alternative title: awesome-fansubbing
This isn’t actually a guide, just a bunch of links to other peoples’ guides for specific things. If you follow them, you should end up with some at least semi-decent subs.
Mostly oriented towards anime, but should apply to most things (with some notable exceptions).
explanations of the different roles are taken from guide.encode.moe, and are licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0. Some portions are omitted, but otherwise unchanged. Aegisub Configuration is nicked from the GJM fansubbing page.
also keep in mind that this is all just like, my opinion, man
For more resources, and to talk with actual people, join the GJM discord server and give yourself the fansubber role.
3.4.0 is out but you will probably still want to use arch1t3cht’s fork for now, as it’s still where the new shiny features are – see this github issue for details.
You can use other builds/versions if you want, but make sure to configure them properly.
Upon starting up Aegisub the first time, you should change the following settings:
View > Options > Advanced > Video
libass.Restart Aegisub for the changes to fully take effect. Note that script settings may override the colour space.
See guide.encode.moe for why these settings are important.
[13:20]arch1t3cht: you need to install ffms2 from git, not from whatever your distro has
[13:20]arch1t3cht: for example ffms2-git from the aur if you're on archAlternatively, you can use a different video source altogether. arch1t3cht’s fork has a few, apparently everything should work out of the box now as long as you have python and vapoursynth installed.
8thSin Translations - Fan Translation Guide [archive copy]
TED translations: How to Tackle a Translation [archive copy]
TED translations: The translator’s research toolbox [archive copy]
Translation theory overview [PDF]
An Open Letter on Translating (Martin Luther, 1530)
In Other Words - A Coursebook on Translation - ebook ISBN 978-1-3156-1918-7
Wikipedia: List of gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms
sci.lang.japan FAQ: What are these pseudo-English words like salaryman? (wasei-eigo)
sci.lang.japan FAQ: What “false friends” are there between Japanese and English?
The Editor is responsible for making sure that the script reads well. Depending on the source of the script, this may mean grammatical corrections and some rewording to address recommendations from the Translation Checker. However, more often than not, the job will entail rewriting, rewording, and characterizing large portions of the script.
The Translation section is worth a read. the theory of it is still interesting and useful, even if you can’t actually take the words from one language to another.
Collectr’s Curmudgeonly Guide to Editing
Light/Kaleido’s style guide [wayback machine]
editing style comparison meme [large image]
read books
TED Translations wiki: How to break lines [archive copy]
BBC Subtitle Guidelines: Line breaks
fwiw, UA’s linebreaker script seems to do what I would’ve done anyway ~70% of the time. You still have to do the other ~30% though.
The Timer is responsible for when the text representing spoken dialogue shows up on screen. The timing of subtitles is much more important than one might assume. The entrance and exit times of the subtitles, or a fluid transition from one line to the next, can make a large impact on the “watchability” of the episode as a whole.
Read WhyNot’s guide [PDF] for the basics. Feel free to ignore what it says about settings.
Then read unanimated’s timing guide for the slightly-less-basics and better settings.
also his guide on Timing without TPP
Use the spectrogram, not the waveform. It might take a bit of getting used to, but it’s worth it.
Don’t just blindly trust the timing post-processor, it has no idea what’s really going on. Do a pass through and fix any mistakes it may have made.
Eventually you should grow out of the TPP and start doing it manually with hotkeys etc
Alternatively, use PhosCity’s Timing Assistant script. It’s like the TPP, but it only runs one line at a time, and you can check and change its decisions as it makes them. This means that, in theory, you can get the entire thing done in one pass.
You should generate your own keyframes, the ones in the video probably won’t be very good, or just straight up wrong.
There’s a nice batch script that comes with all the stuff you need. You should be able to just drag your video onto it. Apparently you can also add it to the Send To menu.
get ffmpeg
get scxvid-standalone - you’ll need to compile it on not-windows, but this is reasonably straightforward
ffmpeg -i vid.mkv -f yuv4mpegpipe -vf scale=640:360 -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync drop - | scxvid vid_keyframes.log
If it misses frames, try removing the -vf scale=640:360 bit.
my script looks like this
#!/bin/sh
ffmpeg -hide_banner -i "$1" -f yuv4mpegpipe -pix_fmt yuv420p -vsync drop - | scxvid "$1.keyframes.txt"
notify-send -u low "Keyframes generated!" "$1"there’s also myaa’s keyframe script. WWXD, the thing it uses to actually generate the keyframes, claims to be ~6× faster than scxvid.
Setsugen no ao also wrote one that exposes If you want more control over your keyframes, use this script by.
You’ll need a working VapourSynth install for both of these.
Zahuczky’s Karaoke Timing guide. The 0th part of a larger KFX guide.
It’s also covered in WhyNot’s guide [PDF]
ideally don’t
but if you must, see WhyNot’s guide (again) for an idea of what it is and how it works. then ignore it and use my karaoke2alpha script instead. K-Time the line and run the script, and it’ll make some alpha-timed lines for you.
personally i like alpha timing for r-r-r-r-r-really exaggerated/over-the-top stutters but not much else
Typesetters (abbreviated TS) are responsible for the visual presentation of translated text on-screen. These are generally called signs. Almost every sign the Typesetter works on will be unique, requiring ingenuity, a wild imagination, a sense of style, and a high degree of attention to detail. The Typesetter’s goal is to produce something that integrates so well into the video that the viewer does not realize that it is actually part of the subtitles. Something to remember about typesetting is that there is no one way to typeset a sign. There are, however, incorrect ways that are not visually pleasing, do not match the original well, are difficult to read, or are too heavy (meaning computer resource intensive).
There’s only one really good piece of documentation. Everything else is either word-of-mouth, or you have to figure it out on your own. I once again encourage joining the GJM discord server and getting advice from real human beings.
unanimated’s typesetting guide
Fansubbing wiki: Typesetting FAQ
>vertical text [youtube]
AI2ASS - A script to export ASS vector objects from Adobe Illustrator. Very powerful, very addictive.
Typesetting in Adobe Illustrator
Masking with Photoshop and Illustrator
svg2ass - Alternative to ai2ass. much worse, but works for anything that can output svg.
Aegisub-Motion - The motion tracking script.
Aegisub-Perspective-Motion - A recent innovation that tracks perspective as well.
Motion tracking with Mocha and Aegisub-Motion
PhosCity’s blender tracking guide
UA’s mocha guide [outdated?]
There are lots of fonts that the studios use pinned in #typesetting in GJM.
You don’t need to find the exact font the studio used. Even if you do, the latin letters might not be nearly as stylised as the kanji. As long as the font matches decently well, no one will care.
Or, alternatively, do something completely different. As long as it makes some sense for it to be there, you’re probably ok.
At some point, it’ll start making sense to use a font manager. I hear FontBase is good.
i.e., what do your subtitles actually look like? Don’t skip this bit, even if all your other typesetting is just \an8.
Underwater’s Styling Guide Rant [wayback machine]
Subtitle Appearance Analysis Part 1: The Font
Subtitle Appearance Analysis Part 2: Font Size
Subtitle is important - Austin Powers [youtube]
Remember,
TL;DR: Just steal GJM-Main 👍
Style: Default,Gandhi Sans,74,&H00FFFFFF,&H000000FF,&H00000000,&H96000000,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0,1,4,1.5,2,135,135,50,1
Style: Overlap,Gandhi Sans,74,&H00FFFFFF,&H00000000,&H00651018,&H96000000,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0,1,4,1.5,2,135,135,50,1Like typesetting, but this time there’s barely even one piece of documentation. Again, GJM discord.
You’ll probably need to know how to typeset, or at least what the ass tags do, so you can express what you want to the templater. You’ll also need some K-Timed lines, of course.
Zahuczky’s KFX Guide [incomplete, work in progress(?)]
Jockotan’s blog [incomplete, dead]
A Programmer’s Guide to Karaoke Templaters
debatable whether or not this is even part of the fansubbing process but may as well put some stuff
Jaded Encoding Thaumaturgy Encoding guide
there was also the guide.encode.moe by the same crowd but idk that it got very far
r/animepiracy wiki has some more links like these
Captain Disillusion: CD / nice youtube vids about basic fundamentals of how video works, don’t mind the makeup
Quality Checkers (abbreviated QC) are often the last eyes on an episode before it is released. They are responsible for ensuring that the overall quality of the release is up to par with the group’s standards. They are also expected to be familiar with the workflow and many intricacies of every other role.
Collectr’s Curmudgeonly Guide to QC
Light’s QC Ramblings (from MRF #general)
You can only really QC well if you know what you’re looking for - you basically need to know all the other roles. This makes it probably one of the hardest roles to do well.
go read all the other categories
r/animepiracy has a wiki with some nice guides:
but note that these evolved out of the Seadex muxing standards, as such they are more aimed at shitmuxes than fansub releases
muxtools makes life a lot easier if you can get a script working
Honestly the hardest part these days is getting a nyaa account to actually post your release. I think the all you can really do is find someone with an account and ask them nicely to upload for you
Have a look through the DependencyControl script browser and the fansubbing wiki’s list of scripts not available in DependencyControl to get an idea of what’s out there.
unanimated has a page with details of his scripts
completely optional, but writing your own scripts for repetitive tasks can save you a lot of time in the long run
read lyger’s guide, skim unanimated’s extra stuff, RTFM, and google any lua stuff you don’t know.
Prior knowledge of programming will be very useful. A decent grasp of maths would definitely help if you write typesetting scripts.
You can also use MoonScript if you want.
I don’t know whether my use of the guide.encode.moe descriptions qualifies as fair use/fair dealing, so: This “work” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.