OT: About Quality of subtitles ?

? and the use of build in or 3rd party generators.

I just had a telephone conversation with a customer of mine (a big international company) who is using TitleExchange and FCP to create subtitles for theatrical release.
These guys are normally "total AVID", but use some FCP stations to create the subtitles for further "laser to 35mm film". They are using the build in standard Apple FXscript generators or my free TextUp. And they say quality is perfect with their settings.
So obviously these often called "don't use" Apple generators which come with FCP aren't that bad if you do the right settings.

Just a note for those who want to do subtitling text in FCP and got in trouble - tweak.
Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

congrats on the high profile usage, Andreas.

i'm a big fan of Andreas's Text Up Pro.
i'd say that if you are doing subtitle work in FCP without it you are crazy!


im not exactly sure what it is people have aginst the built in generators,
or their cousins like TUP.
ESPECIALLY when it comes to subtitling.

i'm just finishin a pretty big project that is benig shown on our "multicultural" TV station.
they are Subtitle fascists!
and they are ok with the FCP generated ones, once we get the settnigs right.


so Andreas, can your people share their settings?


nick

Quote

so Andreas, can your people share their settings?

I don't think they will do, seems to be their secret.
But as a little success story they just recently bought some more TEP which for them means they had to buy some kind of dongle for each license. The dongle is a MacPro with FCP and additional drives
I'll do some tutorial on how to setup subtitles with FCS about christmas time. Beside a workflow this will include the way how to setup the generator and it's settings.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Quote
I'll do some tutorial on how to setup subtitles with FCS about christmas time. Beside a workflow this will include the way how to setup the generator and it's settings.

Can we publish on lafcpug? That tut would be HUGE.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Hey Andreas, what do you think about incorporating some ways of making the subtitle tools friendly to other languages? I routinely have to deal with Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese subtitles and they often behave strangely in FCP, Word and Photoshop.


www.derekmok.com

Also recently revealed is Digital Film Trees use of LiveType in the post-production of "Weeds". It's even on their highlight reel under "titles".

Just goes to show you. The tools of FCS allow workflow wins in places you might not always anticipate.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
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Mike, for sure we can publish the tutorial at LAFCPUG. I was asked for this tutorial by some german people and promised to do it in German, but Clay Coleman - some of you may know him - said he'll do the translation. This way I do save time and "the English" will be better.

Derek, all these Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese and other 2-byte character languages should work fine. There might be trouble if you use the "copy-paste" approach as some apps modify the text for display and then they are not clean Unicode or UTF-8 text any more for whatever reason.
Even Apple apps like TextEdit are not able to work correctly with right to left reading languages. It's always a good idea to use BBEdit or something similar which will give you the "correct bytes". I do have several customers who use these languages for subtitles and it works fine. My Chinese is a bit bad these days, so I'm not sure whether the subtitles translated correctly when I did it last time, but no complains from the customer. FCP does handle these characters fine especially when they come in thru XML as there is always some kind of instruction with the XML how to handle.

Kevin, that's interesting. I'll always tried to avoid LiveType as it internally does use NTSC SD settings. But that doesn't mean the result will look bad.
Motion is is a good alternative as it is resolution independent and it can handle both vector and bitmap based fonts. By using "Motion Templates" for titles, subtitles or lower thirds you get the option to change the appearance of hundreds of titles just with a few mouse clicks. And as with LiveType you even can use fonts which are not available in FCP.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Quote

My Chinese is a bit bad these days

You speak Chinese too?



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

I know a few words to speak - but NO word I could write.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Any issues with Russian Cyrillic Alphabet? It works in most apps it seems...

I'm learning at the moment - just got the Letters and Numbers and a few phrases - Having real problems with saying the letter 'bl' though!



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Quote
Ben King
Any issues with Russian Cyrillic Alphabet? It works in most apps it seems...

It does. But what's the letter 'bl' ?

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Its said like an 'e' mixed with 'UL' and lower jaw movement but I keep saying eee or ul and not mixing it!!!





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

I had 2 problems with scrolling text in Motion recently.. I'm wondering if it's related to the copy and pasting.. The first was the spacing between lines. I copied and pasted it from Boris text and it couldn't get the line spaces right after I reopened the Motion project.

The second was that after a while I couldn't change the size and color of specific lines. Changing it will change the rest of the text.

That being said, the quality of Boris did look pretty good.



www.strypesinpost.com

> I know a few words to speak - but NO word I could write.

Vielleicht möchten Sie mir Deutsch einmals einlernen, und ich kann Sie Chinisch einlernen?




www.derekmok.com

Yikes! Chinese!



www.strypesinpost.com

Derek, looks cool. What does it mean?

And your German is way better than my Chinese.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

"Everybody learn Chinese!"


www.derekmok.com

"Yah RabotAyoo Vuh eeNdustrreee Kino ee TV"



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

i work in the film & tv industry?

(rabotayoo = work, or close, and as you probably all know is where the word "robot" comes from)



nick in Pittsburgh,
NOT working!

Nick

You coming to LA?

Michael Horton
-------------------

Robot is actually from the Czech "Robota" version for "drudgery" or "slave labour".... but yes (Old) Russian and Czech are very similar sounding.

Origin here: [capek.misto.cz]



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

"Nick
You coming to LA?"

Hi, Michael.
yes!
will be there tomorrow, flying in around 1.30pm.
i'll be in meetings Thursday & Friday with hopefully some free time in there,
then free Saturday till i fly out at quarter past 11 (pm)

whirlwind tour!


see you soon, i hope,
nick