Scratchbox is a system designed for fast image retouching operations combining uncompressed storage and matting operations within the one box. It can be used standalone or as a value added feature in the TK environment.
A soft-edged matte, or key, is painted using the integral tablet and pen. The operator composites the foreground and background layers using this key. The resulting frame is re-recorded at the press of a single button. Unlike a VTR, there are no pre-rolls, and no degradation of image quality. Every operation can be 'un-done', quickly & easily, if not satisfied.
On-screen menus coupled with a dedicated control panel, jog wheel and transport
buttons allow the operator to choose the way in which they wish to work.
All of the functions related to frame retouching can be performed entirely
from the tablet and pen interface, however a number of dedicated keys are
offered in a special menu to speed up the select-retouch-review operations.
The system comprises two video disk recorders housed in a 4RU case, an internal
mixer/compositor, internal mask layer and paint software.
Disk recorder 1 provides the foreground, recorder number 2 the background,
while the working mask is held in the internal frame buffer.
The cost/performance of the storage enables the system to be used as the
recorder, within the edit suite. The finished job then resides on the disk
system ready for re-touch operations. Interfaces to traditional edit controllers
ensures seamless integration within the edit suite.