5. More subtle things that make good subs….
These are just personal opinions…^^;;; But before I was a subber, I watched a lot of subbed things from Chinese movies to anime… And certain things just make subs more legible. I think the goal should be to make the subs easy to read so that the viewer almost forgets that he’s reading subs….
Here are some of my pet peeves that I try to avoid…
1. Illegible fonts. Either fonts that are too fancy to read quickly… or too small fonts. Also, there was a time when all these Chinese movies had white subtitles… and they would be invisible if there were white background. x___x If I hadn’t loved “Once Upon a Time in China” so much, my eyes wouldn’t have been so strained watching them… x____x
Generally prefer fonts that are 18-24 point font… (18 for 4:3 screen and 22-24 for widescreen). Simple fonts like Tahoma or Ariel are good. Actually, some simple fonts with serifs are good too; the serifs actually makes it easier to read quickly. I find Serifa BT to be quite good…
And the subs should have a colour that stands out clearly with a contrasting colour for a border, so that it’s always legible.
2. Long lines of subs. I think the length of each line should be…usually less than 2 lines if possible. Of course, I’m not able to do this all the time. Some people just use really long sentences. x___x And I don’t like breaking up the sentences, especially because Korean has a different grammatical order than English and it feels funny if I break up the sentence. But I do try. I don’t want to really cover up half the screen with subs… and also, short lines give you a sense that you’re getting the translations more in real-time.
3. Too short timing.. You need to give readers enough time to read the subs… This is really an issue when translating Korean to English. Korean dialogue will have more incomplete sentences and things taken in context than English..which means that 1 second of dialogue can take two lines to translate. -_-;;; Obviously, most people have trouble reading the 2 lines in 1 second. If I am able to, I try to make the subs as short as possible while getting the message across… Also, if someone else isn’t saying something right away afterwards, I try to leave the subs on a little longer if possible. Even if it’s 1 second of dialogue, if it takes 2 seconds for the next person to talk, I’ll leave the subs on for 2 seconds… It’s not always possible…but really, pausing the video every 2 seconds to finish reading the subtitles is not fun. -_-;;;
4. Translating all the captions… This is somewhat related to above topic about timing. Korean variety shows have a LOT of captions. Some of these captions are completely….useless, I find. Or just repeats what’s said for those hard of hearing (or if there’s a lot of background noise).
Since people reading subs are reading, they shouldn’t need captions to repeat what’s said on top of that. I don’t translate all the captions. I only translate the ones that I think is funny/adds to the show… and also only if there’s enough time to read them. If I have two seconds of sub, I want viewers to be reading what’s said by the people on the show, not being distracted by caption put on by some techie using a computer. So if there’s a caption on at the same time as a dialogue, usually, I’ll just sub the dialogue unless the caption was really short or funny or helpful in understanding the situation.
5. Too much adaptation vs too literal. This is really difficult. I don’t know how to find the balance…x___x I try, but sometimes, I’ll watch my own subs and go… “uh… I was a bit off.” Or I’ll go, “I put in too much explanation, trying to be too literal.”–>and thus broke my rule about giving viewers enough time to read subs without pausing. x___x But when you’re translating a language that’s so…. different…from English… I guess, it’s just something I have to keep working on…
6. Putting in the effort. People don’t always talk clearly…and it’s sometimes hard to make out. If I can’t make out something, I’ll try to listen to it at least 5 times…x_x and if I still don’t know, I’ll either write (can’t make out this part) or just omit it. -_-;;;; Not very professional, I know. Sometimes, I think I heard it and sub it..and later listen to it again and realize it was off. -_-;;; Ah, well. What do you expect of amateur subs? Actually, getting it wrong and realizing it afterwards only happens occasionally. Maybe once every few thousand lines of subs. ^^;;;; Not being able to hear it and just omitting it probably happens more often. But I do put in the effort. And a lot of the times, you can tell what they’re saying if you turn up the volume and listen to it about 5 times. So…I think doing the best you can is always good.
In relation to that, I do make an effort to use Korean-English dictionary. A lot. -_-;; Many times, I would know what the Korean means…but when you’re going back and forth between languages, sometimes, your brain just gets stuck and you can’t find the right expression. Thesauruses are useful too. I also use Wikipedia a lot…to find out how to spell peoples’ names, etc.
7. Bad grammar and spelling. I’m totally guilty of this one. Usually, I’m in such a hurry to get the subs out, I only watch it once and fix only the obvious errors. -_-;;; English is my second language and I still get confused with some things…like, “If I were” vs. “If I was.” I think the first version is right but why does the second version feel more natural? -_-;;;
I still think my grammar and spelling is decent compared to an average American…so I’m kinda like… well… maybe if I were a professional and getting paid, I’ll put in the effort to get a beta. At least, I put in enough effort to watch what I’ve subbed at least once before releasing it. But if you’re really passionate about subbing, you should really get a beta to check your spelling and grammar over before releasing subs. ^^
How to hardsub/encode
To try to make it look like the above picture….^^ Can get away with smaller fonts if it’s HQ…but want a bit larger fonts if it’s LQ…
Most commonly used program seems to be Virtual Dub.
The subtitles are put on as a filter… For example…
- Textsub.vdf (I think this comes with Virtual Dub as default. Or it may have been part of the Vobsub package I downloaded… Apparantly it’s really old and not as good as some of the newer ones, although it seemed to have been good enough for my use so far..)
1. Download the program….
2. Open Virtual Dub. File->Open Video File.
3. Set compression. I like XVid compression. It seems to work well… Divx is not too bad either. If you don’t compress, you may end up with a 10 minute clip that’s 10 gigabytes…so definitely do recommend compression. To do this, Video->Compression->scroll down to Xvid.
4. Filter for subtitles: Video->Filters->Add->scroll downl to textsub. It’ll give you a small new window where you can choose your softsub file…and the click ok.
(Edit: If you have the newer versions of virtual dub, you may not have textsub as part of the package. You can download textsub.vdf from:
http://rs134.rapidshare.com/files/53785917/textsub.vdf into your plugin folder within your virtual dub folder. Then follow the above instructions. It’ll show up as TextSub 2.23 in the list.)
5. Aspect ratio:
If your video is wrong aspect ratio (ie. widescreen when it shouldn’t be), go back to Video->Filters->Add->resize->put in the right aspect ratio.
Generally, widescreen has aspect ratio of 16:9 (eg. 640 x 352 pixels).
TV screens are usually 4:3 (320 x 240 or 480 x 360 or 640 x 480 or 720 x 540 pixels)
6. An easier way to change the aspect ratio without squishing subtitles…^^;;;; Do step 5 (resizing the video) before step 4 (putting on the subs). ^^;;;;;; Still experiemnting with this program…
6. If you’re changing the aspect ratio, your subtitles may get squished as well so that the letters are too narrow or too broad. You can change the softsub before you do all the above so that it doesn’t happen…
You can do it easily with Aegisubs.
For example, if your raw is widescreen but you want to encode as 4:3 ratio with normal looking subs….
If you use Aegisubs, open the video file….Add subtitles…and then, Video->Override Aspect ratio->4:3. This will make the subs look squished but your vid will be the right aspect ratio. Then go to: Subtitles->Resample Resolution->click on “From Video“… and this will fix the subs so that they’re not squished looking.
Another way to do it is just to open it in wordpad and change a few things manually…
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This is if you don’t have to change aspect ratio…
Style: Default,Serifa BT,22,&H00333300,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
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This is once it’s been changed. Everything is a little wider.
Style: Default,Serifa BT,27,&H00333300,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,136.363636,100,0,0,1,3.666667,0,2,33,33,24,1
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4. Subbing using Advanced SubStation Alpha (part 2: fonts)
Fonts and colours that are reasonably good….
The font colours for the PrimaryColour fields are:
A:H00333300
B:H00990066
C:H00006666
D:H00336600
E:H00FF0033
F:H000066CC
G:H00660099
H:H009900CC
With SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour all being H00FFFFCC -> I’m not sure why these colours automatically seem to change colour a bit depending on the primary colour.
for the above texts, the font name was Serifa BT, Outline was 3 and Shadow was 0.
For example:
Style: Default,Serifa BT,22,&H00990066,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
Thank you Susu for the following information. ^___^
because of the colours, I experimented a bit and I found out, there’s a way to define them. I don’t have any idea what ‘H00′ is though, but ‘HFF’ made my subs invisible, transparent. so I think it’s kind of transparency? however, you know in html colors are always RGB (or however to say this >>) two numbers red, two numbers green, two numbers blue. this time it’s turned around. like H00BBGGRR.
thus
H00FF0000 -> blue
H0000FF00 -> green
H000000FF -> red
(you see, quite a simple experiment ^^; )
so if you go to photoshop or what, choose your color and you RGB is #33cc66 (a beautiful(?) green.) the you type in your subs H0066cc33 ^^
3. Subbing using Advanced SubStation Alpha (Part 1)
This is much nicer. You can have different fonts and font colours. You can save without timing and won’t lose your work!! ^___^
People say it’s kinda a bulky format but I really like it. ^^
1. The first part of subbing is pretty much the same as subbing with SubRip format.
2. Save as: File->Save As->Advanced SubStation Alpha (.ass)
3: Marking the lines…
With Subtitle Workshop, you can’t change the fonts. So if I need three different types of fonts/colors, I’ll just put a little sign on it so I can find those lines later when I go to edit with wordpad.
For example, in picture A:
All the regular dialogue, I sub as per usual. All the captions, I know I can later find with search function because they have [square brackets] around them. All the offscreen dialogue, I put a little ^ before each line, so that I can find them easily later.
4. After making the basic softsub file and saving it as .ass file in Subtitle workshop, the subtitles will look like picture B.
5. Changing the fonts…
Open the softsub in wordpad. It’ll look like something like this….
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[Script Info]
ScriptType: v4.00+
Collisions: Normal
PlayResX: 384
PlayResY: 288
Timer: 100.0000
[V4+ Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding
Style: Default,Tahoma,24,&H00FFFFFF,&H00FFFFFF,&H00FFFFFF,&H00C0C0C0,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,2,3,2,20,20,20,1
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Actor, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:05.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,*subbed by muish* whatever dialogue you put in, etc….
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Format lists the field names. Style lists the values in that field. For example, Name=Default, Fontname=Tamoha, Fontsize=24, etc. More on the exact font colours and names later.
You can have many lines of Styles for different font styles you’re gonna use. And change the font name and size and things.. colours and thickness of outline and stuff.
For example, I found all the offscreen dialogue, deleted the little ^ marker and changed the Name fields from Default to offscreen. Also, I searched for all the [ and changed the Name fields from Default to caption.... so that the font would look more like the picture C.
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Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding
Style: Default,Serifa BT,22,&H00333300,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
Style: caption,Serifa BT,22,&H00990066,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
Style: offscreen,Serifa BT,22,&H00006666,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,&H00FFFFCC,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,1,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Actor, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:07:21.45,0:07:22.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Bye!
Dialogue: 0,0:07:26.26,0:07:29.09,offscreen,,0000,0000,0000,,Crown J doesn’t seem to want to leave!
Dialogue: 0,0:09:49.61,0:09:50.69,caption,,0000,0000,0000,,[What?]
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6. Having two lines of different colour on one screen (like in picture D)
For example:
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Dialogue: 0,0:15:44.69,0:15:48.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My mom’s really a fan..
Dialogue: 0,0:15:44.69,0:15:48.63,offscreen,,0000,0000,0000,,Why didn’t you contact me?
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Note that they have overlapping/same timeline. Also, the earlier line in the sub seems to show up with the later line showing up above it. That is, the top line in the sub is actually the bottom line on the screen.
2. Basic softsubbing (using .srt format)
Assuming you’re as completely lost as I was when I started…. Forgive me if this is too basic. Also, I’ve learned to do this by trial and error..so some of it may seem strange to you if you know the program better. Please refer to the labels on the image.
1. Open program.
2. File->New Subtitle…
3. Movie->Open…
and then open the video you’re planning to sub.
4. I usually start off with a lot of empty subtitle lines. If you press the button labelled M, you’ll keep getting the empty lines in the N section. Note these lines have not been timed yet and have the same start and end timing. Then I go back to line one and start translating in the O section.
The very nice thing about Subtitle workshop is that you can start and pause video by just clicking on the black screen area.
Also, Once you finish writing the line of sub in the O area, you can move to the next line by pressing Shift/Enter.
Other useful to go back and forth in the movie if you’ve missed a dialogue and only need to go back a few seconds: Ctrl/Left Arrow will rewind 5 seconds, Ctrl/Right Arrow will fast forward 5 seconds.
Save frequently so that you don’t lose your work. ;_; I’ve lost my work many many times. Guh!
Note that with the .srt format (as convenient as it is…), if you have multiple lines of sub with same timing, it will only save one of those lines! You MUST TIME BEFORE YOU SAVE AND CLOSE THE PROGRAM IF YOU’RE SUBBING IN SRT FORMAT. OTHERWISE YOU WILL LOSE HOURS AND HOURS OF WORK!
Few other annoying things… sometimes the last line in a sub will not save for some reason. Make sure you check that it has saved…
Going onto Timing! (I do this once I’ve subbed a few minutes and save so that I don’t lose my work.)
1. Go back to line one and start with the beginning of movie..(or wherever you left off)
The left arrow J will put the start time of the highlighted subtitles to wherever the video is at that moment. The right arrow K will put the end time of subtitle line.
You’ll notice that When you press K, it automatically goes to highlight the next line and by default, the start time is about 0.03 seconds after the previous line ended. This is really useful when you’re having a long dialogue. You can just keep pressing K when one person’s stopped talking and the next one’s about to start…and don’t actually have to manually set the start time for each line. Once you’re comfortable, you can let the video just run and pretty much time at the speed of watching it.
Few details about timing. If there is less than 0.03 seconds between subs, they will usually be assumed to be overlapping and show up funny.
Also… hmmm.. this part is kinda hard to explain.
If you have lines 1 and 2… and your line 2 has a start time already set to be much later. When you press K to end the line 1, it will not change the start time for line 2.
However, if the start time for line 2 is before when line 1 ends, it will automatically change to the 0.03 seconds after line 1 when you press K with line 1.
2. And then…save. ^^ To save as .srt which is the most commonly used and simple file, go to File->Save As->scroll down to SubRip and save.
