Assimilate Scratch 8

At the last IBC Nacho Mazzini and Daniel Esperanssa were kind enough to show me some of the new features that the new version of the Scratch 8 color correction and effects program will bring.

The most important new feature is the new “collaborative environment”, what do I mean? Well, several operators working at the same time from different parts of the world on the same project remotely. Something like a Google docs but in vfx and color grading session. In the picture above you can see a demo they made in which there are four colorists at the same time connected in the session.

The projects are stored on a remote server which allows access from anywhere in the world to collaborate with others, review or continue the work. What about the average? The media can be stored in two ways: the first is that each operator has the media locally in his location (as it would be traditionally) and the second, and more interesting, is that if the media is not available the system automatically sends in background jpeg 2000 files for the colorist to work with. While the copy is being produced the system is slower but once it is finished the media is worked with locally, even after the session is finished, which makes this environment more useful.

Based on this structure, another new feature is that we can now save projects and user preferences also in a remote repository, so that we can use it from anywhere, even if we are not going to share the project.

Of course once we are in the collaborative environment we can work as if it were an independent project, making primaries, sequentials, vfx, copying and paying for corrections or parts of them, etc. This can be a powerful tool not only for several operators to work together but also to be able to communicate the set with the post production department.

In short, powerful changes that can help us in our increasingly globalized work. Version 8 is expected to be released later this year, so we will wait to see what more good news it includes. If you want to try Scratch remember that you have available a trial with no expiration date at this link