Hi guys,
Working with Avid's SubCap.
A big problem is that the SubCap effect often crops off the bottom of text.
Here is how to fix it and create decent looking subs:
Important to understand is that Avid uses a box to define the area where the subtitles need to be placed.
If you're (like me) do NOT want to have a box visible, you STILL have to set it, and then change the opacity of the box to 0, so it won't show.
Here we go:
In this example, I was working in a 1920x1080 project. For other formats, you'll have to change the parameters of course.
If your intended output is interlaced, first switch your project to Progressive to watch full res on your client monitor.
Some of the parameters we're going to set require you to have a sharp view! Once done, you can switch back to interlace if needed.
Drag the SubCap effect on a high V track. Have some video under it. (Watch out with AMA Linked footage, it seems to slow down editing the effect a lot!)
Start with 'caption Text' Open the editor by clicking the triangle (if it's not open already.)
Type two lines of text, make sure you have chars in both lines it that go below the font baseline, like j, y, g, p.
Also make sure you have a descending character right above a ascending character, so you can figure out the minimum line spacing. Something like this:
Sample jygp text
Sample SHOT jygp
Then go to 'Text Appearance'.
Set the color to White, or slightly grey. (Yellow is UGLY IM (not so) HO.)
Set the Opacity slider to 100
Choose a font in the font pulldown menu. I like Arial Narrow, but somehow that comes up as Italic... So, use something else if you also get bitten by this. Helvetica Narrow is a good option.
Choose a Font size, Drag the 'Font Size' wheels to about 50.
Set 'Line Weight' to 0
Set 'Outline Weight' to 180 (You'll probably alter it later on.)
Switch from 'No Outline' to 'Basic Outline' if it's not already on.
Pick black for the outline color.
Select 'No Shadow'
Select 'CenterAlign' from the lowest pulldown menu. NOTE: , this is the Alignment INSIDE the box you have to set up next.
Go to 'Box Appearance'
Set color to White. (Just to make the outline very well visible, we'll hide the box later on.)
Set Opacity slider to 100
Set the first pulldownmenu to 'One box'
Set the second pulldownmenu to 'Anchor to Bottom of text'
Set the third pulldownmenu to 'Anchor Center'
Set 'Anchor position X' to 0
Set 'Anchor position Y' so the text shows in the bottom. Not too low, especially if you need to be compatible with standard def. (Keep safe title area in mind!)
Set 'Extend X & Y' to 999
Set the fourth pulldownmenu to 'Fixed Width' , and the slider below to 1760 or something. (This makes setting left / center / right align in the 'Text Appearance' easier. Crop or Wrap does not really make a difference, since you probably won't (well, never should) exceed the line width.)
Set the fifth pulldownmenu to 'As many rows as needed' (This is important, if you don't set it, titles will NOT be set to the bottom by itself. Remember, subtitles are normally bottom aligned.)
Drag the 'Padding' wheels for both Vertical and Horizontal to about 20, to make sure you can see the outline and potential cropping problems.
Drag the 'Row Spacing' wheel up, as far as you need to get rid of the cropping. (Even further if you want more line spacing of course.)
Almost there...
Go back to 'Text Appearance'.
Carefully drag the 'outline Weight' wheel around. You'll see that at some values, the outline is thicker on either the left or the right side of the text. This is of course unacceptable.
It seems to have to do with the total width of a line. (Meaning, in one line it happens, on another line it does not.) Test it by typing some more and carefully watch on your client monitor. The bug appears and disappears...
Drag to a value where you like the outline, and fiddle around so it has the same thickness
In my example, 200 works for me.
When satisfied, go back to Box Appearance'.
Drag the 'Opacity' slider to 0 to get rid of the box.
This is how a decent subtitle looks like.
Now, import a subtitle file.
To set all values to all titles, you probably need to alter the Global Properties.
Click on the 'Edit Global Properties' box. (It looks like a checkbox, but is in fact a button.)
Then go to the ' ' tab, and set all values to either 'track' or 'sequence'
There is one exception:
On (opening) credits or lower thirds, you might want to move the subtitles to the top of the screen, and if so, you want the subs to be top aligned, instead of bottom aligned.
So, you need to move a couple of subs to the top, after setting all to the same looks, go back to Global Properties,
Text or STL?
Subcap can import both Text and EBU STL (Not to be confused with Spruce STL.)
There is little difference in working with either one of them.
Advantages of Text:
The files to import are human readable, and you can edit them with any text editor. They are also way more error proof when it comes to special characters.
Subcap text should be UTF-16le, but UTF-8 (with the correct BOM set) also seems to work.
Gotcha: in a 59.94 fps project, Avid EXPORTS subCap text with TC's where the frame numbers reflect the high TC values, but does NOT like that on input!
So, you cannot roundtrip easily with this with a text editor only. (Although Subbits understands this, and will output an Avid readable file.)
Advantages of STL.
AFAIK, none when it comes to SubCap.
STL contains vertical position information, as well as alignment. (Left, center, right.) And it supports font styles (normal, italic, bold etc.)
However, Avid does not honour that.
Then, due to historical reasons, STL has become a bastard format with lots of dialects.
It may very well happen that you'll end up with wrong characters in your text. Bottom line, if you can avoid STL, do so.
Posted by: Bouke <bouke@editb.nl>
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