Multicolor subtitles

[tomeczek]

Remember "Kill Bill vol.1"?
The subtitles (translations into english) appear there in more than one color.

Anyone has an idea how to do it?

When I add subtitles into the movies (which I author myself in Scenarist) I use:
1. Subcreator to edit, synchronize and export subtitles to .SSA format
2. MaestroSBT to create .SST file and the bitmaps
3. Scenarist to import subtitles and finalize the DVD

Is there a way to have a set of subtitles for the movie in different colors?
Or mabe change something in .SSA or .SST files to accomplish that?

[violao]

Originally posted by tomeczek
Is there a way to have a set of subtitles for the movie in different colors?

Theoretically yes. There is a limit of max 4 different colors per subpicture (bitmap). For subtitles you'll tipically use only 2 - one for foreground, other for outline. You should be able to assign any of those colors to any of the 16 colors found in corresponding PGC's color table. This can be done per subpicture, which means that teoretically you can switch colors for every subsequent appearance of a subtitle. Just how you do that depends on the application you use for authoring.

I believe Srt2sup can do that, but it outputs .sup file for muxing with IfoEdit. For example, you could create subtitles, export them to .srt (Subrip format), Srt2sup them to .sup and mux with m2v and audio to new vob with IfoEdit Authoring feature. Then you import this vob into your authoring SW and make the rest. Or you first author everything, then replace with newly subtitled vobs and make a "mock" strip with IfoEdit.

Subremap can be used to remap colors of existing .sup subtitles.

[tomeczek]

@violao
Thank you for the tip! I will certainly test it!

While waiting on the response I tried to manipulate my .SSA file (generated by Subcreator, before running MaestroSBT.)
Here is what I did:

[v4 Styles]
Format: Name,Fontname,Fontsize,PrimaryColour,SecondaryColour,TertiaryColour,BackColour,Bold,Italic,BorderStyle,Outline,Shadow,Alignment,MarginL,MarginR,MarginV,Encoding
Style: Default,Arial,16,16777215,65535,65280,0,0,0,1,1,0,2,30,30,30,0

[Events]
Format: Marked,Start,End,Style,Name,MarginL,MarginR,MarginV,Effect,Text
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:07.00,0:00:13.00,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\i1}Martha, Jason and George are on their way from Queens\Nto Staten Island
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:03.00,0:00:07.00,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\b1}Not seen before
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:01:33.80,0:01:37.90,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,\N{\i1}It's early morning, September 14th. New York airports {\b1}will not{\b0} be re-opened today.

I defined another style (TGSubs) in [v4 Styles] section and edited the entry in [Events] section:

[v4 Styles]
Format: Name,Fontname,Fontsize,PrimaryColour,SecondaryColour,TertiaryColour,BackColour,Bold,Italic,BorderStyle,Outline,Shadow,Alignment,MarginL,MarginR,MarginV,Encoding
Style: Default,Arial,16,16777215,65535,65280,0,0,0,1,1,0,2,30,30,30,0
Style: TGSubs,Papyrus,50,16711808,16711808,16711808,0,1,1,1,3,0,2,30,30,30,0

[Events]
Format: Marked,Start,End,Style,Name,MarginL,MarginR,MarginV,Effect,Text
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:07.00,0:00:13.00,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\i1}Martha, Jason and George are on their way from Queens\Nto Staten Island
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:00:30.00,0:00:39.00,TGSubs,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,{\b1}Not seen before
Dialogue: Marked=0,0:01:33.80,0:01:37.90,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,\N{\i1}It's early morning, September 14th. New York airports {\b1}will not{\b0} be re-opened today.

After I saved the changes, MaestroSBT generated exactly what I wanted. Subtitle of different size, different color and at different location! :D

It seems to me, that you can define multiple Styles in [v4 Styles] section of the .SSA file and then manipulate Dialogue entries in [Events] section. :)

(for the "SSA" - Substation Alpha - specs, check http://moodub.free.fr/ass-specs.doc)

[tomeczek]

I just realized that additional styles can be created in SubCreator before saving subtitle file to .SSA.
In these Styles you can define the font, fontsize, all margins, subtitle colors, outlines, shadows etc.

After saving, the .SSA file has to be edited in order to assign proper "Style:" to each "Dialogue:" line. (See lines in red above)

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by tomeczek
Remember "Kill Bill vol.1"?
The subtitles (translations into english) appear there in more than one color.I wish I could remember, but Kill Bill is to be released on DVD next month, so I don't think you supposed to mention this kind of material around here. By the way, is it all in color in North America or with B/W segments?

[tomeczek]

@dimmer

I live in US and I remember those white and green english subtitles, the translations from Japaneese. Was it all in color? No. Those brutal scenes were all in B/W... (US DVD release date is April 13th.)

And:
There is nothing "fishy" here!

I just thought about this movie, when I realized that the subtitles I'm adding to my home video (white or light yellow) are hard to read on very light background. The "Kill Bill" was the first movie that came to my mind, if not the only one...

To answer another question, like "Why subtitles on home video?": My family's original language is not english. I try to put english and the other language subtitles on the most important videos, like daughter's wedding, grandchildren's christenings, so that everybody can have a whole picture and understanding.

And yes, I'm a Grandfather... and I loooove this video/DVD stuff... :)

[Dimmer]

@tomeczek
I heard in Asia they showed all brutal scenes in color, so many people hope they'll do this on DVD, at least among special features.

Anyways, I too like putting subtitles on home video. I suppose the explanation above sufficient for you to make use of all 16 colors you can have for each PGC. Every subtitle screen can use any 4 of these colors with different contrast if desired.