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Quantel Paintbox vs. AE+PS+Illustrator?…
Hi guys,
Got a question to pose..has anyone here had any experience with the new Quantel Paintbox systems?
We are approaching a transitional period at my work and looking at going HD (yes I know – “what, you’re not already!?”) and whilst I am currently very happy with my PC & Adobe setup (though a faster machine and upto date apps would be nice) I wondered how the new Paintbox compared?
I used a classic Paintbox Express for a couple of years before demanding going back to Adobe (the paintbox was about as basic as the original version of ‘paint’ you used to get on beige macs in the 80s!)
I mainly do still captions/gfx and 2D mograph in AE, with a little compositing in AE or Combustion. I guess it partly depends on what NLE we opt for – Quantel EQ (silly expensive and I’ve heard it’s not all that) or maybe the Smoke route. If Smoke then combustion/PS, etc makes perfect sense. But if we stayed Quantel I wonder…
If anyone has any thoughts I’d really appreciate the input.
Thanks,
Jim.*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / BMD DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation -
5 Replies
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Thanks Dave.
Well…we mainly do low to midish-budget TVCs that range from half a day’s post>delivery to Tx to projects that go upto 3-4 days. All pretty fast turnaound projects (and time constraints mean fairly basic from my POV – but I would like to be able to offer a bit more ‘bang’ in the time I’ve got) We’re a pretty small post house – 10 staff (2 x senior editors, plus freelance AVID editors, me on GFX/VFX/Encoding, 1 x 3D & DVD guy, a tape op and then the camera dept/FOH staff)
I generally feed an Editbox, the AVID and a Linear Digibeta suite and need to fire stuff out at pace. When we upgrade I guess it’ll be a Smoke or EQ, a HD Avid or FCP and the Linear Suite for our regular football edits.
I need something fast, reliable and pretty versatile. Like I said, I’m fairly settled and happy in my AE/PS/Illust/Combustion workflow, but was just dipping a toe in the water to see if people had any other suggestions..
This being an AE forum I guess it’s going to be a little biased – I probs should’ve put it somewhere else, but there’s no Quantel forum and I spend most of my time here!
Any other thoughts?
*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / BMD DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation -
After being in the Post Indusrty for years you might want to check out SHAKE as well, After Effects has a zaxwerks plug in which is fantastic for QUICK 3D logo builds and stuff, FCP is a gret tool but like anything get a computer faster then light !!!!
Quantel with their mirrored drives and MO disks !!!! ah they were the days !
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Thanks for the info Craig. Yes, I started out on Quantel – found it a total pain to get used to after using PS/AE at college, only to realise how rubbish an archaic it was, so went back to Adobe! I’ve no experience of their GenQ stuff though, which looks more flexible and logical but I just don’t really like Quantel’s workflow, nothing’s automated and you have to to EVERYTHING yourself and repeat and repeat an…
I’ve still got the Paintbox gathering dust in the corner for when we need old work off those bloody MO disks! Do you know a decent way of converting the data on those disks into 32-bit Targas BTW? I tried something from AuroraBorelialis software, but it didn’t work. Would love to get it all transferred and finally throw away the PBox!!!
I’m on PC now so Shake is not an option – it’s more compositing based than mograph though isn’t it? If we switch over to Macs I will defo get the boss to pick Shake up though while it’s so cheap!
I’d also thought about integrating Zaxwerks with AE – looks good. Would help me do more when our 3D guy is tied up or away. I don’t think he’s mad keen on the idea – he’s using Lightwave (and XSI a bit) and has stuck his nose up at Zaxweks stuff for being too slow, but for text and logos/shapes, etc it’s pretty fast isn’t it?
*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / BMD DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation -
i spent more than 10 years working on quantels … and definitely stopped using it 3 years ago, after a 2 years transition period. Today, i do all the work i did before on AE/Photoshop/illustrator/C4D. I work faster anfd better. And easier.
For me, quantel is stone age …
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So the concensus is that Quantel is over-priced andoutdated jibberish unless you need close-to-air news gfx and the like? Thought so!
I’ll push for us to go the Smoke/FCP route then and try get myself a super-fast Mac or PC and keep on with what I was doing in AE, etc!
Ta for the info chaps.
*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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Win XP Pro SP2 / Intel P4 3GHz / 2GB RAM / GeForce FX5200 / BMD DeckLink Pro / Sony BVM-20G1E / DVS SDI Clipstation
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