scale of the full histogram y axis by using the Quick Key Mouse Wheel Note When working with Log images vertical lines will appear on the Histogram showing the location of the legal black level 95 and legal white level 685 These reference marks will not be displayed on Linear images COLOR CURVES The Color Curves display provides a visual reference of how each color channel is being modified by the primary grade You can open the Color Curves display by pressing the Quick Key J O Quick Key J x Toggle the Color Curves display on and off 120 SCRATCH User Guide The Color Curves can be repositioned in the interface by clicking anywhere inside the Color Curves window and moving it to a new location Note You do not need to hold down the mouse or pen button while moving the Color Curve display Just click once and it will be attached to the cursor and you can move it to a new location and click again to drop it TRIM BUFFER USING THE TRIM BUFFER The Trim buffer is a temporary storage area for quickly comparing one version of a grade to another The Trim buffer works in conjunct
227. mands gt tag are two lines that indicate the location of the result and log file two files are generated after a Command XML file has been processed See later in this section for more details about the results and log files The next line defines the start of a command In this example a LOAD command is being executed All the lines after this are parameters for the LOAD command which define the source of the original files the destination path where the new clip will go within SCRATCH and many other options Each of these parameters is explained in depth later in this section The last two lines are the end tags for the individual lt command gt and the entire lt commands gt list Tip The Watch Folder can handle 256 simultaneous Command XML files It is recommended you avoid copying more than 256 files into the Watch Folder at one time To do this combine multiple commands into a single Command XML file by using multiple lt command gt tags A summary of the commands and their associated parameters is listed below The SCRATCH XML code is constantly updated See the ReleaseNotes txt in the SCRATCH installation directory for the most current list of XML commands and their usage LOAD The LOAD command is the most versatile XML command because it can initiate a copy of a sequence of files from one network location to another it then creates a new clip within SCRATCH based on the newly copied source files This can be very useful for
228. me is simply held to the extents of the shot Linear extrapolation means the curve maintains a constant slope outside of the animation curve based on the slope of the first or last keyframe This slope can be adjusted by changing the handle of the first or last keyframe Loop extrapolation duplicates the animation curve over and over This is useful for creating repeating animation cycles Bounce extrapolation is similar to Loop extrapolation except the curve is not simply duplicated but is mirrored to create a back and forth or bouncing animation User Guide 131 RESIZING THE CURVE EDITOR MENU The Curve Editor menu can be resized by clicking on the gripper in the Menu Bar and sliding the cursor up and down on the screen Once you have the desired size click again to release the gripper mi ni m pA amp GJ 1 CURVE EDITOR SHORTCUT There is a quick way to view the animation curve of a particular parameter Start by positioning the cursor over the Animate button and clicking down Do not release the mouse button yet Tray Y Animate id 1 ave Fetch olor Numeric urves LUT Texture Continue to hold down the mouse button and drag away from the Animate button The cursor changes to the Anim cursor 132 SCRATCH User Guide vy Animate Fetch Numeric LUT Were ites Texture Drag the Anim cursor over a menu item for that has had keyframes set The Anim cursor changes to green indic
229. n be attached to the cursor and you will be able to drag it across the Project List you can release the mouse button A white line will appear indicating the new position of the item if you would click again Project UserGuide 4 My Group Sources F A Offline Te When holding the ALT key down when starting a drag action rather than picking the item up to be moved a copy is made of the CONstruct or Group The copy can now be dropped anywhere within the Project List the same way as you would when moving an item You can remove the copy before placing it by swiping down or by pressing the escape key SCRATCH User Guide 41 O Quick Key 4 hold down left key momentarily x Start drag action Project List item O Quick Key Alt Hold down left key x Copy Project List item and start drag action momentarily O Swipe Action down x Remove copy of Project List item from mouse pointer You can toggle the state of an individual Project List item by clicking on the recycle icon in the right corner of the item Alternatively you can also use the Show button at the bottom of the Project List to toggle the state of all items at once e Collapsed e Proxy only CONstruct items The proxy image of the first clip on the active slot of the CONstruct will be shown e Sticky Note you can write read a short text with the item When there is text present the recycle icon will be colored yellow e You can also collapse or expand all
230. n loading media into SCRATCH In the case of QuickTime a mov option is added to the list of file formats in the SCRATCH Browser See Chapter 4 THE CONstruct for details about the CONstruct and loading shots into SCRATCH All Files All Formats DPX Cineon dpx cin sraphics sgi rgb Tiff tif Jpeg 2000 jp2 jpc Jpeg jpg jpe QuickTime mov OpenEXR exr REDCODE R3D CONstruct I O The CONstruct I O EXTENSION enables the saving and loading of CONstructs This capability is included as part of the PROJECTS MODULE however the EXTENSION is offered as a way to enable this functionality on SCRATCH systems without the PROJECTS MODULE licensed For example a system with a PLAYER license could add the CONstruct I O EXTENSION to allow individual CONstructs to be saved and loaded from within the PLAYER only version of the software See Chapter 4 THE CONstruct for more details on saving and loading CONstructs 180 SCRATCH User Guide LUT EXPORT The LUT Export EXTENSION allows you to save and load LUTs in a variety of different formats No new buttons are added within the SCRATCH UI with this extension but instead new options are available for the SAVE and LOAD options from within the MATRIX All Files Color Setting s ccr 1D LUTs lut 1D S2 LUT xml 3D LUT 3dl LUTher txt The configuration of the LUT export is done in the Config Options menu of the MATRIX See Chapter
231. n starts the record to tape The deck is pre rolled and then a record is executed The state of the Insert and Assemble buttons determines what type of recording is performed IN The In Numerical Slate determines the starting timecode for the record operation This timecode is relative to the starting timecode of the CONstruct For example if the CONstruct s record timecode set in the CONstruct Settings menu is set to 01 00 00 00 and a value of 01 01 00 00 is entered into the In slate for the PLAYOUT the recording will start at 01 01 00 00 on the tape with the frame at 01 01 00 00 in the CONstruct You do not have to set a separate In point for the CONstruct and the VTR They are assumed to always be identical FRAMERATE CONVERSION The Framerate Conversion pull down is used to determine how frames are modified during the output process to match different framerates The options are 1 1 3 2 and 24 25 182 SCRATCH User Guide 1 1 With 1 1 selected each frame in the CONstruct is recorded to one frame on tape No conversion is done to compensate for different framerates 3 2 The 3 2 option inserts a standard 3 2 pulldown into the images This is normally used when converting 24 fps material to 30 fps 24 25 The 24 25 option inserts a standard 24 to 25 conversion into the images This is normally used when converting 24 fps material to 25 fps INSERT When Insert is activated PLAYOUT performs an INSERT EDIT to the VTR
232. nality When you click on the Text Slate a new dialog opens up where you can set various options for how frames will be processed out of SCRATCH ey i Separate Folders Filename Specification The top area is the Filename Specification This area shows the end results of the options you select within the Filename dialog The default value that is entered is 6 E This indicates that processed files should have a name that is the frame number with 6 digit padding and the default extension for the file type being used You can edit this value to add a new base name For example click just in front of the 6 E and add My_shot to the beginning so that the line reads My_shot 6 E This creates processed files that all have the base name My_shot followed by a dot then the 6 digit frame number another dot and finally the proper filename extension Other available character codes are S and R S will include the name of the Output Node in the filename Using the R code will include the source Reel ID of a shot in the filename Separate Folders When this button is selected a special string of characters is automatically entered into the Filename Specification area This is the command string that tells SCRATCH to process each slot of the CONstruct into a separate folder within the Destination directory The folders are named based on the string that is entered By default the string is EVNT Z This tells SCRATCH that each folder should
233. nd approval sessions where each system has a local copy of the source media and an identical version of the CONstruct to be reviewed Once the communication is established between all SCRATCH systems each system is switched to the Player This must be done locally Once each system is in the Player any movement of the play cursor on one system is reflected on all systems This allows any user at any location to easily take control of the session without re configuring the Remote connection At any time you can remove your system from the Remote session simply by de activating the Remote button Tip The local copy of the media on each system does not have to be the same resolution For example a less powerful system might run half resolution images to ensure proper playback speed locally The Remote commands are simple triggers that tell the Player to begin playback at a particular frame or jump to a particular frame etc They have no sense of the actual material being played back Because of this it is also important that the correct material be used on each system to avoid confusion during a review session SCRATCH User Guide 181 PLAYOUT The PLAYOUT EXTENSION enables you to directly control a connected Video Tape Deck VTR to play out the currently selected range in the Player or even an entire CONstruct to a specified Timecode Sequences can be output to NTSC PAL or any HD format or with a Timecode burn in options include 3 2 pull
234. nd the desired quality level There is no one proper setting You can adjust the values from the QuickTime Export menu and test with your imagery to find the best settings FILTER You can choose from the standard set of ten filtering types using the Filter pull down The different filtering methods are covered in detail in the MAIN OUTPUT SETUP section of Chapter 1 Choose the filtering method that works best for your imagery OUTPUT LUT The QuickTime Export plug in supports 1D and 3D LUTs for adjusting the levels of the resulting QuickTime file The pull down offers a quick Log to Lin conversion or you can load a custom LUT with the LOAD button The name of the loaded LUT will be shown in the Text Slate OUTPUT SETTINGS Switching to the Shot Config menu allows you to set the specifics of the QuickTime Export such as destination folder for the output image size frame rate and shot framing This can all be set independently for the QuickTime Export AUDIO CHANNELS You can toggle the available audio channels in the source material on and off to to include or exclude them from the QuickTime movie QUICKTIME PLAY SETTINGS When you load an existing QuickTime SCRATCH the FX Controls menu will show you additional configuration settings for playback Bit depth and Quality The actual effect of the settings on playback depends in the end on the specific codec with SCRATCH User Guide 171 which the QuickTime was originally created F
235. ne brush allows you to copy one area of the image into another area of the same image You set the offset distance using the Delta X and Delta Y parameters To visualize the offset activate the Show button This will overlay the offset image on top of your base image so you can see what portion of the image will be clones when you paint The Opaque parameter controls the opacity level of the overlay Higher values will make the overlay more opaque and easier to distinguish from the base image REVEAL Reveal works in much the same way as Clone except that a Reveal is done from a different shot than the base shot By default the Reveal option in the pull down menu is grayed out You must load a Reveal clip in order to have access to the Reveal brush Since the Reveal brush requires an additional input we must load it in the FX Inputs menu For details on how to load an additional input see the Error Reference source not found section earlier in this chapter On the FX Inputs menu you will see the input for Reveal Load a new shot into this input and switch back to the FX Controls menu Now you can switch the brush to Reveal in the pull down If you left the Show button activated you will see that the overlay image is now the shot that you loaded into the Reveal input At this point the Reveal functions in the same way as Clone Tip You can load the base shot into the Reveal layer and then slip it by one frame to create a quick dust removal tool
236. nection and select Properties SCRATCH User Guide 191 MY Reatex RTLO139 210 Family Fast E This connection uses the following tems Y Bl Cert for Microsoft Networks Y Fie and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks M BH00S Packet Scheduler v vintenat Protocol TCP IP Description Transmission Control Protocol Intemet Protocol The defaut wide ares network protocol that provides communication across diverse interconnected networks Y Show icon in notification area when connected Y Netty me when this connection has imited or no connectivity Co Ca In the list of items in the middle of the dialog box that opens find the Internet Protocol TCP IP entry Select it and hit the Properties button In the next dialog you can switch from Obtain an IP Address Automatically to Use the following IP address You can get IP settings assigned automatically F your network supports this capability Otherwise you need to ask your network administrator for the appropriate IP settings O Obtain an IP address automatically 5 Use the following IP address IP address 192 168 10 100 Subnet mask 255 255 255 0 Defaut gateway 182 168 10 2 Use the following DNS server addresses Preferred DNS server Bhemate DNS server Then fill in the IP address 192 168 10 100 in this example The subnet will fill in automatically with 255 255 255 0 If for some reason it doesn t manually ente
237. nel will be for controls such as Lift Gamma and Gain Offset Pre Gain etc Then you can create a new Group called PAN SCAN which re assigns some of the controls to functions such as Image Scale Offset and Rotation You can also create another Group called SECONDARY which dedicates controls on the panel to tasks that are specific to secondary color grading such as Scaffold selection and positioning Qualifier color selection and so on Now when you want to work on primary grading you switch to the PRIMARY group and you have all the tools for primary grading available When it s time to do secondary work switch to the SECONDARY group and now the panel controls are specialized for secondary color work This is just one example of how Groups can be used The method is completely flexible and can be configured to your specific way of working The important point to remember is that any panel control not assigned a specific function in a Group will keep the function from a lower group CHANGING THE ACTIVE GROUP Each group is numbered starting at zero to identify it The group s position in the Group List determines its number You can see the currently Active Group number in the Numerical Slate above the Group List The Active Group is a parameter that can be mapped to a panel control If you are going to use multiple groups you must have at least one control mapped to the Active Group function so that you can easily switch between Groups
238. next column and show the folders files contained within You can also use the following Quick Keys to navigate through folders Up Arrow x Select the next folder or file up in the current column Down Arrow x Select the next folder or file down in the current column Right Arrow x Expand the current sub folder into the next column User Guide 25 Left Arrow x Close the current sub folder and go back to the parent folder in the previous column SCRATCH automatically detects image sequences and groups them into single entries within the Browser filet file1 0000000 dpx Each entry shows the base file name number of frames in the sequence and the date and time the files were created modified FILE TYPE FILTER The current folder can be filtered to only show files of a certain type SORT The order in which files and folders are displayed can be controlled with the SORT button The options for sort are By Date and By Type All Filec Name Date COLLAPSE By default SCRATCH groups image sequences into a single entry in the Browser However you can expand the group by de selecting the COLLAPSE button This shows each file on its own line in the Browser eereeeereerere 26 User Guide Tip Sometimes you may receive multiple files that are not meant to be grouped together For example QuickTime files with names such as Reference_1 mov Reference_2 mov etc These will get grouped together by the COLLAPSE func
239. nformation is not processed as part of the output frames This is done in order to maintain the idea of a clean master output CONstruct To add metadata to an output first create a new output by clicking Add Output in the CONstruct Settings menu This adds a new Output Node in the node stack and automatically loads the newly created Output Node into the Player The Process menu opened so that you can configure the format for the new output Choose a format from the pull down menu You can also adjust how the shots will be framed in the new format by switching to the FX Controls menu and setting the framing options From the same menu you can activate metadata burn in by clicking on the Metadata button To configure what metadata will be displayed right click and switch to the Guides menu From this menu you can configure the metadata display Once all the information is set up you can process the output using the Quick Key F12 178 SCRATCH User Guide O Quick Key F12 x Process the current shot Note When an Output Node is loaded into the Player it is interpreted as a single shot Normally you would use the Quick Key Control F12 to process an entire CONstruct but since the Output Node is interpreted as a single shot in this case the Quick Key F12 is used BINNING OUTPUT NODES Any Output Node can be binned Since every CONstruct must have a Main Output Node if you bin this node it will be reset to the default Main O
240. ng Clip window to change the order of the clips The label at the top of the window will change to yellow to show that the order has been altered from the original match Whichever clip is on the bottom of the stack is the one that will be used in the assemble You can click on the Note icon to toggle the sticky notes on and off for the matching clips which can be used to further SCRATCH User Guide 75 identify the proper clip for a conform The Bin Match button can be used to remove a selected clip from the Matching Clips window The removed clip will no longer be used in the assemble for that event The original location of the selected clip is shown below the Matching Clips window and includes the source Group CONstruct Slot and Version position The Media Browser shows all media in the current project and allows for easy searching and sorting of clips as well as the ability to modify the properties of multiple clips at the same time The Media Browser is opened with the corresponding button on the main menu bar of the CONstruct The Media Browser window has several sections The Clip Grid displays the list of clips based on the currently active Filters Initially the Clip Grid will show all shots in all CONstructs but this can be filtered and sorted as needed By default the list of shots is grouped by construct with the grid showing grouping bars with the Group and CONstruct name When clicking the column headers the grid will be sor
241. nge is reflected in the Project List on the Users Projects Menu and the actual Project folder is renamed Note You must NOT have the Project folder open in any other application or Windows Explorer in order to change the name Tip Be sure to press the ENTER key after changing this Text Slate or the change will not be accepted MEDIA DIRECTORY The Media Directory Setting defines the root location that SCRATCH uses for resolving the path to source clips Any clips loaded from a directory below this root has its location saved as a relative path from the Media Directory This allows you to set a root media location and then change that location if the media gets moved to a different drive or sub folder and SCRATCH still links to the source clips Note You are not restricted to this Directory for loading clips A clip may be loaded from anywhere However clips that are loaded from outside the Media Directory have their ABSOLUTE path saved If this absolute path changes SCRATCH is not able to link to those source clips As a result it s a good practice to ensure that all media for a particular Project is contained below the Media Directory Use the SET button to browse for the Media Directory Note The Media Directory must be set before a Project can be entered If a Media Directory is not set you will see an error saying No MEDIA path configured when attempting to enter the Project EXPORT DIRECTORY AND AUTO EXPORT When enabled
242. no changes the UI color scheme to a monochromatic style which creates less intrusion on the eyes while doing color work Custom allows you to customize the color of individual elements of the UI and modify the overall text size and font for the UI This is covered in detail in Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH COLOR CURSOR This toggle switches the cursor between the standard color style and a monochrome style This is also useful for minimizing the intrusion on the eyes while doing color work Note Warning and confirmation dialogs still appear in color Also other specialized interface elements are not monochromatic since their color appearance is critical to their operation CONTRAST When using a Custom color scheme this numerical control adjusts the overall contrast of the UI RESET This resets any changes made to a Custom color scheme back to the default values SQUARE CIRCULAR MENU These options control the appearance of the SCRATCH Command Menu The Command Menu is a floating pop up menu that allows you to navigate between the various menus in the SCRATCH Player See Chapter 5 THE PLAYER for more details on the Command Menu UI TRANSITIONS When switching between the three sections of SCRATCH the Start up Screen the CONstruct and the Player the interface cross fades to the new section rather than just changing instantly This makes the transition smoother on the eyes Disabling this button turns off the fade effect and the i
243. nput File Name options you can create processed frames out of SCRATCH that match the source frame s naming This allows for exact identification of the source frame at any time Digits The Digits Numerical Slate allows you to change the padding for the number of digits in the output file by entering a new number into the Slate SCRATCH User Guide 61 Note When Input File Number is selected the Digits Slate is grayed out since the padding is taken directly from the source images Gripper There is a gripper in the lower right corner of the Filename Specification dialog that allows you to re locate the dialog to a different area of the screen temporarily COLOR FORMAT This pull down allows you to set the Bit Depth that is used for the output files The options are 8 Bit File formats using 8 bit values per color channel 10 Bit File formats using 10 bit values per color channel 16 Bit i File formats using 16 bit integer values per color channel 32 Bit f File formats using 32 bit floating point values per color channel FILE FORMAT SCRATCH can output in a variety of file formats This pull down allows you to set the file format that will be used for the output files The options are DPX The DPX file format is a real time optimized format that includes a file header which stores metadata such as timecode Keycode and other information about the file DPX files typically use 10 bit values per color channel but can
244. nt curve into the Curve Window You can also use the same Quick Keys for controlling zoom and pan within the Curve Window Quick Key Alt x Scale the time and value range by clicking and dragging O Quick Key Home x Set the shot length and animation range O Quick Key Control Home x Set the shot length and curve height O Quick Key Spacebar x Pan around the curve display Note The cursor must be placed over the Curve Window for the Quick Keys to affect the curve view THE CURVE CONTROLS The Curve Controls allow you to modify the behavior of the animation curves add and remove keyframes alter the shape of the animation curve and define how the curve will behave beyond the first and last keyframes Copy and Paste Entire animation curves can be copied and then pasted onto other shots You can select multiple animation curves copy those curves using the Copy button and then navigate to a different shot and paste the selected curves onto the new shot using the Paste button The pasted curves are matched by their original name so that like parameters are copied onto one another Tip If a single curve is copied it can be pasted onto any parameter regardless of its name Global Mode Rather than dealing with individual keyframes and points animation curves can be controlled on a less granular level using the Global Mode option When Global Mode is enabled a gray X and Y Bar appear in the Curve Window These bars repre
245. nt of the actual shots that are used The saved edit information can then be applied to an alternate CONstruct with the same number of slots SAVING AN EDIT To save an edit file press the SAVE button on the Edit menu to save out the current edit decisions Navigate to a location where you want to save the file enter a name and press Create LOADING AN EDIT To load an edit file press the LOAD button on the Edit menu Navigate to the location of the edit file select and press Select Note On loading an edit file only the edits handles dissolves and loop mode are reloaded 112 SCRATCH User Guide 07 THE MATRIX INTRODUCTION The Matrix consists of two SCRATCH toolsets the COLOR Toolset and the SCAFFOLDS Toolset The Color Toolset is focused on the primary color grading toolset The SCAFFOLDS Toolset is focused on secondary color grading and is covered fully in Chapter 8 THE PRIMARY GRADING INTERFACE The Primary Grading Interface allows you to make shot by shot adjustments to the basic color parameters of your images These adjustments affect the entire image Color adjustments are applied in a preset order as follows 1 Offset adjustments 2 Pre Gain adjustments 3 Color A Hue Saturation and Lightness adjustments 4 Gamma 5 Lift 6 Gain 7 Contrast 8 Color B Hue Saturation and Lightness adjustments 9 S Curve parametric remapping There are three menus within the Color toolset that allow you to acc
246. ntended results without actually having to execute the command The b option is used to adjust the buffer size that DISKIO will use With different disk sub systems adjusting this value may give more accurate results An example DISKIO command line would look like this diskio g i03 T SCRATCH_MEDIA my_project scene_01 This command would use the image files located in the source directory T 1SCRATCH_MEDIA my_projectiscene_01 to evaluate the disk performance The g option forces DISKIO to read the files as images and the i03 option has DISKIO perform the test three times using the same files This is helpful for averaging performance to obtain more accurate results The results of the test are displayed in the DOS shell window Note The destination folder should contain at least 500 images to ensure accurate testing GETTING HELP For a complete list of usage and command line options type diskio with no options at the DOS prompt This prints the options into the DOS shell window SCRATCH User Guide 185 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH There are many different ways SCRATCH can be customized and tailored to your specific needs Some are merely cosmetic changes that personalize the SCRATCH interface but some are much more complex such as XML which can be used to create highly automated processes This chapter covers all the different methods for customizing SCRATCH USER INTERFACE The User Interface within SCRATCH lets you dea
247. nteractive control Activates the Gamma interactive control Activates the Gain interactive control Activates the Color B interactive control Use in conjunction with the 1 2 3 4 amp 5 interactive control Quick Keys to control the Master value ontrol Activate Hue and Color reset controls hift Activate Saturation and Master reset controls Toggle to the Numerical interface Toggle to the Levels interface Toggle Split Screen on off Hold down to adjust interactively Toggle Trim Buffer on off ontrol C Copy a Color Grade into the global copy paste buffer ontrol V Paste a Color Grade from the global copy paste buffer Set an Animation Keyframe at the current frame A O O ES m E 7 O a ES W N nm 2 Z wn to gt D 2 SCAFFOLDS Axis Mode Edit Mode Add Mode Break Mode SCRATCH User Guide 225 Join Mode Quick Key ALT 8 QUALIFIER Control Add to the Qualifiers Color range only when the Color Palette is displayed Shift Subtract from the Qualifiers Color range only when the Color Palette is displayed Alt 8 Click and Pf PB left right Control the Timeline zoom factor in and out PRE 8 Click Pan across the Timeline A IO IN MO EA a IO a AMA ee DO oe peee C pee peee ANIMATION Note The cursor must be placed over the curves themselves for these Quick Keys to operate correctly hee EDITOR qe Slick and Scale the time and value range by clicking and dragging 226 SCRATCH U
248. nteractively TOTAL SLOT NUMBER The Numerical Slate to the right of the Navigation Slider indicates the total number of slots in the current CONstruct This value cannot be edited directly it is generated automatically SHOT SLOT BUTTONS On the right side of the Main Menu are four buttons that are present at all times in the CONstruct Copy Paste Selection Bin and Bin Media SCRATCH User Guide 57 Copy Selection Paste Slots Bin Selection COPY The Copy button remains grayed out unless a shot a slot or group of shots or slots have been selected Once a selection has been made the Copy button activates and changes its title depending on what is selected If a single item has been selected in the CONstruct Copy Selected is displayed If multiple items have been selected Copy Selection is displayed Clicking on the Copy button copies the current selection into the Copy Buffer The original items remain in their current location within the CONstruct PASTE Once shots or slots are copied into the Copy Buffer you can Paste them down in another part of the CONstruct or a completely different CONstruct altogether The Paste Shot Slot button begins copying shots at the currently selected slot BIN The Bin button remains grayed out unless a shot a slot or group of shots or slots have been selected Once a selection has been made the Bin button activates and changes its title depending on what is selected If a singl
249. nterface switches instantaneously to the new section UI ANIMATIONS This toggle activates the auto panning mode for the CONstruct When this is active you can click drag and release and the CONstruct will continue to pan as if it has momentum from the push you ve given it The CONstruct continues to coast along until you click on the interface or until the beginning or end of the CONstruct is reached The next section of the User Menu determines how the Control Gearing behaves in Normal Mode and Shift Mode These two values determine the sensitivity of the Control Gearing throughout the UI NORMAL This sets the default increment for all Control Gearing The value is expressed in terms of a relative percentage SHIFT This sets the increment for any Control Gearing that is done with the Quick Key Shift depressed Tip If you want the Quick Key Shift to actually decrease sensitivity rather than increase it You can invert these two values so that the Shift value is less than the Normal value DRAG THRESHOLD This is the time required to hold the mouse button down before a drag action is started as opposed to a regular click action VECTOR MODE This specifies the orientation of the Tracker Balls in the COLOR MODULE Normally the order is SCRATCH User Guide 31 When Using Vector Mode this becomes RED ANGLE This control enables you to change the angle of the orientation of the Tracker Balls COLOR FORMAT
250. ntinue holding down the mouse or pen button Once a clip is attached to the cursor it remains there until you click on a location or an action button in the interface FPS The FPS Numerical Slate next to the Load Shot button allows you to select the frame rate at which the soon to be loaded clip will be interpreted This is used strictly to determine how the timecode values for the clip will be calculated When loading clips for a Conform it is critical that the frame rate is set correctly so that the proper timecode is assigned to the clip If the wrong frame rate is set the clips will have timecode that does not match up properly with an offline EDL LOAD LAYER The LOAD LAYER button allows you to load multiple shots into the CONstruct at once Clicking on the Load Layer button opens the SCRATCH Browser and you can navigate to a base level folder for the Load operation SCRATCH searches from 64 User Guide the base level folder down through any sub folders and loads any image file that it finds By setting the Depth Numerical Slate you can control how SCRATCH interprets the folder structure and how the clips get loaded For example assume you have the following folder structure with a file sequence in each of the Take folders Roll1_01 XScene_01 Shot_01 XTake_01 Take_02 Shot_02 XTake_01 Take_02 Take_03 Shot_03 XTake_01 Scene_02 Shot_04 Take_01 Take_02 Take_03 Shot_05 XTake_01 Take_02 Scen
251. ntly displayed thumbnail image This is helpful for quickly locating the source files of a clip or determining the actual file name for a particular frame SHOW ALL NOTES This button makes all Sticky Notes in the current CONstruct visible HIDE ALL NOTES This button hides all Sticky Notes in the current CONstruct SHOW GRADE The Show Grade button allows any primary color grading applied to a shot to be reflected in the thumbnail view in the CONstruct With this button deactivated thumbnails show the original source image without any SCRATCH color grading applied PASTE GRADE This button will start a matching process with the clips on the CONstruct and those in the copy buffer If it finds a match based on source timecode REEL id and name of the clip it will copy all the grading and framing from the shot in the copy buffer to the shot on the CONstruct This function is useful when you have a fully graded timeline and do a different conform second version with the same clips on another CONstruct You can copy all clips on the first CONstruct navigate to the new CONstruct and then Paste Grade the new timeline The matching process is similar to that of the conform procedure explained later in this chapter REEL INFO This pull down menu determines what information is displayed in the Slot Information Area Slot Frame nr This is a two part display The first number indicates the slot number and the second number is the CONstruct frame
252. ntrol Lift O Quick Key 3 x Control Gamma O Quick Key 4 x Control Gain O Quick Key 5 x Control Color B When the Quick Key is pressed the corresponding Tracker Ball gets a yellow highlight around it 114 SCRATCH User Guide With the Quick Key held down the entire View Port area becomes an active Tracker Ball interface Clicking anywhere in the View Port and moving the mouse is the equivalent of moving the Tracker Ball crosshair in that direction or rotating the Hue offset in the case of Color A and Color B The mouse wheel controls the associated ring parameter for the selected Tracker Ball This allows you to remain focused on the image while adjusting the grade rather than having to constantly look down at the menu The result is a very fast and intuitive method of color grading Tip These Quick Keys work even if the Main Menu has been minimized by swiping down off the bottom of the screen TRACKER BALL RESETS Below each Tracker Ball is the Reset button In its normal state the Reset button resets all the parameters for the associated Tracker Ball You can use the Quick Key Shift to reset only the Master or Saturation for a particular Tracker Ball When the Quick Key is held down the Reset button s text changes to an M on Lift Gamma and Gain This indicates a Master reset and an S on Color A and Color B and Saturation reset Similarly you can hold down the Quick Key Control to reset only the Color portion of the Li
253. of Scale X to open the Calculator then click on the Scale Y value of 50 and the value of 50 is immediately entered into the Numerical Slate for Scale X This is a quick way of matching values between different parameters without typing the entire value Exiting To close the Calculator and accept the current value press the Enter button or use the Quick Key Enter on the keyboard O Quick Key Enter x Accept the current value and close the On screen Calculator To remove the Calculator without changing any values use the Quick Key Esc or swipe the cursor off the edge of the UI O Quick Key Esc x Clear the On screen Calculator O Swipe Action x Clear the On screen Calculator LOCKING AND UNLOCKING LINKED SLATES Some Numerical Slates such as Scale X and Scale Y are locked together so that modifying the value of one will automatically modify the value of the other This is particularly convenient for parameters such as Scale which typically are modified together However there are instances when these values need to be modified separately To do this first the Slates must be unlocked from one another Locked Slates are indicated by a white Link Bar between the two Slates In the image below the Scale X and Scale Y values are linked 22 SCRATCH User Guide While you are dragging a line is drawn to indicate that you are unlocking the Slates Once the line crosses the white Link Bar you can release the mouse or pen button The
254. of height to width in the image while Scale defines the aspect ratio of each pixel within the image Certain formats such as NTSC and PAL do not have square pixels They are actually rectangular This difference must be taken into account so that images are presented without distortion on the screen Clicking on the ASPECT button opens a pull down menu with preset aspect ratios that can be selected These presets automatically set the SCALE value accordingly 34 SCRATCH User Guide There is also a CUSTOM aspect allows you to set the pixel ratio manually Note The Aspect Ratio and thereby the Scale are set as part of the FORMAT presets Changing the FORMAT automatically changes the Aspect to the setting that is linked to that particular format You can manually change the Scale afterward by selecting the CUSTOM Aspect from the pull down and entering a new value into the Scale Numerical Slate Tip You can define your own custom aspect ratios that will appear in the pull down menu by editing the Aspects cfg file See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more information FRAMERATE The default frame rate for the Project can be set in two ways You can click on the FRAMERATE button for a pull down menu with standard frame rate options from 23 976 to 60 Or you can enter a frame rate using the adjacent Numerical Slate Note The frame rate of the Project controls what values will be assigned to information such as Timecode and how EDLs w
255. of the main menu and Control Bar change The FIT button always fits the image into the current View Port size VIEWPORT PAN CONTROLS Panning an image is done by holding down the SPACE BAR and then clicking and dragging the left mouse button in the viewport area to change the position of the image within the View Port SCRATCH User Guide 83 Zoom and Pan controls use the following Quick Keys x Zoom in and out by left clicking in the viewport area me QUIEKKEY HAIL and dragging up or down or using the mouse wheel O Quick Key x Zoom in to the cursors current position O Quick Key x Zoom out to the cursors current position O Quick Key Alt Home x Zoom image to fit display O Quick Key Home x Toggle display to the home and current position O Quick Key Control Home x Toggle display to current fit image size O Quick Key Shift Home x Toggle display between full screen fit image size O Quick Key End x Zoom image guide to fit the display O Quick Key Spacebar x Pan control O Quick Key M x Adjust image framing with the mouse Note The M Quick Key adjusts the scale of the image in the Shot Framing settings This is not the same as simply zooming in on the image within the viewport area The M Quick Key will alter how the shot is framed within the current CONstruct resolution The changes to the scaling of the image can be seen in the PROCESS menu OVERLAY CONTROL Some aspects of SCRATCH such as SCAFFOLDS Third Par
256. ollowing lines are the values for each sample in the first channel followed by the values for each sample in the next channel and so on For a typical 1D LUT three sets of numbers are used representing the Red Green and Blue channels respectively USING DISPLAY LUTs 3D LUTs These are 3D texture Look Up Tables that are applied through your system s graphics hardware when rasterizing the images into the Frame Buffer The LUTs provide a uniform 3D Color Cube with a dimension of up to 128x128x128 entries along each axis The Color Values at these coordinates are 8 16 or 32 bit integer or 32 bit floating point and the look up action performs full tri linear interpolation on these values with the full accuracy of the input image LUT The LUT pull down menu has three options for selecting the Display LUT that will be applied OFF No LUT adjustments are made to the displays The Gamma value can still be adjusted using the Gamma parameter below LOG TO LIN A default Logarithmic to Linear conversion is applied With a LOG TO LIN conversion the Gamma and Soft Clip controls can be adjusted to determine the effect of the LUT 98 SCRATCH User Guide CUSTOM This option allows you to load your own custom LUTs via the Load button Several sample 3D LUTs are included with SCRATCH and custom LUTs can be loaded into SCRATCH as well There are several calibration and look management systems that can write LUTs in a format that SCRATCH can reco
257. one Offset and Range controls for adjusting the shape of the curve You can modify each of the controls and see the effect on the resulting curve The horizontal axis of the Curve Window represents a complete luminance range from zero on the left to 100 percent on the right HIGHLIGHTS The Highlight curve increases from left to right so that it encompasses more values at the higher end of the luminance scale MIDTONES The Midtone curve is symmetrical so that it encompasses values equally in both directions of the luminance scale 154 SCRATCH User Guide SHADOWS The Shadow curve decreases from left to right so that it encompasses more values at the lower end of the luminance scale TONE The Tone control affects the amount of curvature the curve will have Higher values flatten the curve closer to a straight line OFFSET The Offset control adjusts the curve s position left or right This has the effect of including or excluding certain luminance ranges from the qualifier RANGE The Range control scales the curve around the zero black point which is the left edge of the curve window This isolates the curve to a larger or smaller section of the luminance scale TEXTURE The Texture is the actual image that is placed on a Scaffold The Texture menu controls how the image is positioned and scaled on the Canvas The Texture menu has parameters such as Translate and Scale which control how the Texture is positioned on
258. onfig menu this mode can be distinguished in two ways SCRATCH User Guide 161 First above the Name Text Slate you will see OUTPUT or a node name This indicates you are viewing an Output Node rather than a shot or CONstruct When viewing a shot or CONstruct this area will be blank Additionally all the format settings are active indicating that you can modify the file naming resolution file type etc 00 00 00 Regenerate The menu offers the same functionality as the Main Output Settings section in the Settings menu of a CONstruct see Chapter 4 The CONstruct When no output has been generated yet a message will appear at the bottom of the menu panel indicating missing directory and files As soon as output has been generated the message will be replaced Note Setting the Regenerate option will add the timecode set in Source TC to the output rather than passing through the input timecode of the underlying shot Using the reset function R on the Calculator for the Source TC numeric control will also automatically switch the Regenerate option to off SHOT FRAMING When viewing a CONstruct in the Player the Shot Config menu has an additional section of controls for determining the framing of each shot Shot Framing No Scaling All X Scale 100 000 Y Scale 100 000 Stabilize X Offset 0 00 Y Offset 0 00 Rotate 0 000 Note Shot framing is contained as part of the CONstruct settings As such you can only adjust the
259. ontrol Bar of the Player Swipe the cursor to the top of the screen to show the View Port Control Bar and click the Pipeline menu item If you click on an individual Output Node the node is selected and you can update its properties in the Process Menu When selecting a node the Pipeline view will close unless you selected the Keep button SCRATCH User Guide 179 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES INTRODUCTION SCRATCH EXTENSIONS are a diverse group of options that extend the core SCRATCH functionality in many different areas EXTENSIONS are individually licensed and can be added at any time DUAL HEAD The Dual Head EXTENSION enables a second clean output of the main image These controls are grayed out if the Dual Head EXTENSION is not licensed Dual Head Aspect 16 9 Overlay Scale 1 1104 Guides No Scaling The output uses the second DVI output of the NVIDIA graphics card or if present the NVIDIA SDI Output daughter card The SDI Output card allows a full 10 bit SDI signal to be output directly from SCRATCH for monitoring or layoff to a VTR The Dual Head SDI controls allow you to apply separate independent framing to the clean output signal See Chapter 5 THE PLAYER for details about the functionality of the Dual Head SDI controls MEDIA LAYER The Media Layer EXTENSION allows SCRATCH to read self contained media files such as QuickTime With a valid Media Layer license additional options become available whe
260. ontrols always default to the size of the resulting Pan and Scan image OUTPUT LUT The Pan and Scan plug in supports 1D and 3D LUTs for adjusting the levels of the resulting file The pull down offers a quick Log to Lin conversion or you can load a custom LUT with the LOAD button The name of the loaded LUT is shown in the Text Slate QUICKTIME EXPORT You can use the QuickTime Export plug in to process the output of CONstructs into various QuickTime formats COMPRESSION CODEC This pull down menu allows you to choose which codec will be used to generate the QuickTime file The pull down lists all codec s that are loaded on the SCRATCH system Any codec that has been loaded into Windows will be available to SCRATCH 170 SCRATCH User Guide Blac kmag C R BlueFish444 AJA Kona 2V A AJA Kona 2vuy Codex COMPRESSION QUALITY You can choose the quality level for the QuickTime movie from the Quality pull down There are six options to choose from Minimum Low Normal High Maximum and Lossless KEYFRAMES Certain codecs will allow you to specify a frame interval for creating key image frames This is how often the codec will resample the entire image DATA RATE Certain codecs will allow you to specify a maximum data rate for the resulting QuickTime This data rate is expressed in Kilobytes per Second Kb Sec Note The optimal settings for QuickTime output vary greatly depending on the particular codec the image size a
261. or Lift adjustment The middle color pot controls the center point for Contrast and S Curve adjustments To adjust any of the pivot points click on the corresponding color pot to open the Color Selection Palette and choose a color The Set As Default button sets the current values of the pivot points as the default values for any new color grading in the current CONstruct Note Once color grading has been applied changing the pivot point values will affect the existing grade AUTOGRADING You can use Autograding to adjust the Offset and Pre Gain values to automatically fit an image into the selected range determined by the pivot color pots If the Set Master button is active Autograde sets the Master adjustment as well as the individual RGB channel values MATCH GRADING Match grading can be used to modify the RGB levels on one image to align or match with another image based on a Source and Target RGB value that is sampled from each image To use the Match Grade function first select a Source color by clicking on the Source color pot you then use the Color Picker and or the Color Selection Palette tool to select a color from the source image that will be used as the RGB reference to be modified Next select the Target color pot and use the Color Selection Palette to choose the destination color Pressing the Match Grade button then adjusts the RGB levels from the Source color to align with the Target color While working with Match
262. or grading or metadata to its output The FX Input s menu provides you with a thumbnail list of all inputs required for the current node For regular shot nodes the FX Input is empty because there is only a single input However more complex plug ins may require multiple inputs such as a separate Background or Matte input In these cases you can use the FX Inputs menu to load separate shots into each required input 164 User Guide LOAD When a plug in requires multiple inputs SCRATCH uses the base shot as the first input by default To load additional inputs select the corresponding thumbnail from the list The thumbnail becomes highlighted with a white border indicating it is selected and the Load button becomes active The Load button opens a CONstruct view from which you can select the shot to be used as the selected input In order for a shot to be used it must first be loaded into a CONstruct in the current Project With the CONstruct view open you can switch to other CONstructs using the Project Overview List Click in the center of the thumbnail to pick up the shot and then drop it onto the selected input thumbnail in the list The new shot appears as the thumbnail for the input Tip You can abort loading a shot from the CONstruct by clicking on the Close Construct button located on the Menu Bar while the CONstruct view is open To remove a shot from an input and revert back to the default click on the Clear button
263. or handle you click will have its tangency joined You can use the Quick Key J to activate the Join mode keep key pressed to maintain mode SCRATCH User Guide 143 O Quick Key J x Join Mode INTERPOLATION The Interpolation state represented by the L C button allows you to toggle each control point between two states Linear and Curved By default each control point is created as a curved point meaning that it has handles to control how the Canvas shape curve passes through the control point Switching a control point to Linear means there are no handles and the curvature through that control point cannot be adjusted You can also place the cursor over a segment of the Canvas shape curve between two control points This toggles the state of both control points at either end of the curve segment at the same time The Interpolation mode remains active until another mode is selected Tip When you click to change the state of a control point and hold down the mouse button you can manipulate the point without switching to Edit mode Once the mouse button is released clicking again changes the state of the control point You can use the Quick Key I to activate the Interpolation mode keep key pressed to maintain mode O Quick Key I x Interpolation Mode LINK SOFTNESS When Link Softness is activated moving a control point on the Canvas shape moves the corresponding softness point by the same amount This allows you to quickly m
264. or very technical troubleshooting However there are two command line parameters that are very helpful to know First is the d parameter This parameter runs SCRATCH in debug mode This simply means more information is written into the Assimilator log file and several benchmarking buttons will become available in the Player With the d parameter used five additional buttons are added to the right side of the Player Settings menu Benchmark TX Benchmark IO Benchmark Copy Benchmark Read Benchmark Render SCRATCH User Guide 211 These buttons allow you to execute benchmark tests of the disk storage system and the video card performance The results of these benchmarks are written into the SCRATCH log file The benchmark results can be used to help troubleshoot performance issues or test optimization methods The other important command line parameter is perf This parameter adds more information to the Performance Meter that is opened using the Quick Key Fi in the Player Individual CPU core performance is displayed instead of the aggregate display that is used by default This can be valuable for evaluating CPU load and performance Command line parameters are different than environment variables they are not set but are added onto the end of the line that runs SCRATCH For example to run SCRATCH in debug mode use a line like this in your batch file C Program Files Assimilate bin Assimilator exe d Notice that the
265. ormance Monitor displays information showing the speed at which the system is performing certain operations FPS 24 TX 291 73 51 54 PRC PALES 10 207 12 0 00 GL 10ms VM 52 FPS This is the average frames per second over the last 0 25 sec The color of the FPS text identifies how the player is currently managing the refreshing of the screen White refresh locked to every V sync interval Green locked with a swap interval for example 72Hz display Refresh every 2 V syncs Red unlocked refresh the display on a timer some tearing may occur The green graph to the right shows a running history of the average frame rate PRC This is the average time it takes to build up the Shader LUT and geometry for rendering Generally this is an indication of how hard the processor is working to create a displayable image GFX This is the average time it takes the graphics card to render a single frame TX This is the average number of Megabytes transferred from main memory to the graphics board during the last second The second statistic is the total amount of texture memory allocated IO This is the average number of Megabytes read written to the disk sub system during the last second Note Running SCRATCH with the perf command line option adds more detailed information about individual processor core performance See the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section in Chapter 11 for more information about SCRATCH command line options
266. ouble clicking on this file launches the SCRATCH installer program When the installer first launches an initial dialog is shown indicating that you are about to install SCRATCH on your system 8 SCRATCH ASSIMILATE Get ready to assimilate pour system WARNING This computer program is protected by copyright law and international treaties Unauthorized duplication or distribution of this program or any portion of it may result in severe civil or criminal penalties and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law Click NEXT to continue SCRATCH is copyright protected and you need a license to use it See later in this chapter about obtaining a license SCRATCH User Guide 11 8 SCRATCH Please take a moment to read the license agreement now If you accept the terms below click I Agree then Next Otherwise click Cancel IMPORTANT USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO LICENSE RESTRICTIONS CAREFULLY READ THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE O I Do Not Agree Agree Select I Agree and Click NEXT to continue The second dialog shows the folder where the SCRATCH software will be installed By default it is C Program Files Assimilate It s recommended that you use the default installation location unless your facility requires that the software be loaded in a different location 8 SCRATCH The installer will install SCRATCH to the following folder To install in this
267. ow the IN mark is on the first frame of the shot so there is a parenthesis on the left side of the total frame count But there are additional frames available beyond the OUT mark so there is a dot and bracket on the right side The total number of frames between the IN and OUT marks is 11 D A004 C244 0902J8 5 1 WARNING TRIANGLES SCRATCH maintains a database of all shots that have been loaded into a project with information about the filename resolution frame range and color space to name a few When a shot is loaded SCRATCH looks it up in the database and compares the values of the shot to what is in the database If SCRATCH detects an inconsistency in a shot a warning triangle appears on the thumbnail to alert you SCRATCH User Guide 51 1004_C236_09010T 2 1 Situations that can cause a warning triangle are e Mismatched timecode For example the DPX header timecode has a value of 25 for the frame count but the Framerate for the shot has been set to 24 e Altered Resolution e Altered Frame Count e Altered LOG LIN Flag e Altered Bit Depth e Altered Timecode or Keycode To identify the error open the Information Panel for the shot and the problem is highlighted in red FILM CANS A Film Can icon is displayed in the thumbnail when SCRATCH cannot locate the source media for a particular shot This can happen during a Conform when the EDL contains an event for which SCRATCH cannot find a matching source clip or i
268. ows you to drag a rectangular selection around multiple points All points within the rectangle are selected and can be modified as a group There is no Quick Key for Select mode Note Multiple points can also be selected by holding down the Quick Key Control and clicking on each point to be selected The selected points are highlighted in red Break By default each keyframe point has two handles which are locked together to maintain a smooth curve through the keyframe Break mode will allow you to break the two handles apart so that they can be moved independently of one another This allows you to create instant changes in the slope of an animation curve To break the tangency of a keyframe point select the Break mode click on the handle you wish to break and move it to a new location You can also use the Quick Key B to temporarily activate Break mode O Quick Key hold key down B x Activate Break Mode Join The Join mode restores tangency between previously broken handles This mode functions identically to the Break mode activate Join mode and then click on a handle to join it with the other handle for that keyframe point You can use the Quick Key J to temporarily activate Join mode O Quick Key hold key down J x Activate Join Mode L C Keyframe points have two states Linear or Curved The default state is Curved but this can be changed using the L C button The L C button is not a mode like Break or Join but in
269. p mode plays the same 25 frames over in the same order Bounce mode plays the shot forward for the first 25 frames then reverses for 25 frames then forwards for 25 frames and then reverses for 25 frames COLOR GRADE Activating the Color Grade button will apply the current color grade to the input shot SCRATCH User Guide 165 FILTER The Filter pull down allows you to choose between the ten standard filter types in SCRATCH The filters are each explained in the MAIN OUTPUT SETUP section of Chapter 1 The Plug in Browser allows you to see all the available third party plug ins available within SCRATCH and quickly locate individual plug ins as well as create a separate list of Favourite and Recently Used plug ins The is available from the button on the section of the Process menu o o o A TER ww Edge Grai Rack A po Bier Ca on t d Comp AA s BUT vE us PLUG IN TREE This shows all plug in vendors and the groups of plug ins they provide There is the ability to select plug ins at the top of the tree list which is the default selection unless one exists in the Most Recently Used List in which case that is used SELECTION LIST The button will toggle the plug ins list on and off revealing a text based view underneath By default it is ON This shows the all the plug ins from currently selected plug in group in image form Where images are not available from the plug in provider attempts are made to display the actual vendor
270. pe of the Canvas Each time you click a new control point is created To close the shape click on the first control point again or click on the Close button in the menu Note The control points can be edited once the shape has been completed You cannot edit the control points while the shape is being created Tip Once a Canvas shape has been created SCRATCH interprets it to be a Free form shape regardless of how it was initially made This allows you to use the same editing tools on any Canvas shape NEW The New button creates a new Scaffold with a free form shape AXIS When the Axis mode is active the selected Canvas is surrounded by a bounding box and a central axis indicator appears within this bounding box These on screen manipulators can be used to control the scale rotation and position of the Canvas See the section on TRANSFORMATIONS later in this chapter for details about how to manipulate the Canvas You can use the Quick Key E to toggle between Axis and Edit mode 142 SCRATCH User Guide O Quick Key E x Toggle Edit and Axis Mode EDIT Activating the Edit mode allows you to adjust each individual control point on a Canvas shape Each control point has a main point and two handles these can be used to adjust the curves behavior through the main point You can click on any of these points and move them Note If a Canvas shape has a Softness value the control points for the Softness appear in the Edit mode as w
271. port is handled through Kakadu V6 1 License 00845 Copyright c 2001 David Taubman The University of New South Wales UNSW JasPer Current version 1 701 0 JasPer License Version 2 0 Copyright c 1999 2000 Image Power Inc Copyright c 1999 2000 The University of British Columbia Copyright c 2001 2003 Michael David Adams All rights reserved OFX Open Plug Ins For Special Effects Basic Host implementation uses the specification headers provided by the OFX project which are Copyright c 2003 2004 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd All rights reserved Trademarks Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries Pentium is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries The following are trademarks of ASSIMILATE Inc ASSIMILATE copyright and trademark ASSIMILATE Inc 2004 All rights reserved SCRATCH is a registered trademark of ASSIMILATE 2006 SCRATCH SCAFFOLDS SCRATCH EXTENSIONS and SCRATCH Digital Intermediate Process Solution are all trademarks and registered trademarks of ASSIMILATE 2006 All rights reserved SCRATCH User Guide 9 02 GETTING STARTED INTRODUCTION This chapter walks you through installing the SCRATCH software configuring your graphics and system settings starting the software and familiarizing you with the SCRATCH User Interface SOFTWARE INSTALLATION Getting SCRATC
272. r PASTING A GRADE Once the information is in the clipboard you can navigate to a different shot and paste using the Paste button which becomes active once information is loaded in the clipboard buffer You can also use the Quick Key Control V O Quick Key Control V x Paste a Color Grade from the clipboard buffer When the Paste button is pressed a separate dialog box appears that has options for what aspects of the grade scaffolds or framing will be pasted onto the current shot Grade Animations Vectors Curves LUT Scaffolds Animations Texture Framing Animations Paste S Paste FWD From this dialog box you can select to paste all or part of the primary or secundary grade SCAFFOLDS and the Shot Framing which is set in the Process menu For each selection you also have the option of pasting any associated animation or textures by toggling on or off the item button At the bottom of the menu is the Paste button which executes the paste operation The S button determines whether new Scaffolds will be added to the existing grade or if the information will overwrite any existing Scaffolds This is useful if you have existing Scaffolds on a shot that must remain but you need to add new Scaffolds from another shot When S is active new Scaffolds are added and any existing Scaffolds are preserved If S is deactivated new Scaffolds will be pasted over any existing Scaffolds and the existing Scaffolds will be removed
273. r Guide 21 Tip By default the increment and decrement are set to 1 You can also use the following Quick Keys to achieve the same effect A Quick Key Up Arrow x Increments the value Y Quick Key Down Arrow x Decrements the value gt Quick Key Right Arrow x Increments the value lt 4 Quick Key Left Arrow x Decrements the value Calculations Normal calculations can be made on numbers by using the x and buttons For example to divide the current number in half click on the button and then click on 2 and Enter Numbers can also be quickly swapped from positive to negative or vice versa by using the button Timecode and Frames The TC button toggles the Calculator between Frame Mode and Timecode Mode When in Timecode Mode values are entered as HH MM SS FF rather than as pure frame counts This only applies to Numerical Slates that accept Timecode as a value The TC button highlights when the Calculator is in Timecode Mode Reset An individual value can be reset back to its default by clicking on the R button located on the top left of the Calculator s panel Magic Number Picker The Calculator has the ability to recognize and grab any number that exists on the current menu page and place it as the current value in the Calculator For example if a Scale X Numerical Slate has a value of 90 and a Scale Y Numerical Slate has a value of 50 you can set the Scale X value to 50 by clicking on the current value
274. r Timing format to set the default Offset values for a color grade Each color channel s default can be set independently by entering a value into the Numerical Slate PRINT LIGHT WEIGHTS Print Light Weights allow you to set the value range for SCRATCH s Offset adjustments so that the SCRATCH interface is synchronized with your film lab Each film stop consists of 90 Cineon increments Film labs divide each stop into a set number as well except not all film labs use the same number of divisions within a film stop For example some film labs work on an 8 point scale This means that in their system there are 8 increments for each film stop This would translate to 11 25 Cineon values per film stop in an 8 point scale 90 8 11 25 But in film timing larger values indicate more density being added So the Print Light Weights in SCRATCH would be set to 11 25 for each color channel This gives the Print Lights the proper behavior a film timer would expect You should coordinate with your film lab to ensure that the Print Light Defaults and Print Light Weights are set correctly at the beginning of a project This guarantees accuracy between the SCRATCH grade and the film out TRIM ON PLAY When the Trim On Play option is enabled you can make changes to a color grade while the timeline is playing This can be useful for adjusting a grade when looping on a shot to ensure that the grade works consistently across the entire shot If you do not
275. r this For the gateway enter 192 168 10 2 Hit OK to exit all the dialog boxes There may be a slight delay while the system reconfigures the networking You should now be able to launch SCRATCH and test that the control surfaces are working If you are having problems with the connection check the section on TROUBLESHOOTING CONTROL SURFACE PROBLEMS CUSTOMIZING THE CONTROL SURFACE IN SCRATCH THE CONTROL SURFACE CONFIGURATION INTERFACE Once SCRATCH is running the Control Surface Configuration Interface is available from inside the Player under the Settings Menu Clicking on the Panel Settings button opens the Configuration Interface The interface has four main sections Groups List Mapping Pairs List Encoders Knob SCRATCH Controls List and Group Text Labels 192 SCRATCH User Guide Note All SCRATCH controls are active while editing the Control Surface Configuration Moving a control on the panel adjusts the parameter to which it is assigned Because of this it is recommended that any adjustments to the panel mappings be made on a non vital CONstruct this avoids any negative affect to critical work that has been done as part of an active job UNDERSTANDING GROUPS PAIRINGS AND MAPPINGS The basic building block of panel mapping is the Mapping Pair This is a link between a control on the panels and a function within SCRATCH The value of the SCRATCH function will be modified when the panel control is changed based on values tha
276. r which SCRATCH is used However you are not limited to any preset format A single production might have several different Projects within SCRATCH if necessary New Projects are created in the same way as new Users click in the New Project Text Entry Slate type the name of the Project press ENTER and then press the ADD button to create the Project PROJECT DEFAULT SETTINGS The block of information at the right side of the Users Projects menu shows the default settings for the currently selected Project This indicates the resolution frame rate aspect ratio and Media Directory that is used for each new CONstruct created within that Project The detail of setting these values is covered later in this chapter in the PROJECT SETTINGS MENU section USER SETTINGS MENU The User Settings Menu is where you can customize how the SCRATCH UI will look and act The first section of this menu is the Interface Settings where you can choose some of the visual looks and behaviors of the SCRATCH UI CONTROLS There are two options ROUND and SQUARE The default style of ROUND gives the SCRATCH UI buttons rounded edges and a soft shade across them The SQUARE style has sharper edges a slight outline and omits the shading SCHEME There are three options in the pull down menu for Scheme 30 SCRATCH User Guide e Color e Mono e Custom These select the overall color scheme for the UI Color applies the default color scheme for the UI Mo
277. rame on the VTR MT ast rorwar the VTR towards the end of the tape CUE Cue the VTR to the timecode indicated in the TO Numerical Slate SCRATCH User Guide 183 TO The TO Numerical Slate allows you to input a timecode for the CUE command When the Cue button is pressed the deck cues to this timecode value ACOPY ACOPY is a standalone command line utility for copying entire folders from one location to another ACOPY uses a sequential copy method that ensures edits are optimized for real time playback Standard Windows drag and drop copying can result in files being copied out of order As a result of this the media drives perform additional searches to play back the files in sequential order This can result in degraded playback performance It is recommended that ACOPY or some other sequential copy program always be used to transfer media onto the SCRATCH media drives RUNNING ACOPY To run ACOPY first open a command prompt by going to the Windows START menu and selecting Run Type cmd into the command window that appears and press Enter This will open a DOS command prompt Use the CD command to change to the location of the ACOPY executable By default this is C Program Files Assimilate bin Tip If you don t want to navigate to this folder each time you can add the default location to the Windows Path variable This can be accessed through the Environment Variables settings within Windows See the section ENVI
278. rames This tag specifies the timecode value that will be assigned as the clip s timecode This can be specified either as an absolute timecode or as a frame count When using a frame count the clip s frame rate is used to determine a timecode value 24fps is used by default unless an lt fps gt tag is included lt userbits gt value This tag accomodates for additional coding with the clip s timecode SCRATCH User Guide 207 lt keycode gt SC123456 0000 00 0000 00 This tag specifies the Keycode value that will be assigned as the clip s Keycode This can be specified either as a roll number count and offset or just count and offset lt offset gt x y This tag specifies the horizontal and vertical offsets in pixels to be applied to the clip These values will be written into the Shot Framing information for the clip and are constant for its duration lt scale gt x y This tag specifies the horizontal and vertical scaling in percentage to be applied to the clip These values will be written into the Shot Framing information for the clip and are constant for its duration lt rotate gt value This tag specifies the rotation angle in degrees to be applied to the clip This value will be written into the Shot Framing information for the clip and is constant for its duration lt note gt text This tag specifies the text string that will be added to the clip as a Sticky Note Note Only the lt source gt and lt proj
279. re visible at all times rather than having to click on a single button to reveal the list Users Projects User Settings System Settings Text Selection Slates cannot be directly edited however the text they contain is usually controlled by a Text Entry Slate Examples of Text Selection Slates are the Users and Projects lists on the Startup Screen 20 User Guide NUMERICAL SLATES Numerical Slates are used for inputting numerical data for various properties You can input or change a value of a Numerical Slate in several ways CONTROL GEARING To use Control Gearing click and hold over the current number in a Numerical Slate and make a circular motion with the cursor This will act as a control dial which will increment clockwise motion or decrement counter clockwise motion the numerical value You can hold down the Quick Key Shift to change the sensitivity of the control gearing O Quick Key Shift x Changes the sensitivity of Control Gearing The sensitivity of the Control Gearing and Shift modifier can be customized as a User Setting See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for information about how to change these values for each User The Numerical Slates have a Fill Gauge that indicates where in the overall range of values the current number falls The Fill Gauge will gradually fill in the area behind the Numerical Slate s label Once the Fill Gauge moves to the right edge of the label the maximum value has been reached and
280. rectly over one of the arms of the Axis indicator The cursor changes to the point manipulation cursor SCALE Scale controls the size of the Canvas relative to its original creation size To interactively change the scale of a Canvas place the cursor over one side of the bounding box surrounding the Canvas The cursor changes to the point manipulation cursor the side of the bounding box will be highlighted You can then click and drag to change the scale of the Canvas relative to the side of the bounding box you ve selected You can also click on the corner of the bounding box to modify both X and Y scaling at the same time SCRATCH User Guide 145 Tip Hold down the Quick Key Shift before you click and drag to perform a proportional scaling Proportional scaling is always done using the Pivot point as the center of the scaling ROTATE Rotation controls the orientation of the Canvas about its pivot point You can interactively change the rotation angle by placing the cursor over the tip of one of the Axis arms A circle appears around the Axis indicator With this circle present click and drag to change the rotation angle of the Canvas 146 SCRATCH User Guide PIVOT The Pivot point determines the center for scaling and rotation adjustments to the Canvas The Pivot is also used as the base point for all translations as well Adjusting the Pivot point by using the Numerical Slates modifies the position of the Canvas You can also
281. rol Bar 2 Training 1920x1080 Construct 1 GRADE TOGGLE To the right of the project and resolution information is a series of buttons that control the display of the Color Grade and individual Color Channels The GRADE button is a global switch that turns on or off any color modifications already applied to the base shots See Chapter 4 THE CONstruct for information about applying a color grade to a shot COLOR CHANNEL TOGGLES Individual color channel representations can be turned on and off using the R G B M L and A buttons SCRATCH User Guide 81 R G and B Select between each of the Red Green and Blue channels M Displays a particular color channel as a Monochrome Black and White image instead of the default which uses the color of the channel selected L Displays only the Luminance of the image A Displays the Alpha channel of the image if the current file format supports alpha channels The following Quick Keys can also be used O Quick Key Control R x Display the Red channel only O Quick Key Control G x Display the Green channel only O Quick Key Control B x Display the Blue channel only O Quick Key Control M x Display Monochrome O Quick Key Control L x Display the Luminance COLOR SAMPLING Clicking on the Color Chip in the center of the Control Bar activates the color picker and opens the Color Selection Palette The cursor changes to the color picker icon and you can sample th
282. rom the SCRATCH Controls list Press the Create Pair button at the bottom of the Scratch Controls list and a new Mapping Pair will be created in the Mapping Pairs list Tip SCRATCH automatically selects a panel encoder knob or button when it is pressed or moved This allows you to easily select a panel control without searching through the list If a Mapping Pair already exists for that panel control in the current Group the Mapping Pair will also be selected MODIFYING AN EXISTING PAIRING Each Mapping Pair has three values associated with it Scale Acceleration and Map These values can be changed at any time by selecting the Mapping Pair and entering a new value Scale The Scale value determines the overall sensitivity of a panel control Each increment of the panel control is multiplied by the scale and that is the amount the SCRATCH parameter will change By increasing the Scale value you can increase the SCRATCH parameter more quickly but you lose some ability for fine control The Scale value can also be set to a negative number When applied to Knobs or other encoders it is not necessary to assign a separate positive and negative control The encoder automatically increases or decreases the value However using a negative value reverses the behavior of an encoder so that a counter clockwise movement will increase the value rather than decrease it You can also assign negative Scale values to buttons to decrease a value An example o
283. ry grade there is no need for it to be shown Scaffold 1 is the default name created for the Scaffold 138 User Guide All the functionality for managing Scaffolds is done through the Scaffold Hierarchy List This list displays each Scaffold on a separate line The order of the Scaffolds in the list determines the order in which they are applied The Primary grade is at the top of the list so it is applied first Then each Scaffold is applied in turn down the list You can modify this list disable individual Scaffolds copy and remove Scaffolds all from within the Scaffold Hierarchy List RENAME A SCAFFOLD As the number of Scaffolds on a shot increases proper naming helps identify each Scaffold and allows you to work more efficiently To rename a Scaffold select the Text Slate under the the Hierarchy List type a new name and press Enter Scaffold Create Bin CHANGING THE ORDER OF SCAFFOLDS To move a Scaffold to a new location in the list click on the Scaffold in the Hierarchy List to select it Once the Scaffold is selected click again and the Scaffold becomes attached to the cursor You can now place the cursor over the new location in the list where you would like to drop the Scaffold The new position is indicated by a horizontal white line When you click down the Scaffold is placed in position within the list as indicated by the line Primaries Scaffold recursive O Scaffold recursive Scaffold 3 ee i
284. s Text The second part separated by a space is the text to be used on the pull down menu within SCRATCH To create a new aspect ratio simply make a copy of an existing line and modify it or start typing a new line The order in which the lines appear in the text file is how they will appear on the pull down menu IMAGE FORMATS To customize the Image Formats pull down open the ImageFormats cfg file in a standard text editor such as Notepad Edit the file and re save The next time you open SCRATCH the new Image Formats appears in the pull down list The file contains each image format listed on a separate line There are five parts to each line Text Horizontal Resolution Vertical Resolution Aspect Ratio and Frame Rate Text This is the text used on the pull down menu within SCRATCH Horizontal Resolution This is the number of horizontal pixels the CONstruct resolution is set to Vertical Resolution This is the number of vertical pixels the CONstruct resolution is to Aspect Ratio This is the aspect ratio value used by the CONstruct This value can be any number it is not limited by the values assigned in Aspects cfg 188 SCRATCH User Guide Frame Rate The Frame Rate is used by the CONstruct The value should have six decimal places You can copy and paste a value from another line in the file to ensure the correct value is used CONTROL SURFACES The external control surfaces are a great way to increase the
285. s To run simply double click on the file and confirm the operation then restart the system to complete the installation This is not a required operation for SCRATCH The NTFS Tweak modification is meant only to be used in situations where disk sub system performance is an issue VIRUS SCANNERS Virus scanning software can interfere with the performance of the disk sub system as well as the overall system speed If you are seeing performance issues disable any virus scanning software and check performance again You should still perform regular virus scans on the SCRATCH system to ensure a virus has not infected the system A live virus on the system can also affect performance DISK ARRAY VERIFY RAID controllers are constantly monitoring the state of the drive array If a fault is perceived by the RAID hardware it may trigger the drive array to be verified This verification happens in the background but has a severe impact on the array s performance Most RAID controllers have associated software applications that allow you to examine the state of the array format the drives and perform other maintenance and setup functions This software also indicates if there is verification in progress You can usually cancel the verification from within the software application FRAGMENTATION During normal use a drive array may become fragmented This means that files on the array no longer exist in a contiguous space on the array but rather are
286. s without actually having to execute the command The b option is used to adjust the buffer size that ACOPY uses Normally there is no need to adjust this value but the option is available if necessary An example ACOPY command line would look like this acopy r S render scene_01 T SCRATCH_MEDIA my_project scene_01 This command would copy all files and sub folders because of the r option in S render scene_01 into the destination directory T SCRATCH_MEDIA my_project scene_01 Note The actual destination folder must already exist If you had only specified T SCRATCH_MEDIA my_project as the destination then all files would have gone into that folder A new sub folder would NOT have been created GETTING HELP For a complete list of usage and command line options type acopy with no options at the DOS prompt This prints the options into the DOS shell window 184 SCRATCH User Guide DISKIO DISKIO is a standalone command line utility for evaluating disk performance DISKIO uses image files from the disk sub system to determine the speed at which that sub system can interact with SCRATCH Normally the DISKIO command is pointed to a folder that contains a sequence of image files This gives the most accurate evaluation of the disk sub system performance RUNNING DISKIO To run DISKIO first open a command prompt by going to the Windows START menu and selecting Run Type cmd into the command window that
287. s agate equates A OI A A o 118 CURVES ia A e OTN es ua A A bs 119 A O 119 REFERENCE TOOLS invocados ci a A A ibas 120 TRIM BUFFER ccoo a A A seaman nen gauss 121 COPY AND PASTE ca o 124 THE VERSION STACK enrian enie A AA ID 124 USING TRAYS FOR COLOR GRADING sucia catenins E 126 ANIMATION ooo A a 126 THE CURVE EDITOR MEN sisi A A A ios 128 SAVING AND LOADING craras isaten a aO E E tus ducwtoemGensandetamteuasesteuant 133 MATRIX CONFIGURATION SETTINGS rcii aanis rianan as 134 OS SCAFFOLDS saiisine a a r a aa a aaa 138 INTRODUCTION cui A A a A A is 138 MANAGING SCAFFOLDS a a 138 CANVAS a dit 141 SCAFFOLDS INTERACTIONS comia a ads 149 QUALIFIER costo ri A EN a 152 TEX TUR Escoria ri A o nai AD e 155 CAMERA aaa 157 TRACKING sonora a A A see iiia ai 158 09 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING sisiisiicsactsscanwtadesccatedeamadaaadedadavivedweasenendacabadudaded canvasaadadadsanianbaccaneness 161 INTRODUCTION i A vais Aa o a i 161 THE PROCESS MENU pciiini A a ag 161 PLUGINS BROWSER inicios a ai an a Ee AE E a a ada aiaiai ai 166 SCRATCH NATIVE PLUG INS siinide an E a a Er A ea 167 PROCESSING in A ea 173 OUTPUT NODES cisco A sermonadles tensa A EEA 176 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES cconnnnonconconcnncnncnncnnnanonncnncnnnrnnrnncnnrnnenncnncnnrnnennencnness 180 INTRODUCTION Soi A said SESE ip 180 2 SCRATCH User Guide DUAL HEAD so cin oia A A siguenstadersomede sb i Ei an ADE Rio keai 180 MEDIA LAY ER coco A Ron 180 CONStRUCE
288. s gray the Timecode or Keycode information is missing from the file s header and an absolute value has been assigned using the frame number of the source file CURRENT THUMBNAIL FRAME In the upper right corner of the thumbnail is the current frame counter This indicates what frame of the current shot is being shown in the thumbnail This number is an absolute count from the beginning of the shot SHOT NAME 50 SCRATCH User Guide The lower left corner of the thumbnail displays the Shot Name This is set initially based on the name of the files that are being used as the source for the shot However the Shot Name can be changed at any time through the Information Panel TOTAL FRAMES The lower right corner of the thumbnail displays information about the IN and OUT points that are marked on the shot The value indicates the number of frames between the IN and OUT marks The brackets on either side of the number are a quick indicator of where the IN and OUT marks are located relative to the first and last frames of the shot If the IN and OUT marks are at the first and last frame of the shot the total frame count has parenthesis on either side like this 1129 If the IN or OUT marks have been moved to a different frame within the shot either through an EDL conform or manually then a bracket and dot indicate there are additional frames available either before or after the IN and OUT marks For example 45 In the image bel
289. s image and if not then the default Scratch logo is displayed This contains a text based list of all the plug ins displayed in the Image List The plug in s version number can be obtained here FAVOURITES AND RECENTLY USED Favourite plug ins can be added to this list for faster lookup The list is alphabetically sorted You can use the Add to Favourites and Bin Favourite buttons to maintain the list The Recently Used list is maintained automatically each time a plug in is used it is added to the top of the list When the Plugins Browser is first opened it tries to select the top item Recently Used plug in first 166 User Guide Both lists are maintained on the user level meaning that every SCRATCH user will have its own list of favourite and recently used plug ins PLUG IN OPTIONS GRADE and FRAMING The Grade and Framing buttons are used to copy grade and framing data from the original shot onto the new node If these buttons are deactivated then the corresponding information will not be copied to the new node GLOBAL PRESETS Settings for a plug in can be saved as pls files as explained earlier in this chapter Presets can be made available from inside the Plugins Browser by saving them in the folder C Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Assimilator Settings Plugins When you select a plug in the Plugins Browser SCRATCH will check that folder to determine if there are presets available with the selected plugin
290. s on the Player s Sync Modes SNAP SHOT DESTINATION DIRECTORY This Text Slate determines where Snapshots are stored on the file system By default the path is set to the current Project s folder and a sub folder called SnapShot An absolute path can be specified using the SET button SNAP SHOT FORMAT This chooses between JPEG and TIFF image formats for the resulting Snapshots SNAP SHOT MODE This option determines what the resulting Snapshot will look like VIEW VIEW creates a Snapshot of the current View Port The resulting image takes into account any zoom or pan that you have done in the View Port This is useful for creating Snapshots to document a particular important area of an image IMAGE IMAGE will always create a Snapshot that is the entire source image regardless of what portion of the image is being viewed in the View Port at the time PROJECT SETTINGS MENU The Project Setting Menu defines several default options for each Project Projects are not locked to a single resolution or frame rate These settings can be modified at any time and a single Project can contain CONstructs with different resolutions and frame rates SCRATCH User Guide 33 Each new CONstruct created uses these default settings initially but that too can be changed at any time This is covered in more detail in Chapter 4 THE CONstruct PROJECT NAME Click in this Text Slate to change the name of the currently selected Project The cha
291. s passes the configuration information to the control surfaces where it is held even after SCRATCH is exited If you are still experiencing problems with your control surfaces contact ASSIMILATE Technical Support 200 SCRATCH User Guide THIRD PARTY PLUG INS SCRATCH supports the OpenFX or OFX plug in architecture This allows external developers to create customized image manipulation code which can be used and interacted with directly inside the SCRATCH interface without passing images out to external applications An initial list is provided below with links to individual vendors For the most recent list of supported OFX plug ins for SCRATCH visit the ASSIMILATE website at http www assimilateinc com plugins html SUPPORTED THIRD PARTY PLUG INS Speed Six http www speedsix com assim html Monsters Raptors The Foundry http www thefoundry co uk Furnace Keylight Tinder Imagica http www imagica com Cinecure Primatte PLUG IN LOCATION During startup SCRATCH automatically searches for Plug in modules in the following locations and in this order Installation bin node Installation plugin node Installation plugins node Environment ASSIMILATE_PLUGINS node Environment OFX_PLUGIN_PATH ofx Environment CommonpProgramFiles ofx Where Installation is the root path of the SCRATCH installation C Program Files Assimilate by default and Environment is a Win
292. s shape curve between two control points This deletes the control points associated with a curve segment rather than deleting individual points There is no Quick Key for Bin mode BREAK When the Break mode is active clicking on a control point or its handle breaks the tangency and allows each handle to move independently from one another This allows you to create sharp angles in the Canvas shape To break the tangency of a control point click once on either the control point or a handle The curve does not change but the next time the handle is moved it will be independent of the other handle You can manipulate control points and handles while in Break mode without returning to Edit mode However each control point or handle you click will have its tangency broken Once a control point s tangency is broken it remains that way unless it is restored using the Join mode You can use the Quick Key B to activate the Break mode keep key pressed to maintain mode O Quick Key B x Break Mode JOIN The Join mode allows you to restore tangency to control points that have had their tangency broken when using the Break mode To join the tangency of a control point click on either the control point or one of the handles The curve adjusts so that it connects smoothly between the adjacent control points While in the Join mode you can manipulate control points and handles without returning to Edit mode However each control point
293. sable Output selected images are always pulled from the original source file and processed through the graphics card Any frames that were previously processed are ignored The image that is seen is always generated on the fly Enable Output Enable Output is the default setting for viewing an entire CONstruct in the Player With this option selected previously processed frames will be displayed Any frames that are not already processed are processed on the fly View Output The View Output option processes frames and stores them in system memory instead of writing them to the media drive This allows you to view short ranges of frames without having to process them out When the Main Output Node is loaded into the Player the View Output option is automatically selected This allows you to view the Output Node while still making changes within the CONstruct shots Process On Play The Process On Play option processes frames and stores them on the media drive as they are played back This is a quick way of generating processed frames while still remaining interactive CONFIGURE PANELS The CONFIGURE PANELS button opens a dialog box where you can control how SCRATCH commands are mapped to an external control surface such as the Tangent Devices or JL Cooper panels See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more information about setting up and using the external control surfaces SYNC This setting determines how SCRATCH synchronizes itself
294. sent the animation curve s start and end points in time x bar and value y bar Clicking on the end points of one of the bars allows you to scale the curve quickly Clicking in the middle of one of the bars allows you to slide the entire curve left and right or up and down to adjust the overall timing or value of the animation without having to adjust each individual keyframe Edit The Edit mode allows you to manipulate an individual keyframe within the Curve Window With the Edit mode active click on any point on the curve and move it to a new location The Edit mode can also be activated using the Quick Key E O Quick Key E x Edit Mode SCRATCH User Guide 129 Add When the Add mode is active clicking in the Curve Window adds a new keyframe point to the closest active curve The cursor changes to a green crosshair to indicate that you are in Add mode Add mode remains on until it is deactivated however you can temporarily activate Add mode by holding down the Quick Key A while in any other mode Add mode is deactivated when the Quick Key is released O Quick Key hold key down A x Activate Add Mode Bin When Bin mode is active clicking on a keyframe point in the curve window deletes that point from the curve The cursor changes to a bright red crosshair to indicate that you are in Bin mode Bin mode remains on until it is deactivated by switching to another mode There is no Quick Key for Bin mode Select Select mode all
295. ser A LUT is not a complete representation of the entire color grade LUTs are an approximation of the primary grade that is applied to a shot A 1D LUT represents luminance changes well but does not represent color changes as accurately as a 3D LUT However 3D LUTs generally do not have the same granularity as a 1D LUT The resolution of the LUT is set in the Matrix Configuration Settings which are explained later in this chapter LUTs are an excellent way of exchanging color information between different systems They are a common language that all color grading systems understand and can use Note Saving LUTs requires a valid LUT EXPORT EXTENSION 1D LUTs This option will save a standard 1D LUT in the lut format using the Depth and Size parameters specified in the Matrix Configuration Settings 1D S2 LUTs This option will save a 1D LUT in the xml format used by the S2 digital field recorder This is useful for applying a look on set using SCRATCH and then exporting a LUT back to the S2 recorder which can be used for on set monitoring 3D LUTs This option saves a standard 3D LUT in the 3dl format Note When saving a LUT you can include the current monitor LUT by activating the Include 3D LUT button in the Matrix Config Options page The monitor LUT is concatenated with the current color grade to generate a single LUT file LOADING LUTs LUts are loaded into a current color grade in two ways Clicking on the LOAD button op
296. ser Guide O Home Set the shot length and animation range a cont Home Set the shot length and curve height Spacebar 8 Click and drag Pan around the curve display Activate Edit Mode A p SCRATCH User Guide 227 228 SCRATCH User Guide
297. ses can exist along with permanent licenses This allows you to add functionality with temporary licenses without having to swap out entire license files In the image above the COLOR toolset has a temporary license that is due to expire This is indicated by the orange colored outer ring on the icon The color will get more saturated as the license gets closer to expiration UI COMPONENTS Navigating through the SCRATCH UI is done with several types of elements and functions e Gestures e Single Action Buttons e Menu Buttons e Pull Down Menus e Text Entry Slates e Text Selection Slates e Numerical Slates 18 SCRATCH User Guide e On screen Calculators e Color Selection Palettes e Special Purpose Interface Elements e Quick Keys GESTURES SWIPING SCRATCH uses a method called swiping to control various UI elements A swipe simply means to move the cursor quickly off one edge of the UI When the cursor hits the edge of the UI whatever swipe action is attached to that edge of the UI will be executed This may consist of revealing a menu or clearing a selection You ll see swiping referred to in many places throughout this manual CONTROL GEARING Control Gearing is a gesture for incrementing and decrementing Numerical Slates similar to using a radio dial See the section NUMERICAL SLATES for details on how Control Gearing is used SINGLE ACTION BUTTONS A single action button performs one action when clicked
298. sing the Matte color You can interactively drag across the image until you find a proper color Release the mouse button and that color will be set as the base color for the keyer Alternately you can click once in the color pot This opens the Color Selection Palette which you can use to select a new base color for the RGB Keyer You can use the buttons on either side of the color pot to fine tune the color range S removes selected colors from the Softness range of the key C removes selected colors from the Color range of the key C adds selected colors to the Color range of the key S adds selected colors to the Softness range of the key The Qualifier color can also be controlled by using the following Quick Keys O Quick Key Control x Add to the Color range O Quick Key Shift x Subtract from the Color range COLOR SLIDER SELECTION In addition to selecting colors directly off the screen you can also manipulate the RGB Keyer by adjusting the individual Red Green and Blue color selection sliders SCRATCH User Guide 153 Each slider has four values associated with it Low Softness Low Clip High Clip and High Softness These are represented by the four Numerical Slates on the sides of each color selection slider and also by the four vertical markers on the sliders themselves The area in between the markers determines the range of each color channel that will be used in the Qualifier To adjust a parameter you can enter
299. site at http www assimilateinc com and http www assimilatesupport com akb Note the newly popular R3D file format requires large amounts of CPU performance in order to decode the images in real time Your system s ability to play back R3D files will depend largely on the speed and number of processing cores OPERATING SYSTEM SCRATCH runs on e Windows XP Operating System Windows XP Professional version Service Pack 2 is recommended e Windows Server 2003 this OS enable the use of LUN volumes bigger than 2TB 10 SCRATCH User Guide INSTALLING THE SCRATCH SOFTWARE SCRATCH is typically shipped in one of two ways either on a CD or as a zip file In the case of a zip file you need to unzip the file before you can begin the installation The file can be unzipped using the default Windows zip utility by right clicking on the zip file and choosing Extract from the context menu Once the file is unzipped there is a folder with three files in it AssimSetup msi Install txt and ReleaseNotes txt The Install txt file is an overview of the installation process The ReleaseNotes txt file is copied into the main SCRATCH install directory by the installer See below for more information about this file If you received the SCRATCH software on a CD the three files above are located on the CD There s no need to unzip anything and the installer can be run directly from the CD SCRATCH is installed using the msi file D
300. solated and adjusted allowing you to make quick changes to the overall image within a certain color range The color isolation is determined by identifying a wedge shaped portion of the color wheel By default the vectors are set to the six primary and secondary colors red green blue yellow cyan and magenta These can be modified at any time to isolate alternate colors To modify a particular vector click on the color circle in the main vector interface The selected vector will have a yellow highlight around it CENTRE The Centre Numerical Slate adjusts the base color position of the vector This is the root color that is being isolated WIDTH The Width Numerical Slate adjusts the amount of additional color on either side of the base color that is isolated by the vector This results in a wider range of colors being isolated HUE SHIFT You can offset the hue in the isolated color range using this Numerical Slate 118 SCRATCH User Guide SATURATION The amount of saturation in the isolated color range can be increased or decreased using this Numerical Slate LIGHTNESS The amount of lightness in the isolated color range can be increased or decreased using this Numerical Slate RESET The Reset button resets all values for the currently selected vector CURVES The Curves interface allows you to re map the luminance or individual color curves of a shot by manipulating a curve that represents input and output ranges
301. speed of color grading in SCRATCH There are currently two manufacturers supported Tangent Devices and JLCooper Of the different types of control surfaces made by Tangent Devices the CP200 series is the only line qualified for use with SCRATCH There are four different panels in this series The most common is the CP200 BK which provides a familiar trackball ring arrangement for color grading as well as three dial encoders and 18 buttons The other panels add extra buttons knobs and transport controls that can be mapped to various functions within SCRATCH The JLCooper MCS 300 Spectrum is the supported control surface from that manufacturer This device offers three trackballs rings plus six encoder knobs and eight buttons PHYSICAL CONNECTIONS JL COOPER USB SERIAL INTERFACE To Connect the JL Cooper using the USB Serial interface simply power on the JL Cooper device and connect the USB cable to an available USB port on the SCRATCH system Once connected Windows installs the device In most cases Windows installs the necessary Virtual COM port VCP driver to connect to the JL Cooper device you can proceed to the section on CONFIGURING THE CONTROL SURFACES After following the steps to configure the control surface you still are not able to establish communication with the JL Cooper device see the section about TROUBLESHOOTING CONTROL SURFACE PROBLEMS for more details later in this chapter JL COOPER AND TANGENT DEVICES ETHERNET INT
302. stead the button represents the current state of the selected point To switch the state of a point you must first select the point and then toggle the L C button to the new state You can also use the Quick Key I to change the state of any keyframe point O Quick Key I x Switch Interpolation State 130 SCRATCH User Guide You can affect the state of multiple points by first selecting multiple points using either the Select mode or the and then clicking on the button The state of each keyframe point will be toggled to the opposite of its current state so all points do not have to be in the same state to be affected Snap Enable Snap mode to ensure that all keyframe points always snap to the nearest frame in time With Snap mode disabled you can place keyframe points between frame boundaries which can result in unexpected playback results There is no Quick Key for Snap mode Extrapolation Mode The Start and End extrapolation modes control how animation curves behave before the first keyframe and after the last keyframe Because the first and last keyframes of an animation do not need to fall on the first and last frames of a shot the settings for these extrapolations can have an affect on the playback results There are four possible extrapolation modes Constant Linear Loop and Bounce Constant extrapolation means that the value does not change once the end of the animation curve is reached The value of the first or last keyfra
303. t Node s properties in the CONstruct Settings menu For additional Output Nodes you must set the properties from within the Player s Process menu since they are considered alternate versions of the Main Output Node To access the properties select the Output Node from the node stack on the right side of the CONstruct If the node stack is not visible swipe off the right side of the screen or use the Quick Key or and the node stack will be revealed O Swipe Action Right x Show Hide the Output Node stack O Quick Key or x Show the CONstruct Command Menu With the Output Node selected click the Enter button that is at the bottom of the node stack You must use this button and not the regular Play button that is in the center of the Menu Bar SCRATCH User Guide 177 Final Output Enter Process Media Browser By clicking on the node stack Enter button the selected Output is loaded into the Player This allows you to access the settings for output resolution file type location etc Note Loading Constructs and nodes into the Player is covered in more detail in Chapter 5 THE PLAYER METADATA BURN IN One of the most common uses for additional Output Nodes is to generate lower resolution outputs This is done with metadata information such as timecode or shot names burned into the image for review or offline editorial While metadata can be added to the Main Output Node for viewing purposes within SCRATCH this i
304. t are set up as part of the Mapping Pair There are a limited number of controls on the panel and many functions that can be controlled within SCRATCH You can create multiple Groups of controls that allow you to re assign some or all of the controls on the panels A good analogy is to think of Groups as transparency overlays on the panels For example think of a printed image Now picture several sheets of transparent plastic laid over the image Each piece of transparent plastic can have a new image on it which will obscure part of the image below However where there is nothing on the transparent plastic you can see through to the image below The concept is the same for panel mapping Each new group of Mapping Pairs overlays on top of the group below it The order of the groups can be seen in the Group list on the left side of the Configuration Interface At the top of the list is the Default Settings This is the base group where most controls are assigned This is the equivalent of the printed image in the picture analogy Each additional group can have new functions assigned to a panel control which will cover up the function assigned to that same control in a lower group In this way you can create groups of panel mappings which expose certain functionality within SCRATCH based on the task you are doing For example a Group called PRIMARY can be dedicated to primary color grading All of the functions that are mapped to the pa
305. t in case there is a need to examine the matches more closely to determine which version to use Bin Empty Slots When active any events in the EDL which have no matching clips will not be created in the final assemble When disabled an empty slot of the proper duration will be created in the final assemble to hold the place of the unmatched event or for any record timecode gaps that are present Note Timecode gaps in a Reverse Assemble are automatically filled Assemble Perform the assemble and close the Assembler Close Closes the Assembler without performing an assemble The state of the Assembler is preserved as long as you remain in the current project and you do not click the Clear EDL button The EDL can be opened from a different CONstruct When the Auto Rematch option is set the matching process will continue without removing matches that were set from a different CONstruct This way an EDL can be matched with specific CONstructs in different Groups MATCHING CLIPS The section on the right side of the Assembler shows any matching clips for the selected event in the EDL The clip on the bottom of the stack is initially the best match The matching routine ranks possible matches The ranking is based on timecode Reel ID and Clip name favoring the clip that has grading and favoring the clip closest to the timeline bottom of the version stack You can select a clip in the stack and use the arrow buttons just below the Matchi
306. t x Pan across the Slot vertically Right Arrow x Reveal one slot to the right in the CONstruct x Left Arrow Reveal one slot to the left in the CONstruct T When in panning mode the cursorwill change to MUM Below each Slot in the CONstruct is the Slot Information Area This area is used to display a variety of information about the Slot and or the current Timeline Shot within that slot User Guide 43 shot C A vy Media Browser Enable The Slot Information Area highlights to indicate which slot is currently selected The light grey bar indicates the actual length of the clip in the slot in relation to the length set for the slot Also each Slot has an icon at the bottom This icon indicates whether a slot is enabled or not and whether the duration is set manually Furthermore you can adjust which text info is shown at the bottom of the slot In the Text Slate next to the Enable button on the CONstruct Menu Bar you can enter a name for a Slot This can help you to manage your workflow By default the timecode of the slot is shown To display the name you must select the option on the Proxy Info selection button on the Timeline Menu which is discussed later in this chapter The active slot is highlighted by the blue bar at the bottom You can however select multiple slots for copying disabling or removing To make a selection you use the Control and or Shift key Select the first slot by clicking in the Slot Information
307. ted on the selected column and the grouping bars will disappear Clicking the same column header again will sort the grid in descending order Clicking the same column header a third time will bring back the default view including the grouping bars The name reel ID and time code of a clip can be edited from inside the grid Changed properties will show in yellow untill the Apply Changes button is used A004 C220 09017 When a single shot is selected in the Media Browser a thumbnail image of that shot is shown in the lower left corner The thumbnail image can be used to display and change any sticky notes for the clip using the Quick Key A to open the editor and S to show the notes When multiple rows are selected no thumbnail will be displayed The following Quick Keys can be used in the Event Grid Control A x Select all rows Control D x Deselect all rows Control Left Click x Add or remove row in selection 76 User Guide O Quick Key Shift Left Click x Select all rows between selected row and current selection O Quick Key Spacebar 4 Left Click x Pan through the Event Grid GRID FILTER When clicking the Filter button in the right lower corner of the Media Browser another row of controls is added to the grid below the column headers You can enter a search text in the Name and Filename columns including wildcards to filer the list of clips Name CLIPS EELS My Group A004_C172
308. tes can be configured just uncomment and update the remote info for each connection gt lt lt remote ip 192 168 1 1 port 5599 gt lt remote ip 192 168 1 2 port 5599 gt gt The notes within the file offer some basic information about how to configure each REMOTE station Each SCRATCH system that will be controlled via REMOTE must have a separate lt remote gt line in the PConfig xml file The lt remote gt tag has two values that must be set The first value is the IP address of the other SCRATCH systems The second value is the port through which the SCRATCH systems will communicate The default port of 5599 can be used unless your particular network configuration requires the use of a different port It is recommended that ALL systems use the same port for communication The PConfig xml file must be edited on each and every SCRATCH system to be controlled by REMOTE On each system enter the IP addresses for every other SCRATCH system There is no need to list the local system Once the file has been edited on each system save the modified file be sure to make a backup of the original first Now when you run SCRATCH you can activate the REMOTE button in the Player and join the REMOTE session SCRATCH User Guide 209 Note The lt and gt are the comment start and end tags for XML By removing them the lines between are no longer considered comments but valid XML commands they are interpreted by SCR
309. th SCRATCH Click on the plus sign at the right of the APPLICATION area in the Wacom control panel SCRATCH User Guide 213 S Wacom Tahisi Properties oe a Irkuos3 9xiZ Took This opens a dialog box where you can select the application to be associated with the new pen mapping Use the Browse button and navigate to the SCRATCH executable located by default at C Program Files Assimilate bin Assimilator exe Alternately you can have SCRATCH running in the background and it will appear in the list of Currently Open Applications Add Application Tor Custom Setting 214 SCRATCH User Guide Now you have a new entry in the Applications section of the Wacom control panel By selecting the Assimilator icon you can set Wacom properties that will only be used with that application Y Wacom Tablet Properties With the Assimilator icon selected you will want to re map one of the pen buttons as a keystroke The keyboard shortcut which is the equivalent of a right click in SCRATCH is the back quote or grave accent It looks like this and is usually found in the upper left corner of US keyboards on the same key as the tilde Define Keystroke Use your panting device to dick OK to accept of Cancel to ext fasas y sew omite caret o Type the back quote character into the Define Keystroke window and click OK Once this keystroke is mapped to a pen button you are able to call up any ri
310. th the control surface is not working first verify that all the entries in the cs_devices_init xml file are correct If necessary delete the cs_devices_init xml file and start fresh from the original cs_devices xml file X JL COOPER USB Serial CONNECTION If you are using the JL Cooper USB Serial Interface you may need to install a Virtual COM port VCP driver in order for the control surface to be recognized This is usually installed as part of the normal setup of the USB Serial panel But if you need to install it manually it can be downloaded from http www ftdichip com Drivers FT232 FT245Drivers htm This driver allows the USB port to be accessed as if it were a standard Serial COM port Install the driver and then be sure to configure the lt com_port gt COMx lt com_port gt tag properly in the cs_devices_init xml file JL COOPER AND TANGENT ETHERNET CONNECTION Most problems with the Ethernet control surfaces come down to a network configuration problem where the computer and the control surfaces have not been configured to use IP addresses from the same subnet or there is a physical issue between the computer and the control surfaces Be sure the computer s network settings are set up properly and for the right physical connection Some systems have two Ethernet ports and each port can be configured separately Be sure you have the Ethernet connection plugged into the proper port on the computer If the computer has du
311. the current source clip is represented as a dark gray bar on the timeline If the source clip is longer than the current slot this bar extends beyond the edit points to show you how many frames are available before and after the current slot The light gray bar along the bottom of the clip indicates the current IN and OUT points for the source clip As the IN and OUT points are modified the light gray bar updates to show the change It is possible to set the IN and OUT points of the source clip so that its duration is shorter or longer than the current slot The source clip and slot act independently of each other NAVIGATION You can interactively navigate around the timeline using several buttons and Quick Keys CURRENT FRAME POSITION To change the current frame place your cursor over the red frame position marker The cursor switches to the Shuttle cursor and you can click and drag the frame position marker to any point in the timeline You can also click and drag on the mini timeline underneath the Play controls Notice that as you move the frame position marker through the timeline the timeline updates to show the duration of the current clip All of the standard Player controls and Quick Keys are available for moving to the previous or next shot frame forward frame backward etc See the section PLAYBACK CONTROLS in Chapter 5 for a complete list of Player controls ZOOM AND PAN When you are in the Edit menu you can place your
312. the effect of the LUT CUSTOM 1 and CUSTOM 2 These options allow you to load your own custom LUTs via the Load button Several sample 1D LUTs are included with SCRATCH and custom LUTs can be loaded into SCRATCH as well There are several calibration and look management systems that can write LUTs in a format SCRATCH can recognize GAMMA ACTIVE This button activates and deactivates any Gamma adjustments VALUE The Value parameter adjusts the overall gamma of the display The effect of this adjustment can be seen in the Gamma curve in the center of the menu GAIN The Gain parameter controls the overall scaling of RGB values around the black point SOFT CLIP The Soft Clip parameter creates a smooth roll off on the high end of the gamma curve to ease the transition to clipped values 1D LUT FORMAT While SCRATCH can read several LUT formats the recommended file format for a 1D LUT is as follows LUT to clip 10 bit linear to 10 bit log Reference white value 685 Reference black value 95 Softclip R 0 Softclip G 0 Softclip B 0 Film gamma 0 600000 Gamma correction settings SCRATCH User Guide 97 Thru gamma 1 000000 Display gamma 2 500000 System gamma 1 000000 LUT 3 1024 y OW 1023 1023 The header lines at the beginning of the file are very important SCRATCH uses this to determine key information about the LUT such as number of channels and value ranges The f
313. these steps 1 Back up all project and user information This information should be backed up regularly but it is most important to have a backup version of your project information before installing a new version should you ever need to revert back to a previous version for any reason 2 Remove the SCRATCH software using Add Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel 3 Install the new version of software by running the msi installer that was provided 16 User Guide A new SCRATCH license may be required when upgrading to new versions of the software Check the Release Notes that are included with new versions of the software for information about licensing before beginning the install process It is most important that you check the Release notes of a new version to make sure it is fully backward compatible with the current version you are running It is discuraged to switch to a new version while working on a project but rather to install a new version when starting a new project In broad terms the SCRATCH software is divided into three sections The Startup Screen the CONstruct and the Player Throughout each of these sections the SCRATCH User Interface or UI remains consistent The UI itself is divided into two distinct areas The Main Menu panel occupies the lower portion of the screen and has a Menu Bar across the entire top Above this is the main workspace area of the UI called the View Port When SCRATCH is launch
314. this chapter using the color designated in the color pot to the right of the button This on screen display shows you which pixels in the current image will be affected by the Scaffold This Show Matte can also be used by using M x Show Hide MatteVersion Stack To select a different color for the matte click on the color pot and use the Color Selection Palette to choose a new color The Qualifier allows you to isolate a portion of the Scaffold image not by its physical location on the image as you do with a Canvas but rather by isolating portions of the image s color or luminance range by using color qualifiers SCRATCH has several types of qualifiers that you can use There are a number of qualifier types available from the keyer type pull down menu just below the player controls All of these qualifiers have a number of common elements and some specific elements 152 User Guide COMMON ELEMENTS The following are interface elements that are common to all the qualifier types RESET The Reset button resets the current Qualifier back to its default values MAKE DEFAULT You can use the Make Default button to set a particular Qualifier configuration as the default settings To do this select a Qualifier and set its values to your desired defaults Click on the Make Default button and confirm you want to replace the standard defaults with the current settings Now when any new Qualifier is created or the Reset button is pressed
315. timecode based conforms based on Edit Decision List EDL files e Create keycode based conforms based on Avid Log Exchange ALE files e Save and load edit decisions independent of the source material MATRIX The MATRIX toolset allows you to e Create real time non destructive primary color grades on shots in the CONstruct e Work with a heads up color grading interface or external control surfaces e Adjust color offsets using printer lights e Use match grading to align color levels between shots in the CONstruct e Perform auto grading against previously defined black mid and white points SCRATCH User Guide 5 Selectively adjust color levels based on 6 user selectable vectors Adjust individual Red Green Blue and Overall color curves View color levels using Histogram and Color Curves views Group shots create reference libraries and copy paste color grades using the Tray interface Animate color values over time using key frames and animation curves Load and save color grading settings Save LUTs based on primary color grades SCAFFOLDS The SCAFFOLDS toolset extends the functionality of the MATRIX allowing you to Create and manage multiple SCAFFOLDS in a layering interface Isolate a portion of the image to be affected by the SCAFFOLD using CANVAS shapes with variable softness controls Further qualify SCAFFOLDS with RGB HSV or Luma range keyers Track SCAFFOLDS to images using one two or three point tracking Manip
316. tion To see each file de select the COLLAPSE button ERROR LOG Pressing Quick Key E anywhere from within SCRATCH will popu the Error Log panel Any irregularities that accured e g unable to load a file will be displayed They will also be recorded in the general log The Clear button will only remove items from the active list in the panel The general log is not affected Error LOG No errors Clear Log O Quick Key E x Show Error Log panel QUICK KEYS SCRATCH uses keyboard Quick Keys as shortcuts to many of the UI functions A list of these Quick Keys can be called up at any time from within the SCRATCH UI by pressing the Quick Key H O Quick Key H x Activate context sensitive Help list This list is context sensitive and shows only the Quick Keys that apply to that particular area of the software To clear the list press the Quick Key H again or swipe off any side of the screen O Swipe Action x Clear the context sensitive Help list A complete list of all Quick Keys is in Chapter 12 SCRATCH User Guide 27 This chapter introduces you to the Start up Screen in detail showing you how to configure Users Projects and SCRATCH Settings When SCRATCH is launched the Start up Screen shows the User Project Menu in the Main Menu area and MODULE licensing in the View Port area In the Main Menu area the four buttons on the left side Users Projects User Settings Project Settings and System Settings swit
317. tion button in conjunction with the All button By using this combination all translation curves will be offset by the amount that you moved the Canvas The Trim Key button is covered in the ANIMATION section of Chapter 7 THE MATRIX 160 SCRATCH User Guide 09 OUTPUT AND PROCESSING INTRODUCTION This chapter covers the details of working with the Process menu for adjusting the framing of a shot or adding plug in effects as well as creating and setting up multiple output nodes for processed frames THE PROCESS MENU The Process menu serves several purposes within SCRATCH When a CONstruct is loaded into the Player the Process menu displays and allows you to update information about source clips as well as setting the Shot Framing When an Output Node is loaded into the Player the Process menu is where you configure the format file type file path etc for that node The Process Menu is also the place where you can apply third party plug ins to individual shots or entire Output Nodes The menus and controls for third party plug ins are available directly from the SCRATCH Main Menu There are four main sections of the Process menu Load Save FX Control s FX Input s and Shot Config These sections are accessed by clicking on the associated menu button on the left side of the interface The Load and Save buttons are used for plug in presets and only available when a plug in is loaded SHOT CONFIG The layout of the Shot Confi
318. tion on Environmental Variables and SConfig txt parameters e Aspects cfg This is a text file that defines the various Aspect Ratios that appear in the ASPECT RATIO menu within SCRATCH You can add to this list to customize SCRATCH for your particular needs e ImageFormats cfg This is a text file that describes different default Image Formats which appear in the FORMAT menu within SCRATCH Each line of the file describes a particular format with fields for Name Resolution Pixel Ratio and Frame Rate NTFS_Tweak reg This is a registry modification which adds 2 new keys within the Windows Registry These keys optimize the performance of large NTFS volumes See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for more details about using this registry modification There are several other files created within the SETTINGS folder as you work with SCRATCH These files are maintained by the SCRATCH software and should not be changed by the user e There are also three sub folders within the SETTINGS folder LOGS LUTS and PLUGINS The LUTS folder is the default location for saving and loading LUTs for use in SCRATCH Note LUTs may be saved anywhere on the system this folder is simply the first location in which SCRATCH looks for saved LUTs Each time SCRATCH is run a new log file is generated in the LOGS folder The Assimilator log file is the most current log from the last time SCRATCH was run Previous versions are numbered from 1 to 10 with 1 being mor
319. tire CONstruct will be processed O Quick Key F12 x Process the current shot O Quick Key Control F12 x Process the current Range SCRATCH User Guide 173 While processing is being done you will be locked out of the interface The Main Menu area will become shaded and processing indicators will appear on either side of the Main Menu A progress bar above the mini timeline will inform you of the progress by displaying the number of frames processed the total number of frames to be processed and an estimated duration to completion You can abort a processing task at any time by pressing the Quick Key Escape Any frames processed up to that point will be preserved Ol Quick Key Escape x Abort the processing operation If the processing is restarted it will begin at the point where it left off This avoids having to re process frames unnecessarily SCRATCH is always tracking which frames have been processed and will display the processed frames when playing back rather than having to process them on the fly You can control this using the Output View Selector in the Player Settings menu PROCESS SHOT When a plug in effect has been used on a shot the default location for processed images will be in a sub folder of the original source material s location This allows you to keep the new version of the shot in the same location as the original source The normal processing using the above Quick Keys will always process to the M
320. to be assigned as handles to the clips loaded with Load Shot or Load Layer In will be the handles at the head of the clip and O will be the handles at the tail of the shot The handle values can be used in situations where a known number of head and tail handles exist For example if a project is scanned from film using a standard 8 frames of handles at the head and tail you could set the head and tail handles in SCRATCH to 8 and all shots would be loaded with their IN and OUT marks already set to eliminate the 8 frame handles The handle frames will still be available but by default the portion of the shot that determines the slot length in SCRATCH will also be the duration between the IN and OUT marks You can modify the in and out handles of loaded clips further from within the Editor See Chapter 6 The Editor or from the Media Browser see in a later section of this chapter SCRATCH User Guide 65 CONFORM BUTTONS See the section on CONFORMING later in this chapter for a full explanation of the conforming process in SCRATCH LOAD EDL The Load EDL button opens a SCRATCH Browser from which you can navigate to the location of an EDL file to be used fora timecode based Conform EDL Edit EDL Clear EDL Edit EDL After an EDL is loaded it s state is maintained as long as the current project is loaded You can view the EDL and a conform by clicking the Edit EDL button Clear EDL To load a different EDL you must
321. to modify the interface if Custom is selected There is also an overall CONTRAST adjustment which adds more or less contrast to the overall scheme the lower the number the lower the overall contrast of the interface The list on the left side contains all the different User Interface elements To modify an element select it from the list and then click on the Color Chip at the bottom of the list This opens the Color Selection Palette where you can choose the new color Changes you make to the interface are applied immediately while working in the Color Selection Palette So you can gauge what the change looks like and continue to make modifications Once you are happy with the color click OK or swipe off the screen If you want to return back to the previous value click CANCEL To reset all elements back to their default color click on the RESET ALL button On the right side you can choose a font to use for the interface The buttons across the top allow you to select a separate font for the DEFAULT SMALL and FIXED representations SMALL is the text that appears on thumbnails in the CONstruct FIXED is the text that appears in Numerical Timecode Fields and DEFAULT is the text that appears everywhere else Each can be reset using the RESET button on the right side 186 SCRATCH User Guide Choose a type and then choose a font from the list You can also change the overall size of the font using the Size Numerical Slate at the bot
322. tom of the list The changes occur immediately COMMAND BUTTONS You can create custom Command Buttons within the SCRATCH interface which can launch any other Windows application script or file that can be run in Windows Custom Command Buttons are set with an environment variable See the section ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES for details about how these variables can be set To create a Command Button set an environment variable with the name of the command the options and the path to the command that is executed by the button Once set Command Buttons are available either from the CONstruct under the Timeline Menu or from within the Player under the Process Menu Note Within the Process menu select New to display the custom Command Buttons They are shown on the right side of the menu under the heading External commands For example to set up a Command Button to launch XnView a free image viewer set an environment variable like this SET CONSTRUCT_CMDO XNView C Program Files XNView xnview exe This creates a button within SCRATCH labeled XNView which when clicked launches the XnView application directly from within SCRATCH In addition you can pick up a clip from the CONstruct and drop it onto this button This launches the XnView application with the current frame from the thumbnail loaded So SCRATCH passes information about the clip on to the XnView application This can be used in a variety of ways from simple image viewing
323. ton Clicking on this button opens a SCRATCH Browser which you can use to navigate to a particular shot Select the shot in the Browser and click on OPEN The selected shot attaches to the cursor as a thumbnail and you can place it down in any slot simply by clicking over a slot The shot will drop to the bottom of the slot Tip You do not need to continue holding down the mouse or pen to keep the shot attached to the cursor It remains attached until you click down again on another slot Note The User Interface remains active even when a shot is attached to the cursor This allows you to continue to interact with the interface without losing your selected shot s There are several actions within SCRATCH that require a shot to be attached to the cursor before they become active SHOT THUMBNAILS The thumbnail image of a shot in the CONstruct is a real time generated proxy of the original image As a result the thumbnail image is always an accurate representation of the original shot Note These proxies are not rendered back to disk but are kept in memory and re generated as needed on the fly See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for information about flushing cached proxies ACTIVE ZONES The thumbnails have three Active Zones that allow you to interact with the shot Shuttle Zone The very top area of the thumbnail is a shuttle zone that allows you to shuttle through the frames of each shot by clicking and dragging at the top of the shot
324. tput Node can be thought of in terms of a tape based mastering process In tape based mastering a full resolution text less master is created From this master all other versions are derived The same can be said for the Main Output Node It is the highest resolution clean version of the CONstruct from which all variations can be extracted CON struct The Main Output Node shares the same name as the CONstruct The default location for processed images is a folder with the same name at the root of the Media Directory which you set in the Project Settings menu For example a CONstruct called Reel _1 would have a Main Output Node named Reel_1 If the Media Directory is set to S MEDIA_DRIVE then the default location for processed images would be S MEDIA_DRIVE Reel_1 ADDITIONAL OUTPUT NODES When you need to process a different version of the CONstruct additional Output Nodes can be created These additional nodes will use the Main Output Node as their basis but can have additional modifications such as Pan and Scan additional color grading LUTs and metadata text burn ins added on top of the cached Main Output Node Additional Output Nodes are created using the Add Output button in the CONstruct Settings menu Add Output 176 SCRATCH User Guide The new Output Node is added to the Node Stack above the Main Output Node Final Output Process Media Browser OUTPUT NODE PROPERTIES You specify the Main Outpu
325. trol over the conform process as well as allowing you to edit the EDL to ensure a proper conform The Assembler window has several sections The Event Grid displays every event in the EDL on its own line Clicking a column header will sort the list based on that column s information Clicking the same header again will reverse the sort from ascending to descending The assemble and processing of the EDL is always done based on the EDL s Record time code regardless of the current sort order Reel ID Clip Name and Timecode can be edited by clicking on a cell in the selected row Updated values are shown in yellow to identify changes from the original 72 User Guide The Effects column shows clip transitions Cut Dissolve vari speed FPS and flip flops X Y If an event has invalid timecode or zero length timecode the row will show disabled If an event has a gap in record time code with the preceding event the time code will show red as will the column header to indicate that there is a discontinuity within the EDL If data is lost because of time codes conversion with the wrong frame rate the row will show disabled and the frame rate button below the grid will show red to indicate that there is an issue within the EDL The Match column shows the properties of the best match e T Timecode match e R Reel match e C Clip name match e The number of matches is indicated by the value shown after the match indicators
326. truct the application will continue to match without removing earlier found matches Rematch ALL This button will force a rematch of the source clips based on the current match criteria All existing matches are removed first ASSEMBLE OPTIONS To New CONstruct When active the EDL will be assembled into a new CONstruct When inactive the EDL will be assembled into the current CONstruct When assembling to the current CONstruct if the current CONstruct has a different frame rate than selected in the Assembler a warning will be displayed next to the CONstruct text slate showing the frame rate mismatch in red You can still assemble to the current CONstruct which has the different frame rate The Record timecodes in the EDL which are used to set the slot length are converted to the frame rate of the current CONstruct The matching algorithm and source timecodes remain unchanged The newly assembled clips will be placed at the bottom of each slot s layer stack and any existing clips will be pushed up in the layer stack When assembling to a new CONstruct the default name for a new CONstruct is the name of the EDL file You can modify this by typing a new name in the text slate below the To New CONstruct button To New Construct conform 1 Incl Duplicates Bin Empty Slots Incl Duplicates When this button is active all matches will be added to the new conform This allows you to bring any matching clips into the new CONstruc
327. tton Clicking anywhere outside the Information Panel is the same as clicking on the Cancel button Note When you make a change to an editable value in the Information Panel you must press Enter to accept the change Once you press Enter that change is made immediately and does not require pressing OK in order to be accepted Pressing Cancel after pressing Enter does not revert the value back to its original Tip Multiple Information Panels can be opened at one time by using the Quick Key 1 However each Information Panel must be closed separately by either pressing OK Cancel or clicking outside of the Information Panels In this case the panels are closed in the order in which they were opened Pick up Zone Clicking in the center area of the thumbnail picks up the shot and attaches it to your cursor Once attached to the cursor shots can be moved copied and binned The User Interface is not locked out once a shot has been attached to the cursor For example you can create new CONstructs Groups or perform other actions with the shot attached Some functions in SCRATCH only become active once a shot has been attached to the cursor THUMBNAIL OUTLINES SCRATCH User Guide 49 The colored outline around each thumbnail provides you with information about the clip and its current status 00 02 31 18 The bottom row of clips called the Timeline Clips always have a white outline around them to indicate that they are the clips that
328. tton and browsing to a new path Normally the default location should be used Tip The User Project Directory can be located on a network share so that it can be accessed from multiple locations or archived up as part of a daily backup regimen It s best NOT to locate this directory on the same volume as SCRATCH media to avoid potential interference with real time playback Note SCRATCH does NOT lock the User and Project folders when they are in use Accessing the same User or Project folder from multiple SCRATCH systems at the same time is not recommended and will cause loss of data GLOBAL WATCH DIRECTORY The Global Watch Directory works in conjunction with the SCRATCH XML capabilities While SCRATCH is running it is constantly monitoring or watching this folder for new files If a new file with an xml extension is copied into this folder SCRATCH opens the file and attempts to process the XML commands that are contained within To set a Watch folder click the SET button to open a SCRATCH Browser and navigate to the folder you would like SCRATCH to watch for XML files The CLEAR button can be used to remove the Watch folder completely The use of XML in SCRATCH is covered in detail in Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH Note The SCRATCH XML and Watch folder functions require a valid PROJECTS MODULE license If this module is not licensed the Global Watch Directory option will not be visible REMOTE REFERENCES When loading med
329. ttons The Numerical Slate between the buttons indicates from which shot the current grade is being applied Positive numbers indicate shots to the right of the current shot and negative numbers indicate shots to the left You can also change the shot number directly by clicking on the Numerical Slate and entering a number The Previous Next buttons use the Trim buffer to hold the color grade from another shot and you can use the Apply button to apply the grade you are viewing to the current shot The Trim buffer is updated with the original grade in the event you would like to revert back SCRATCH User Guide 123 COPY AND PASTE Once a grade has been created on a shot you can copy that grade into a clipboard buffer it can then be pasted onto other shots in the CONstruct Note The copy and paste operations apply to more than just the primary grade SCAFFOLDS and Shot Framing are also copied into the clipboard so that they can be applied to other shots as well While this section refers strictly to the primary grade keep in mind that there is other information that is copied as well Applying this information is covered in the section on pasting a grade COPYING A GRADE To copy the current grade into the clipboard click on the Copy button on the right side of the Main Menu You can also use the Quick Key Control C This loads the current grade into the clipboard O Quick Key Control C x Copy a Color Grade into the clipboard buffe
330. ty Plug Ins and other Effects overlay the user interface elements directly on the image The OVERLAY button can be used to toggle these on and off The underlying element is still active but the on screen interface is not visible This is useful when for example the details of a secondary grade need to be seen without any visual interference SHOT INFORMATION DISPLAY At the bottom of the View Port is the Shot Information Display This is a graduated bar along the bottom edge of the View Port in which you can display various types of information about the shot that is currently being viewed VIEW PORT MENU The menu on the left of the screen below the View Port Control Bar gives you access to the following functions Histogram The Histogram display provides a visual representation of the balance of color and luminance in the current image More details of the Histogram in Chapter 7 The Matrix Color Curves The Color Curves display provides a visual reference of how each color channel is being modified by the primary grade More details of the Histogram in Chapter 7 The Matrix Scaffolds With SCAFFOLDS you can create an unlimited number of layers of color grading on top of the primary grade More details of the Histogram in Chapter 8 Scaffolds Pipeline The Pipeline view shows you a graphical representation of the output setup More details of the Histogram in Chapter 9 Output and Processing MENU BAR 84 SCRATCH User Gui
331. u select Enable Disable from the pull down you can then click on shots in the Tray to change their state from active to inactive Inactive shots are not played back as part of the timeline You can re activate shots at any time by selecting them in the Tray window PLAYER COMMAND MENU The Player Command Menu allows you to switch between the different toolset menus within the Player The Command Menu has two looks Square and Circular These can be set in the User Settings area See Chapter 3 THE STARTUP SCREEN for more details on setting the look of the Command Menu SCRATCH Construct Gonstruct Guides Player Clicking on any of these buttons opens the interface menu for that toolset Construct This option returns you to the CONstruct view This is the same as pressing the CONSTRUCT button on the Menu Bar or using the Quick Key Fl Player This option opens the Player menu If a PLAYOUT license exists the Player menu provides the interface to control an external deck for real time layoffs directly out of SCRATCH The details of the PLAYOUT interface are covered in depth in Chapter 10 SCRATCH EXTENSIONS AND UTILITIES LUT SCRATCH User Guide 95 This option opens the LUT menu where you can control monitor LUTs to calibrate the on screen image within SCRATCH The details of the LUT interface are covered later in this chapter Edit This option opens the Edit menu This requires an EDIT MODULE license See Ch
332. uick Key Control and select the shots you want to compare You can select as many shots as you like They are highlighted with a white border to show they are selected Then right click anywhere on the CONstruct and select Compare The selected shots are loaded into the Player as a single slot with each shot stacked in the Version Stack in the order they were selected For more information on using the Player and the Version Stack see Chapter 5 THE PLAYER When you exit the Player and return to the CONstruct all the shots are returned to their original locations within the CONstruct The temporary slot that was created will not be preserved To repeat the compare you must re select the shots INSERT SLOT This option inserts a new empty slot to the left of the cursor position BIN SLOT This option deletes the slot under the cursor If the slot contains shots you will be asked to confirm this deletion EXIT PROJECT This is exactly the same action as clicking on Exit Project in the Settings Menu except it does not contain a confirm level You will be returned to the SCRATCH log in screen CONFORMING Once shots have been loaded into a SCRATCH Project you can use edit decision lists EDL from an offline system to arrange the shots in the proper order and rebuild the Timeline This process is called Conforming An EDL conform uses a standard EDL text file that is generated from the offline system and provides SCRATCH with information a
333. ulate SCAFFOLDS within a 3D workspace PROCESS i gt ae T z MA hyp av The PROCESS toolset allows you to Process the net result of a CONstruct into new image files Apply real time animated shot framing functions such as Scale Offset and Rotation to create multiple formats and aspect ratios Add a Processing Queue to the CONstruct Burn in shot metadata in real time Control smart processing that allows you to process individual shots as you work and automatically manages which frames need to be processed when changes are made Apply stabilization to individual shots to correct or modify the shot framing Make unlimited use of Image Processing Effects and extended capabilities via Third Party Plug ins at any point in the creative process Access an open architecture solution based on the OpenFX API expanding and tailoring the capabilities of SCRATCH to specific workflows Note The PROCESS module includes the Pan Scan QuickTime Export and Scratcher Plug Ins by default Other Third Party Plug ins may be purchased from their respective vendors See Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH for details about SCRATCH Third Party Plug in vendors 6 SCRATCH User Guide SCRATCH EXTENSIONS SCRATCH EXTENSIONS are a collection of specific functions which extend the core capabilities of SCRATCH for a particular task Each EXTENSION can be licensed separately Below is a list of all EXTENSIONS
334. ure you are using the correct spelling and case on all paths filenames Projects CONstructs etc A difference in case could cause an XML file to fail There are two methods for controlling SCRATCH through XML Project XML files and Command XML files PROJECT XML The most basic type of XML control is the Project XML file When a Project is opened SCRATCH looks for a file with the name init xml in the Project Directory If SCRATCH finds such a file it parses the XML file and then opens the Project Note Once the original init xml file is processed it is renamed to init xml in which the is between 1 and 5 The renaming is necessary to ensure the contents of the init xml file are only processed once otherwise every time the Project is opened the same init xml file would be processed The main use of Project XML files is to add new CONstructs and clips within the Project The following is an example of a Project XML file lt xml version 1 0 gt lt deskgroup gt lt desktop name Default gt lt reel row left gt lt clip y bottom gt H temp brood2 000000 tif lt clip gt lt clip y top gt H temp brood 000000 tif lt clip gt SCRATCH User Guide 203 lt reel gt lt reel row right gt lt clip y 1 gt H temp brood2 000000 tif lt clip gt lt clip y 1 gt H temp brood 000000 tif lt clip gt lt reel gt lt desktop gt lt desktop name Akte2 gt lt reel row 0 gt lt clip y
335. using the offset parameter you can select the frame to freeze OFFSET The Offset Numerical Slate determines where SCRATCH will start evaluating a variable speed For normal 100 speed this value has no effect However when a different speed is used the Offset changes the frame for which the variable speed begins For example if a shot is 100 frames long and you have slipped the shot 10 frames and then set a variable speed of 50 percent moving the Offset to 10 ensures the first frame you indicated is truly the first frame that appears in the edit If the Offset is left at zero the variable speed is calculated from the beginning of the entire shot The first frame of the edit is then the fifth frame of the entire shot since the variable speed is calculated from frame zero REVEAL AND RIPPLE There are also two options Reveal and Ripple that determine how changes to the timeline affect other shots REVEAL When the duration of a slot is changed Reveal determines whether the next shot on the timeline will maintain its current first frame or if frames will be added or removed The examples below show the effects of the Reveal function when moving an edit point SCRATCH User Guide 107 Examples reveal active before ABI after ABEP reveal inactive before 20080 j BOBO ODODO Laa HoGgoga RIPPLE The Ripple button under Configure Node determines whether the overall slot length will change as a result of ad
336. utput Node settings This is a quick way of resetting the Main Output Node Binning additional Output Nodes will remove them from the CONstruct Note Binning an Output Node does not delete any processed frames from the media drive CREATE VERSION When an Output Node is selected in the Node Stack of the CONstruct the Create Version button appears in the CONstruct Settings menu This button will be grayed out unless you have processed at least a portion of the Output Node If processed frames exist for the Output Node then clicking on the Create Version button will load the processed frames as a new shot and clear the Output Node s cache The new version is attached to the cursor so you can place it in any CONstruct within the Project This is a quick way to perform a mix down of the CONstruct to a single shot before making additional changes Note When a new version is created SCRATCH renames the original output folder by adding a V1 to the end of the folder name This then becomes the source for the new shot while the Output Node maintains its original destination This is necessary to ensure that both the new version and the Output Node have a unique path that does not conflict If you create multiple versions SCRATCH increments the numbering of the folders to preserve the unique naming GRAPHICAL OVERVIEW From the Player you can open a schematic view of the output setup You can open this Pipeline View through the top View Port C
337. ve mix style dissolve where the incoming and outgoing images are mixed together using an additive method The result is bright areas remaining bright for longer than darker areas of the image BEFORE This Numerical Slate defines the number of frames before the edit point that are used for a dissolve transition This value combined with the AFTER value determine the entire duration of the dissolve transition AFTER This Numerical Slate defines the number of frames after the edit point to be used for a dissolve transition This value combined with the BEFORE value determine the entire duration of the dissolve transition SLIP For dissolves this value determines the IN point the dissolve uses It defaults to 0 INTERACTIVE EDITING Many of the numerical adjustments for editing can also be made interactively and directly on the timeline SHUTTLE I The SCRATCH cursor changes to a Shuttle cursor whenever it is placed directly over the current frame marker in the timeline When the cursor is in this mode clicking down and dragging moves the frame marker to a new location in the timeline As the frame marker moves the View Port updates to display the frames the marker is passing over SLIP When the SCRATCH cursor is placed over the gray bar of the current source clip it changes to the Slip cursor Clicking down and dragging slips the underlying clip interactively This is the equivalent of changing the Slip Numerical Slate in th
338. vidual in or out handle the calculator panel will popup pressing the Reset button will set the in and out handle to respectively the start and end of the shot both 0 FIND MEDIA The Find Media button primarily allows you to search for source files that have become unlinked from their SCRATCH shot nodes You can also link an alternative source file to a node The function only works on the selected shots The Find Media button opens a SCRATCH Browser and allows you to specify a location to search in for source files with the same name as the shot If it finds those shots it will present the filenames in yellow If the source media is not found the filenames of the selected shots will be colored red Only after you press the Apply button is the new source file linked to the shot SCRATCH User Guide 77 ACTIONS Reset Selected Reset the properties of the selected shots to their original values Apply changes Commit all changed properties shown in yellow in the grid After applying the changes the properties in the grid will return to the regular text color Copy Selected Copy the selected shots into the SCRATCH Copy buffer The copied shots can be placed in a CONstruct with the Paste Shots button in the main CONstruct menu Goto Close the Media Browser and switch to the Group and CONstruct of the selected shot in the Clip Grid Get Makes a copy of the selected shots and attaches them to the cursor You can then close the the
339. w When building a custom panel mapping be sure all text accurately reflects the functions that are active to avoid confusion with users USING THE ALT FUNCTION The ALT function allows a secondary mapping to be made to a panel control The ALT key works similarly to the ALT key on a computer keyboard holding down the ALT key changes the functions that are mapped to each encoder or button In order to use ALT Key functions you must first map one button of the control surface as the ALT key On Tangent panels the TS and S panels have a MORE button that is well suited for this but any button can be used Note Each button and encoder on a control surface has a unique ID that is used to identify it to SCRATCH These encoder IDs are then linked to a more user friendly name which is the text that appears in the Encoders Knobs list When the ALT key is mapped to a control surface button a new encoder ID is displayed in the list in the Configuration Interface This new encoder represents the ALT modified version of the control surface button to which you ve mapped ALT Any additional ALT modified buttons you designate on the control surface will generate a new encoder ID since they need to be uniquely identified By default the name is the encoder ID but you can change this by selecting the new encoder from the list and editing the Text Slate at the bottom of the list to change the name for the new encoder A recommended naming practice is to add A
340. want to use this feature switch off the Trim On Play button then color changes can only be made when playback is stopped AUTO RESTORE This toggles the Auto Restore functionality for the Trim buffer For details on how Auto Restore is used see the TRIM BUFFER section earlier in this chapter RECURSIVE SCAFFOLDS This option determines whether new SCAFFOLDS will be set to Recursive by default When active new SCAFFOLDS have the Recursive mode turned on and build on top of previous SCAFFOLDS When this setting is deactivated new SCAFFOLDS have the Recursive mode turned off and will always build from the base image COLOR FORMAT The Color Format pull down allows you to change how numerical values are represented within the Matrix menus This does not alter the actual bit depth of the images but simply what number scale is used within the interface e 8 bit values range from O to 255 e 10 bit values range from 0 to 1023 e 16 bit values range from O to 65535 e 0 0 100 0 values range from 0 0 to 100 0 SCRATCH User Guide 135 Color Timing values present Colormetric values for lab printer lights This option can be used in conjunction with Print Light Defaults to set the default values for the Offset adjustments LUT EXPORT SETTINGS There are individual areas for controlling the size and resolution of 1D and 3D LUTs that are generated and saved from SCRATCH 1D LUT SETTINGS The Depth and Size parameters D and S in the interfa
341. way to navigate between keyframes when adjusting animated values Keyframe Select Mode is covered in more detail in the ANIMATION section in Chapter 7 AUDIO VU METER When audio is present and enabled the audio level is displayed in a vu meter left of the mini timeline The meter is only visible when in the Player or in the Settings module of the Player SCRATCH User Guide 87 HISTORY BUTTONS On the right side of the Menu Bar are the UNDO REDO and RESET buttons These buttons are present everywhere in the Player allowing you to undo a previous operation redo an operation or reset the current menu page Note Not all operations in SCRATCH can be undone In general if an operation requires a confirmation it can not be undone CONSTRUCT BUTTON The CONSTRUCT button located just to the left of the Current Frame Indicator takes you out of the Player and back to the CONstruct The current shot in the Player becomes the currently selected slot in the CONstruct Note If AutoSave is turned on a save is performed each time you move from the CONstruct to the Player or vice versa You can also use the Quick Key Ctrl S to save the changes you made without exiting the Player O Quick Key F1 x Switch between the CONstruct and Player O Quick Key Control S x Save project MENU BUTTONS The left side of the Menu Bar has several buttons that display the various menus for the Player These buttons are SETTINGS The Settings menu is
342. well as A B modes where the two images are superimposed and mixed together DUAL VIEW To open the Dual Viewer click on the Single button This will open a pull down menu from which you can select the type of viewer SCRATCH User Guide 91 You can also use the Quick Key D to open the Dual View mode O Quick Key D x Enable Dual View When the Dual View is opened the source for each image is shown in the pull down menus just below the Single Dual mode pull down The left pull down menu is the source for the left side image while the right pull down menu is the source for the right side image The two images can be zoomed and panned independently by placing the cursor over one of the images and using the standards zoom and pan keyboard controls Using the zoom controls on the View Port Control Bar will affect both images You can also lock the two images together so that the zoom and pan keyboard controls will affect both images To do this click on the L button to the right of the view mode pull down With the images locked any zoom and pan will be applied to both images The Dual View mode can be used to quickly compare shots within the same slot but on different layers by selecting the corresponding layer from the pull down list Similarly you can use a shot from a Reference Tray as the source for one side of the Dual View Note When using a shot from a Reference Tray you must first select the shot within the Tray and then the opt
343. y SCRATCH has full featured toolsets which have extensive capabilities and also smaller features called EXTENSIONS that enable functionality for more specific tasks Note All EXTENSIONS are grouped together under a single toolset called EXTENSIONS however they are each licensed individually A brief list of each toolset s functionality is listed below 4 SCRATCH User Guide PROJECTS rad Ne ena aiT dl The PROJECTS toolset allows for multiple users and projects so you can e Organize your projects into multiple groups and CONstructs with different resolutions and frame rates e Change individual User preferences e Save and load CONstructs e Support XML based back end scripting to remotely manage projects create CONstructs and perform other project management tasks without using the SCRATCH User Interface e Use a Tray interface to easily reference match and compare with off line shots and other footage The EDIT toolset adds conform and clip editing functionality allowing you to e Display an interactive timeline representation of a CONstruct e Modify edit points interactively or through a numeric interface e Modify clip timings within the timeline e Zoom and Pan on the timeline to focus on specific shots e Add an audio clip to the timeline with slip and audio scrub control e Use a Tray interface to group clips for comparison and color grading e Add and modify dissolves between clips e Create
344. y external scripts or applications to determine the location of specific shots or other information about the Project This is generally used in conjunction with the XML import capabilities of SCRATCH that are covered in Chapter 11 CUSTOMIZING SCRATCH 66 SCRATCH User Guide When the Export XML button is pressed a SCRATCH Browser opens allowing you to navigate to a location for the file export Note If Auto Export is enabled in the Project Settings menu an XML output file is automatically created in the specified directory every time a Project is exited This ensures that any external programs that are parsing the XML output file are always using the most current state of any Project EXPORT EDL ALE The Export EDL ALE button creates either a CMX formatted EDL file or an ALE Avid Log Exchange file for exporting meta data outside SCRATCH in ASCII format The EDL file contains the current CONstruct source timecode for each clip and the record timecode of each clip starting on the Record Timecode that is set on the CONstruct s Settings menu Optionally any notes added to the clips can be added as comments to the EDL by clicking the Notes button The ALE is a tab delimited file containing clip name source and record timescodes clip length reel id and slot number etc EXPORT CDL Export a Color Decision List CDL file of the current CONstruct A CDL is an ASCII file that contains the per shot settings for color correction

SCRATCH User Guide

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents