Getting Into Fansubbing

[False Dawn]

Originally Posted by Toua

Not consistently.

Surely that goes for anything...

[pichu]

Originally Posted by False Dawn

Again, fade tags can be used well and not so well. Your definition of "worse" looks a little on the opaque side to me.

Always remember to use \2a&HFF& (k colors off) or anything non-00 when doing \fad or \fade (it will otherwise tint the border colors to the main colors; note: most typesetters i've seen never did this, hence producing incorrect fades). It's one of the vsfilter bugs. As for fading with shadows, compose a custom shadow font for the best result, or else, \t the shadow colors to reduce tinting.

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Here's one advise: don't make a group unless you can translate and to some degree, edit/QC, OR you know all the basic fansubbing skills like timing, encoding, typesetting, karaoke, and perhaps raw providing/capping. For me, I'm in the second category.

[Bot1]

Originally Posted by False Dawn

Actually, it's when you manipulate alpha codes to make one part of a sub appear before another part. It's frequently called "Lunar timing" because there's a mistaken belief that Lunar invented it

thats not really why... its just because lunar does it like mad. there was a time when they only did it once or twice per ep and that worked pretty well. then they stopped doing it for a while until some guy asked about it on the forum and after that they went kinda crazy about it

[pichu]

Oh, you know - \alpha&HFF& is supposed to be the same as \1a&HFF&... not the overall alpha channels, which is a bug in vsfilter. (i.e., it would be different if you're using another library - not wise to use in softsubs) I would personally prefer \frx90 or \fry90 to hide the text, which both basically does the same.

[bobber205]

I am talking with Ayu subs and I am hope I will be able to join them maybe this weekend.

They're having me time an episode. It's not been too bad so far. I am a OS X user and I have been using Miyu. What do you guys recommend?

I'm building a PC rig this summer but if there's an excellent cheap or free app for OS X, that would be swell.

[jfs]

We are working on making Aegisub usable on OS X, but it's still not quite there. (Lots of interface glitches and audio playback is still not really stable. Video support is also somewhat lacking.)
A working and usable OS X version of Aegisub is one of the main goals for version 2.00, and we hope to reach that in a few months (But we really need some dedicated and competent developers to help out with adding workiness to non-Windows platforms! </plug>)

[martino]

Doesn't Sabbu work fairly well as a timing program for the Mac OS platform? (For now anyway, until Aegisub will be successfully ported.)

[bobber205]

Originally Posted by jfs

We are working on making Aegisub usable on OS X, but it's still not quite there. (Lots of interface glitches and audio playback is still not really stable. Video support is also somewhat lacking.)
A working and usable OS X version of Aegisub is one of the main goals for version 2.00, and we hope to reach that in a few months (But we really need some dedicated and competent developers to help out with adding workiness to non-Windows platforms! </plug>)

I would be more than happy to do any testing you might need done.

[beast]

hay guys! =)

I'm fairly new to fansubbing and intend to participate in a new fansub project. So here a couple of questions:

1. Which timing/subtitling programs do most fansub groups nowadays use?
2. And which is the easiest one to use if we want to go for a minimalistic approach, i.e. no fancy karaoke or font effects?

[TheFluff]

Sabbu and Aegisub are both pretty popular timing programs. For typesetting, Aegisub and/or a text editor. I'd Sabbu and Aegisub are about even in the ease-of-use department.

[False Dawn]

Originally Posted by beast

intend to participate in a new fansub project.

A word of warning from watching a lot of the posts in these forums: make sure you have a translator first above anything else. No translator = no group. A number of new groups are starting up without a translator, and they're very difficult to find, so the group goes into stasis for an indefinite amount of time.

If you have one already though, great!

[beast]

Originally Posted by TheFluff

Sabbu and Aegisub are both pretty popular timing programs. For typesetting, Aegisub and/or a text editor. I'd Sabbu and Aegisub are about even in the ease-of-use department.

Thanks, I'll get both and see which is more to my liking!

Originally Posted by False Dawn

A word of warning from watching a lot of the posts in these forums: make sure you have a translator first above anything else. No translator = no group. A number of new groups are starting up without a translator, and they're very difficult to find, so the group goes into stasis for an indefinite amount of time.

If you have one already though, great!

Thanks for the advice! Fortunately for us, this project will merely involve the ripping of video, audio and subtitles (of yet unknown quality) and proof-reading, editing and timing of said subtitles.

[D404]

Originally Posted by beast

Thanks for the advice! Fortunately for us, this project will merely involve the ripping of video, audio and subtitles (of yet unknown quality) and proof-reading, editing and timing of said subtitles.

That isn't fansubbing. >_>

Sounds like DVD-Ripping to me.

[jfs]

It might just as well being taking old VHS fansub and re-doing with a newer, better quality source, or something to that effect. (Or perhaps non-English subs based on English subs.)

[Crovax]

Don't some Chinese/HK DVD bootlegs come with English subs as well? Even though the series is actually unlicenced in the North America and Europe.

And yea, updating old VHS-fansubs to the digital age is nice. Some older series quite simply deserve it, and with some OCR...

One could still question whether it qualifies as fansubbing, or simply as re-encoding/revamping the work of fansubbers, but at least it'd make it something that is discussable on here. ^_^

GL beast.

[Soluzar]

Originally Posted by Crovax

Don't some Chinese/HK DVD bootlegs come with English subs as well? Even though the series is actually unlicenced in the North America and Europe.

They do... I have a couple of bootleg sets of unlicensed and unfansubbed anime in my possession. However, there's just no way for someone who doesn't speak Japanese to bridge that gap... sometimes the English is just a million miles removed from the real meaning of the line. It would be possible for a group with a real translator to do such a job, but then why bother, if you've got a real translator

[False Dawn]

I've been told that some Japanese R2 DVDs have English subs on them too, though apparently they're so Engrish that you're probably better off getting a translator instead.

[jfs]

Yes, most Japanese DVD releases of Ghibli movies have English subtitles. For the most they're quite good, but some are horrible. (For example, the English subtitles on Tonari no Totoro R2J are based on a transcription of the old Fox dub, which means it's totally wrong on some scenes and entirely missing subs on some other.)
The Saikano DVD's (both TV and OVA) also have English subtitles, of somewhat more questionable quality but still very watchable.
The limited edition of the FMA Movie DVD also had English subs. I don't know about the quality of those subs.
(But this thread is being rather sidetracked now, sorry )

[kagetsu]

Originally Posted by beast

hay guys! =)

I'm fairly new to fansubbing and intend to participate in a new fansub project. So here a couple of questions:

1. Which timing/subtitling programs do most fansub groups nowadays use?
2. And which is the easiest one to use if we want to go for a minimalistic approach, i.e. no fancy karaoke or font effects?

Back when I use to subtitle I used Subtitle Workshop. Simple controls and easy layout. Don't be afraid either of tweaking with the 1000's of a second as thats where most of tweaking was done to really hit the sweet spot. Once you get your routine down it'll become easier and faster. No sound wave visualization but I never liked that anyways really with some other programs, I just needed to see the video. Average time would vary on amount of lines given to me which ranged anywhere from like 240-800 for each episode. 800's were rare though and happened mostly in Godannar because that annoying main character talked at 100 mph. Wish I still had the .srt's of all the old shit I did, but it was growing to large and taking up dust so they were deleted. Haven't fansubbed in like 4 years so I dunno whats out nowadays but this program is just fine.

[Nicholi]

Originally Posted by kagetsu

Back when I use to subtitle I used Subtitle Workshop. Simple controls and easy layout. Don't be afraid either of tweaking with the 1000's of a second as thats where most of tweaking was done to really hit the sweet spot.

PROTIP: Clearly SSA/ASS timing can't go further then centiseconds. Thats every 1/100 of a second. And when you apply that subtitle to a video its not even fully centisecond based then because typically your average show is 23.976fps so thats a new frame every 41.7ms or 0.04 seconds. You can't time more accurately then the video you are dealing with. Well you can but it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. There is no millisecond timing sorry to say :P, never has been (wouldn't make a difference even for SRT).