Hey, I just wanted to know any workflow suggestions for grading P2 footage 1080 25p in Assimilate Scratch. I know that version 5.1 now supports DNxHD and I wonder if there's a way of exporting an aaf or an EDL just to keep the cuts I've made instead of exporting an entire DNxHD clip of all my sequence. I could't find any tutorials about that.

Thanks!

I usualy decompose my sequence exporting all my masterclips as QTref. 
I then export an EDL from that sequence and load it in scratch. 'Ive read somewhere that scratch was picky about the format of EDL. I first used CMX but had bad results, Ive been working with GrassValey (GVG 7.0) eversince and had no problems.   I also load all the qtref files prior to assembling them in scratch. Then using the LOAD EDL / Assemble TL tool i recreate my timeline.

Heres a few tips: i would first export my timeline into small fragments rather than 1 full movie. This prevents huge loss of data in case of crashing. i also believe this to be better when managing scenes. At the end of your grading, you will have to export all your scenes back in MC BUT if u ever have to change some shots, you can just work on 1 or 2 sequences rather than the full movie. Of course i would not do grading unless the film is picture locked. but hey nobody knows what happens!

If the assembling function dont work as it already happened to me, this mean scratch cannot find the proper informations concerning your source files from QT.  Try adding a Tape name to your footage. I dont know if u can batch create tape names as i usualy do it by hand using the TEXT bin, copy / pasting the name in every masterclips.

Lastly, i might be wrong here, but i worked with an HVX200 whos raster is lower than usual (960x720 i believe) and when bringing the  clips in Scratch, it displayed the 960x720 frame size. I changed that back to 1280x720 stretching the clips to the proper size. I could have graded with a lower raster, but i had to use scafolds and thought that i had better precision with the full frame. Plus if im going to export in dnxhd out of scratch, i might as well do it with a normal raster size. my 2 cents.




Assimilate is realy picky about their training, i did not buy their software as it was already installed on the machine i worked on, but finding tutorials online is a real pain. i remember back in the days i found a video about a user who graded clips from Croyote Ugly with it. i tried a quick search around the net and could not found the video anymore.  I supose Assimilate blocked the video since they are selling training courses... The only ... small ... training videos i found was on their own site, they cover up the part about loading an EDL in Scratch if i remember but they dont say why loading might fail, like i said, add a source tape to your clips, re-export QTrefs and it should do the trick.

Good luck and come back if u have any questions!

"finaly, this is a self taught workflow, if someone has a better one, please write it down as im also interested in learning new ways of using scratch"

EDIT
 *** sorry i messed up, in the case u were not working with offline files anymore, decomposing the sequence is useless. i assumed u were at the start point of bringing your material online. If you are indeed working with offline files, go ahead and decompose batch capture/import online. then u can use those new masterclips and export QTref.  

If u were already online, dont decompose as this will ask you to re-capture / import your media. I suggest simply opening up your videos bins and exporting all clips as QTref. since this is not storage consuming, theres no prob in bringing a few extras that might not gona be used in your sequences (considering you will sort scenes with the EDL, the left overs will not have to be graded.) 

If you want a faster way than opening all videos bins, use Media tool to generate all master clips of a project, copy them in a bin that you will have named properly and use all those files to export QTref. sorry again. 

Hey Aftersun, thank you for your explanations, I really apreciate it. But I'm not very familiar with edl's and I'm not capable of matching any clip in Scratch. I've made the Quicktime references, imported in Scratch but when I import the edl, cannot match any clip. Does the edl has to have any particular option enabled in Avid?

Thanks!

Hi! I'm sorry that it didn worked for you, i believe someone already told me there were constraints about the edl concerning tape names, character lenght etc, i am exporting a show this morning at work so meanwhile, i happen to have P2 material on my pc atm. Ill get a workflow going with scratch from a timeline in Avid and report my findings to you. 

Hi. since english is not my primary language, i thought that writing a book about this was gonna be long and confusing so ive decided to make a short video for you. 

http://www.aftersunproduction.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52:2010-avid-to-assimilate-scratch-p2-tutorial&catid=11:videos-autres&Itemid=17

Enjoy.  

PS: In case recreating your TL in scratch gives you trouble. Know that you can manualy set a reel name to your clips. In the construct view, load all your shots. At the bottom of your shots, theres a darker bar with clip name and frame numbers, clicking that bar will open up the clip info window, there you can manualy change several things. Including the Reel name. You can use your EDL as reference to manualy assign reel name to your clips. This will allow you to select MATCH REEL when assembling your timeline. 

Wow man! I feel very flattered. English isn't also my native language by the way. Your tutorial is excellent and is exactly what I've been trying these weekend. So I'm going to look carefully every step and see if there's something I'm doing wrong.

Thank you very much for you help. I'll report back if I finally make it.

very good, ive been looking for a good workflow