Karoke Lesson 4: In-depth Explanation of Template Lines + Hardsubbing

Now for the next lesson, a more in-depth look at template lines.

You may have noticed if you have experimented with the effects that you can do is that sometimes, the line moves with the syllable instead of the syllable only. This is due to the template line. Typing in "template line" in the effect field makes the syllable do the desired effect with respect to the entire line. (i.e.: the line moves sideways with the \fscx tag)

So say you wanted to make only the syllable move without affecting the line.  This is where template modifiers come in. In "template line", the word 'line' is actually a template modifier. 

So what are the different template modifiers? Here are some examples:

template syl - syl is the modifier, and instead of the effect affecting the entire line, it only affects the syllable.

Try this effect with a "template syl" modifier in the effect field and apply the karaoke template:

{\r\k$dur\t($start,$mid,\fscx130\fscy130)\($start,$mid,\fscx100\fscy100)}

What did you notice? Yes, the syllables are all bunched up in the center or to whichever alignment you assigned it in. To fix this, we need to set up its position properly.

{\r\k$dur\an5\pos($x,$y)\t($start,$mid,\fscx130\fscy130)\($start,$mid,\fscx100\fscy100)}

We added an alignment tag and the position tag. The pos($x,$y) will set each syllable to its respective position in the line. Now apply the karaoke template and see what happens. The syllables grow in place and return to normal but the line remains in its position without moving sidewards or upwards or downwards or whatsoever. 

But wait, some of you might notice that there are somewhat big gaps in between each syllables. This can be fixed with resampling the screen resolution. Go to Subtitles > Resample Resoultion. A dialogue box should appear. Under resolution, click on "From Video" and click the OK button. This should be fixed now. Apply the karaoke template again and you should see that the syllables are now correctly placed.

Another template modifier is char.

template char - this time, instead of syllables, the effects will affect the character instead of the syllable.

Lets try with this example. First use "template syl" on this effect then use it with "template char" to see the difference between the two.

{\r\k$kdur\an5\pos($x,$y)\t($start,$end,\frz360)}

So what did you notice? Yes! Using syl, the syllable rotates 360 degrees (all characters together), but when using char, the characters rotate 360 degrees individually. The use of syl and char makes even more effects. Just experiment and you will discover new effects for the karaoke you're making. Have fun.

Next Time - Karaoke Lesson 5: More Template Modifiers

And for something extra, Hardsubbing.

There are various programs used for hardsubbing. But I use vdub or VirtualDub. 

You can download it here: http://www.virtualdub.org/download.html

For applying the subtitles, I use a filter called VSFilter. You can get it here: http://www.dlldll.com/vsfilter.dll_download.html

This is a .dll file. Rename this .dll to .vdf and copy this into the Vdub plugins folder. 

To apply the subs/karaoke effects into the video, open vdub. File > Open Video File... and choose the video in which you want the subs/karaoke to appear. Then go to Video > Filters... Click on Add.. in the new dialogue box and choose TextSub filter. Choose the .ass/.ssa file (the subs/karaoke) you want to add to the video. Now that the subs/karaoke have been added (you can check the output video to verify), go to File > Save as AVI... and just wait for the video to finish encoding. Oh, and don't forget to add some compression to the video unless you want a very large video size. Compression can be found under Video > Compression...

And there you have it.. XD

If you have questions, just comment here or something.

A Few Updates + Karaoke: Lesson 3

First up: updates..

Shinsen has had me doing nothing for these past few weeks.. No new timing projects or anything.. And Kuroshitsuji 12 has been released. And again, I wasn't able to time it. Well, hopefully episode 13.. Or hopefully, just a new episode to time. 

As for zorori-project, episode 32 is coming up so I'll have to get working on the karaoke effects for it..

And speaking of karaoke, here is the long awaited Karaoke Lesson 3: Template lines.. XD

Now that you have a basic timed karaoke, you will probably want to add a more appealing type of effect on it rather than have it simply change color. This is where template lines come in.

Sure, you can add the effects on the lines manually, but that costs time and too much effort will be wasted. And let's face it, if you make an error, it will be a hell of a job just looking for one mistake hidden in all those lines.

So what are template lines? These are simple codes which are used by the karatemplater to add group of effects to the karaoke. 

First, lets start off with setting a line to be used as a template line. Important: The template line must always be the first lines of the project. It will not be read by the karatemplater if the template line is located in the center or the end. 

First, insert a line before the start of the karaoke song. Then, check the comment box. Yes, this line is a comment. Then finally, in the effect field, type in "template line" and press the enter key.

Now that you have a template line, it is time to add the effect. a simple format of the effect would be:  {[effects]}

Yes, its just as simple as that. Be sure that you have learned and mastered all the .ASS tags and know how they work and how they work with other tags. But, to refresh your memory, http://aegisub.cellosoft.com/docs/ASS_Tags , here it is again. 

So now lets try a simple effect. Lets say, you want the syllable to change in size horizontally. Now what I'm going to use here is the transform tag \t.  Again, the \t tag has the following properties: \t([time start],[time end],[ass tag]) the list of ASS tags that can be used with \t can also be found in the link above.

{\r\k$kdur\t($start,$end,\fscy150)}

Okay, explanation time. \r will reset the style to its original set style (it will not reset the style to the default arial and size 20 font style but rather to the style you set the karaoke on). \k$kdur will use the duration of the karaoke as the duration for the effect to last. And finally, \t($start,$end,\fscy150) will transform the syllable with a  font scaling y-axis to 150 percent of its original size from the start of the duration to the end.

You might ask, what is it with the $. These are called in-line variables. They represent a value that is true within the line that the effect will be rendered in. Example: $start is the starting time of the duration of the karaoke syllable, while $end is obviously the ending time. For more info of these in-line variables, see this: http://aegisub.cellosoft.com/docs/Karaoke_Templater_Reference:_Inline_variables

Now that you have a code for the line, you are now ready to apply it. Click on Automation > Apply Karaoke Template

Now that the effects have been applied, you can now see the effects by playing it. The effect should be the syllable growing vertically in size. 

Another example, this time, after growing, it will shrink back to its original size.

{\r\k$kdur\t($start,$mid,\fscy150)\t($mid,$end,\fscy100)}

Its the same effect, but this time, once it gets to the middle of the duration, it will shrink back to its original 100% size. 

So now that you have learned template lines, feel free to experiment on what effects you can do. Maybe changing colors, rotating, fading. Feel free to ask question by posting a comment here.

P.S.: Note that when changing sizes, the lines kinda move with it. This will be covered in-depth in the next lesson.

Next lesson: And In-depth Explanation of Template Lines

(It covers the use of template modifiers)