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.