I am still trying to wrap my head around what role/usecase there is for scratch.
→ Its a bit better for dailies for episodical than resolve I guess?
→ It can read obscure formats like prores Raw
→ Prores encoding in windows.
→ seems to have way less grading features than resolve?
→ its not node based
→ affordable but not as cheap as resolve
… eh.
I mean it kinda looks fast but where does it slot in, what do you use scratch for where it just outshines the rest? I do like their lets call it vibe but I have not really had a case of “ah we can do this faster/better in scratch” But I have FOMO and I need some hints that make me go “yes” and sign up for another trial but this time learn it seriously
I’ve used it a few times, and we had an educational deal with Assimilate around three years ago for some licences. I really loved the interface, though not node-based but layers. The thing I really loved about it that I wish Flame would do more, especially now that it has the Effects tab/paradigm nudge, is the deeply-multithreaded interface. I remember using it, looping a timeline and then swapping out grades and also going in and tracking a secondary window and not stopping playback once. It was really good for interacting and playing about with looks without stopping. The manager in Flame has made a strong step in that direction and I really like that you can hide and unhide things in Image and Action whilst still playing back, but it’s not nearly as deep and total as Scratch and playing about with its scaffolding. Yes, it’s really good at keeping up on the codecs. Not Flame’s strong-suit. It doesn’t take much to scratch the surface of Scratch’s toolset, but it’s being able to interact so very fluidly with it that I took away and which haunts me still whenever I bump into Flame’s stop sign. Not touched Scratch for around three years and I know it only updates in increments, but they’ve gone down the VR route with finishing also.
SGO Mistaka is the system that confuses me in terms of its place. It’s supposed to be a Flame killer and its paradigm is certainly much more confusing than Flame’s quirks. I played with it for around 12 hours and followed some tutorials, and some aspects I liked (the timeline is unique) but bumped into far more frustrations than windows of wow-nes.
Back in 2005, when I was at a52 we had a demo of Scratch and the pitch was that DD had used it as a review and approval tool (this was pre-Hiero, which I think will accomplish the same thing now). They had set up some kind of xml-based update script so that anyone could go into the review room at any time and hit play and Scratch would show a sequence with the latest renders of everything. Which seemed cool, but was light years more advanced than what we were looking for, which was a basic grading system for a then-in-production film that I had no business getting anywhere near, grading wise.
I have used Scratch before. Is an amazing piece of software, really well done and super fast on most modern computers. Definitely a Grading software, but its “Slots” paradigm (Similar to Eyeon Generations) is very attractive for VFX and shot versioning work.
You can also do a fair amount of Comp in it… not a fully fledge compositor like the big boys, but dangerous enough. I have used it as a Dailies tool on client VFX shots reviews and was able to do real time slap comps on the spot to try ideas for the client.
Yes you can integrate it into a VFX pipeline where new versions are constantly generated and populating the relevant Constructs inside the Scratch project’s. Since pretty much everything is XML based inside. its really easy to write custom tools for integration with other software.
I have also used Mistika… definitely have its place in the industry, specially for VR work. Its compositing features are not even close to what you would think. You will quickly be disappointed if you are expecting any sort of Flame / Nuke / Fusion similarities.
Its timeline is definitely one of the strongest aspects of the tool set, with features you wish you had in other NLEs
