Generation is an all-new application family which provides a visual canvas and collaborative platform for managing postproduction pipelines. The result is an integrated post workflow for supervisors and artist teams. Because the entire application is scriptable, facilities can integrate their existing in-house tools, including asset management, rather than having to modify their existing pipeline to fit with Generation.
Collaboration From the beginning, Generation was developed within studio environments to ensure that it meshed with real-world conditions. The Generation interface combines a comprehensive shot-tracking system with an editing panel for working with EDLs and playlists. The system includes annotation and grease pencil drawing tools for live discussions of shots or sequences. Comments entered by one artist appear immediately on any connected machines, whether on the same LAN or at remote locations connected via VPN. Annotated frames are indicated in the timeline but the comments are hidden during playback. A complete record of all decisions and client requests is saved with each project. Version Management Revision histories for every shot are displayed as thumbnail stacks with the most recent version at the bottom. The current version plays back automatically, or custom playlists can be built by dragging over individual shots. If changes to a composite shot have been made since the last rendering of a clip, Generation flags that shot for rendering. Playback Generation provides disk-based playback of content at resolutions of up to 4K and supports all standard file formats. Content can be processed and rendered out at any bit-depth, including floating point. Generation is GPU-accelerated, so the user can switch between views or resize images during real-time playback. EDL Generation supports all standard EDL formats and will autoconform playlists. Edits made in Generation, including shot replacements, trimming etc. can be exported as EDLs back to the editor's suite. Generation is also able to import and export playlists from Assimilate Scratch, including shot version histories.