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)