I did my first job as a runner for free because they said I could learn the Paint Box in the evenings. Ours never had many Fonts, which is where the Mac excelled, but for broadcast graphics, it was the Paint Box...
I have fond memories of using a Quantel Henry/Editbox/Domino in my younger years. No commercial computer could match their capability during the 90s, although when Discreet Logic Flame/Inferno machines entered the picture, the writing was on the wall for Quantel. So while Adobe contributed to the decline of Paintbox, it's the software driven systems of the competition that hastened the decline.
I remember seeing the Paintbox in the early '80s (maybe at NAB). It was just amazing... so responsive and clean (anti-aliased) ... but it was just a box if you were not an artist 8-). Engineers like me could use it but could never create anything decent! The 'Mirage' was also groundbreaking, and again, TV (especially commercials) of that era is identifiable because of it. Back in the day I designed a clone of the DPE 'Shotbox' (it was easy to reverse engineer the serial protocol). Impressive innovation that moved an industry.
I started using it in 1989 until about 2005, when Adobe/Apple started taking over. The gestural interface seems to have never been matched. I'd like to try and compare on the iPad the design of the Quantel interface.
8-bit refers to the word size of the CPU. In the '80s the 8-bit systems usually didn't even have 8 bit colour per pixel. The Paintbox used a CPU which is usually deemed a 16-bit CPU but also has the properties of a 32-bit CPU. These days we all use 64-bit CPUs and graphics is 24 or 32 bits per pixel. Anyway the two aren't really related. Anyway, really fascinating presentation. I've wondered about these machines since I was a kid in the '80s.
Ohh there were quite a few, like the Aethedes or this one: ua-cam.com/video/jCEOwu2_fW8/v-deo.html The Paintbox simply is the one "everybody" knows about. It's the famous one. There were even PC-based solutions like the Targa Truevision Plus cards, which were special truecolour video cards allowing you to do similar things to a Paintbox, but cheaper, and on a standard PC.
And good ol' Scanimate, which likely was also state of the art just prior to Quantel. And equally expensive, all analog based, no computer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanimate
I did my first job as a runner for free because they said I could learn the Paint Box in the evenings. Ours never had many Fonts, which is where the Mac excelled, but for broadcast graphics, it was the Paint Box...
It was an amazing machine for its time!
I have fond memories of using a Quantel Henry/Editbox/Domino in my younger years. No commercial computer could match their capability during the 90s, although when Discreet Logic Flame/Inferno machines entered the picture, the writing was on the wall for Quantel. So while Adobe contributed to the decline of Paintbox, it's the software driven systems of the competition that hastened the decline.
Thank you for your comment! So true about the competition!
how was it working on domino? i heard it was like hal. right?
The Commodore Amiga was better
I remember seeing the Paintbox in the early '80s (maybe at NAB). It was just amazing... so responsive and clean (anti-aliased) ... but it was just a box if you were not an artist 8-). Engineers like me could use it but could never create anything decent! The 'Mirage' was also groundbreaking, and again, TV (especially commercials) of that era is identifiable because of it. Back in the day I designed a clone of the DPE 'Shotbox' (it was easy to reverse engineer the serial protocol). Impressive innovation that moved an industry.
Thanks for sharing!
I started using it in 1989 until about 2005, when Adobe/Apple started taking over. The gestural interface seems to have never been matched. I'd like to try and compare on the iPad the design of the Quantel interface.
Thanks for sharming!
8-bit refers to the word size of the CPU. In the '80s the 8-bit systems usually didn't even have 8 bit colour per pixel. The Paintbox used a CPU which is usually deemed a 16-bit CPU but also has the properties of a 32-bit CPU. These days we all use 64-bit CPUs and graphics is 24 or 32 bits per pixel. Anyway the two aren't really related.
Anyway, really fascinating presentation. I've wondered about these machines since I was a kid in the '80s.
Thanks for your comment!
I wonder how many other "boutique" tools like the paintbox were commonly used in the 80s but have been lost to time.
Ohh there were quite a few, like the Aethedes or this one:
ua-cam.com/video/jCEOwu2_fW8/v-deo.html
The Paintbox simply is the one "everybody" knows about. It's the famous one.
There were even PC-based solutions like the Targa Truevision Plus cards, which were special truecolour video cards allowing you to do similar things to a Paintbox, but cheaper, and on a standard PC.
That's a very good question. Let's hope that others can let me know and that we can get speakers to talk about them.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing! :-D
And the original Chiron I, also from the 1970s: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chyron_Corporation
And good ol' Scanimate, which likely was also state of the art just prior to Quantel. And equally expensive, all analog based, no computer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanimate
WACOM? Looks like mine HP TC1100 and HP Elitebook 2730p + Program called ArtRage 2 but in the 80s
Pretty cool! Huh?
Which computer was based on? Dec pdp?
It wasn't based on any other computer. It was a totally new computer and was custom from the ground up.