Tragic's Fansubbing Guide
By: Tragic (lol if you couldn't guess that one...)
Table Of ContentsI. Introduction
A. "How to be a Good Fansubber"
B. Basic Fansubbing Info
II. Fansubbing Positions/Jobs
A. Section Intro.
1) Karaoke
2) Typesetter
3) Encoder
4) Translator
5) Editor
6) Timer
III. Conclusion/End
I. IntroductionWell, to help start off our new fansubbing group in the making, I've decided to put together a thread full of reference materials, resources, tutorials, guides, and about everything I can find helpful to Fansubbing. I'll be continually updating this, so keep a watch on it! Let's start with something every fansubber should read:
A. "How to be a Good Fansubber"Basic guidelines on getting along in the world of drama fansubbing. (Rev 2.1)2008.4.27The number one thing to remember is still, and ever will be...
The Golden Rule:Simply put: Treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself.
The most important thing to keep in mind is having respect for others and for the work others produce. Not just in words, but through your actions as well.
If you remember this above all else, everything else just follows naturally. Smile
Competition/multiple groups working on a project:Multiple subtitled versions of a series are allowed on the site and tracker. (See below for more details)
As always though, we encourage everyone here to consider collaborations as much as possible and to make a formal announcement of your intentions somewhere highly visible, such as in the Fansubber Forum, Fansub wiki , and/or on your group's own website. (Making announcements in discussion threads is not effective, as they tend to be flooded off too quickly for others to be aware of your intentions.) See the D-Addicts Fansub Groups for more information on groups releasing here or if you'd like to add your own group. Smile
Resolving disputes/conflicts:This isn't a perfect world, and we don't harbor any illusions that everybody will get along all the time. This applies to disputes between fansub groups as well as between fans and fansub groups.
However, when such occasions arise we strongly recommend that any issues or disputes be dealt with through PM instead of openly on the forums.
The rationale for this is simply to keep the conversation focused between the parties involved without losing focus. Whenever disputes are broadcast on the forums, they become open to comments from the peanut gallery, who don't always understand the situation fully, and usually end up clouding the problem and escalating the argument.
If you don't feel comfortable approaching the other party about your problem, or have reached a point where a neutral party is necessary, please PM one of the moderators for help. Finding an amicable solution is in the best interests of this community, and all the moderators are dedicated to helping facilitate issues in a neutral manner.
As any veteran fansubber will tell you though:
If you intend to be a fansubber, grow a thick skin. Fansubbing has a tendency of making you the target for a lot of insults or attacks for any number of reasons. The best way of dealing with trolls is to ignore them or to bring them to the attention of one of the moderators.
Overall: Don't let your wounds fester. It's in everybody's best interest to treat and find solutions to problems before they get bigger. I admit there may not be a perfect solution, but I'd at least like to try to find one.
Soft-subs:1. While it's okay to post your own translations of a drama that already has an existing sub, please do not post corrected or modified soft subs of another translator's work unless you have contacted the original translator and gained their permission first.
2. Do not offer soft-sub transcriptions of fansubbed dramas that have been hardsubbed unless you have been given expressed permission by the original group.
3. When transcribing from a TV source, be sure to include proper credits to the original translator/broadcast source.
4. Do not start uploading subs from the middle of a series already in the progress of being subtitled (either hard and soft subs) unless there is expressed permission from the original fansubber.
Uploading Torrents:1. Make sure you read and understand the General Torrent Guidelines.
2. Please upload torrents in sequence. In other words, start with episode 1 and continue in the order of the series. Don't skip episodes!
Miscellaneous tips to stay on the sunny side of life:1. Please remember that no single group "owns" the right to subtitle a series exclusively. It would be best if both groups could at least discuss the possibility of collaborating on the project, but if they ultimately choose to work independently on the same project, there should be no hard feelings or penalties leveled at either group. This is supposed to be a hobby -- something "fun" Roll Eyes. We all know how tedious a job this is, and nobody needs to deal with all the extra baggage of a potential flame war. Just wish each other luck and move on.
2. Update the progress of subtitles every now and then to keep the masses from getting too unruly (read: annoying Fear ). This is particularly true if there is a sudden and unusual change from your normal or expected routine.
The modified "competition clause" rationale:Different groups can work on the same series even if one group announced their intentions before the other. No more "claiming" for series (on the condition that all subtitled series must be uploaded in sequence, starting from the first episode... Which is in accordance with the other rules already established on this site.)
When fansubbing first started, there were very few fansubbers around, so in order to maximize the number of translated series that got completed, we maintained the traditional honor system which gave preferential "rights" to the group which first announced their intention to subtitle the series. This was a long time ago, and I think the number of fansub groups in operation now currently makes this practice impractical.
There are some who may feel that competition is the path towards doom and gloom, but I think it's in the best interests of both the fansubbing and viewing community to open the waters. As long as everybody is open-minded and aware of it, competition can:
1. Improve the speed and quality of subtitles offered by competing fansub groups.
2. Reduce the number of stagnant fansub projects that are never completed because the single group which has claimed the series has disappeared.
3. Keep fansubbers interested in their work by truly allowing them to subtitle the series they WANT to (as opposed to barring them from subbing anything because another group has already announced their intention).
If competition shows up, it should not be looked at as a "threat". It should be recognized as an opportunity to improve your art.
Also:
If you're a typesetter, don't go telling the editor how to edit or vice versa. That's just plain stupid. That would be like me trying to tell Red how to drink. XP
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B.Basic Fansubbing InfoWoohoo... You've actually gotten to something important you care about! XP
Anyways, here are some basic fansub info pages. These go over what goes into fansubs, what's required, etc... It's probably in the best interest of everyone to read these links. This links also may lead to more info about specific fansubbing jobs, programs, and all that good stuff. Also, these links are all safe. No Hentai or porn anywhere. >_>
Fansubbers.org Guide - Pretty good link about fansubbing, the jobs, and some guides for some of the jobs. I recommend you check this one out.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/KB Fansubbing Blog - Little blog site about fansubs, the process put into them, staff, and the usual stuff. Put together by a veteran in fansubbing. Nice. XP
http://fansubbing.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-goes-into-fansub-aka-idiots-guide_05.html AnimeSuki Fansub Group Forums - A bible for everyone. You can ask questions here, find guides, post wanted ads, anything. Check it out. I check it out all the time.
http://forums.animesuki.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17==========================
II. Position/Job SectionIn this following section, I'm going to separate areas for links that will assist certain positions on the team. Now, some jobs have a crap load more guides/tutorials than others, so if you are going for a position that doesn't have many links or something, don't come bitching to me. Currently, I only have a handful for a tougher job, but I'm on the prowl for some more. XP
Positions/Jobs:Karaoke:This job is tough. Some of these links are going to be your bible. -_-'
To be frank, I don't think there is any good "path" to learning making good karaoke effects. It's really more of learning a lot of separate skills first, that are only somewhat related, and individually not really useful for creating karaoke, and then finally in a sudden flash of inspiration understand how to combine all those skills into making karaoke effects.
Yes, my opinion is that making karaoke effects is either something you "get" or not. Either you're one of those persons who "just get it" or you're not, and there isn't any good way of telling which category someone falls into.
It's about being able to combine various different tools in clever ways. For making ASS karaoke effects the "tools" would be:
1. Knowing the ins and outs of every single override tag and having a good feeling for how they work. Read the documentation on all the overrides over and over again and remember it all. Try them all out in practice and in all kinds of possible and impossible combinations to get a feeling for what works and what doesn't. There's pretty much an infinite number of combinations so it's obviously impossible to list every single thing you can do. This is why you need to not just know the technicalities of every tag, you need the imagination to think of ways to combine them.
2. Be proficient in programming. All advanced ASS effects are created using by writing a program (script) that transforms some simple timed input into complex effects. To some degree this also hooks back into point 1, knowing the override tags and how to combine them. The choice of actual programming language is irrelevant, any modern language should be useful for creating karaoke effects. There are some libraries/environments designed for creating karaoke effects (like Aegisub Automation with Lua) which are obviously more suited for working with/in, simply because they provide a framework so you can focus more on generating effects than eg. reading the input, but in the end they're just helps, not requirements, and anything can be used. (In fact I'd recommend trying to do karaoke without using a framework, or write a framework for yourself, since that gives a much better understanding of the mechanichs and eventually should lead to yourself becoming a better karaoker.)
By the way, this point refers to programming in general, as a concept, not just knowing one or two specific languages, but rather the ability to think of programs in an abstract way and learn languages on demand.
3. Have free time, lots of it. Any creative work takes time and effort. Of course it's possible to take shortcuts by using pre-written elements/elements and "just" combine those, but doing that also limits the possibilities and in the end, to create something original you will need lots of free time. Patience and curiosity to experiment also falls under this.
In the end, what I find the hardest myself, is getting a good idea. It's impossible to get anywhere without an initial idea of what you want to create.
There's generally two ways to get ideas.
First is to think of the tools you have available and want to use, then think of ideas you can implement using those tools, ie. adapt your ideas to your tools. I think this is often the faster way to get somewhere, since you limit the "idea space" a lot when limiting your tools. If you're pressed for time, this is a better choice.
The other is to let the imagination free and think of anything at all, and when you have a mental image of what you want to create, think of what tools could perhaps be used to implement that idea. This can be much harder, since there's no limit on the idea space, meaning it can be harder to decide on one single thing. Also, the tools required to implement an idea might not even really exist yet and you might need to create new ones. In the end you may need to adapt even "freeform" ideas to some tools to make them practically doable.
Most of the tools I have released (either as part of Aegisub or separately) are made as a result of an actual need. I originally made Aegisub Automation because I didn't have any tools for making karaoke at all. I had all kinds of ideas on how I would like to be able to generate ASS karaoke but didn't have the tools to be able to do it, the result was Automation. Using "clean" Auto3 was a hassle so I put even more of the tedious parts into the Karaskel. Then I wanted to create lots of different effects intermixed (my FLCL ED, for reference), but Karaskel didn't allow that in an easy way, so I added the "ool-fx" and "inline-fx" features. (In the end, ool-fx didn't survive into the Auto4 karaskel.) For a long time I wanted to do really crazy things and though of ways that could be done. Crazy things like my Gundam 00 karaokes. The result was OverLua.
Yes, pretty much all of it is a result of my more or less direct need, but I tried making things as generally useful as possible whenever I did something new.
In the end, it's not about the tools used, but how the final, rendered effect looks and feels, it's about the idea.
To get back to the original question, what you should learn next, my answer is "everything". You need to learn the technicalities of every tool first, then "find your red pill" and figure out how to combine things to make interesting effects.
------- Highlight, copy, paste and read at your Karaoke Learner's own risk. >_> ----------
(Summary of the above: Learn .ass shortcuts and programming techniques. LOTS OF THEM.)
Animesuki Karaoke Help Thread - Handy for when you need assistance and you need a sempai to teach you. XP
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=13795 Karaoke Timing Guide - This is a pretty handy .swf for learning how to time karaoke. Yes, this doubles for the timer, but the guy doing karaoke might to be timing their own songs too. XP
http://www.kasshin.net/karaoke_guide.swf Automation Tutorials - If you're going to do karaoke and don't know what automation is, you better go read up on it. YOU NEED THESE.
http://malakith.net/aegiwiki/Automation_Tutorials Aegisub Wiki - Lots of good information and stuff to read up on for use of Aegisub. I'd recommend reading it if you were a timer/typesetter as well. (Yes, this will be in their section as soon as I work on it some more....)
Lua 5.1 Manual - If you're dedicated to Karaoke, Lua is your language.
http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/ Adobe After Effects Help Thread - Need help with AAE? Go here. Plenty of nice people.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=29838 Karaoke Help Thread - Another nice AS thread that you can get some help at.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=13795Typesetting:Well, if you're typesetting, you should already know what programs typeset, and all that good junk. If you don't, you're already out of your element, and should
Haha, just kidding. That was just for lulz. XP
The basic typesetting programs that are used nowadays are Aegisub and SubStation Alpha. Aegisub is the new, modern, awesome program that does quite a bit, and is pretty awesome imo. SSA is an older program that is still holding strong with Aegisub and some people still use. If you want to check out Aegisub, just google it. As for SSA, you'll have to search some download sites for old installations as the site is down and SSA is no longer worked on.
Anyways, here's some resources for typesetters.
KickAss Anime: Typesetting - Good site for introduction to typesetting.
http://kickassanime.org/wiki/index.php?title=TypesetFansub Styling 101 - An alright little introduction to how to style your type. Kinda nice in a way.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/Styling101SSA Commands Ref. - Handy reference for commands. XP
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/SSArefTextSub - This plugin is such a miracle... Saves lots of time for Typesetters. Check it.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/SSAguideGET LOTS OF FONTS.http://www.dafont.com/en/http://fonts.lordkyl.net/http://moorstation.org/fontennium/fontennium.htmhttp://www.fontinator.com/http://www.abstractfonts.com/fonts/http://www.1001freefonts.com/http://www.fontfreak.com/http://www.acidfonts.com/http://www.fontfreak.com/index2.htmhttp://www.myfonts.com/browse/foundry/larabie/FontLister is a nice little program to use to view fonts without having to install them. That can be found @
www.download.com (use the search feature).
Encoder:Anything to do with encoding has been hard to find. >_>
Encoding = To transform data for storage or transmission, usually in such a way that redundancies are eliminated or complexity is reduced. Encoding is one of the most important jobs in fansubbing. The encoder determines the quality of the video, the size of the file, etc...
KickAssAnime Wiki - Brief page on what encoding is and some of the basics programs. Kind of a starter page.
http://kickassanime.org/wiki/index.php?title=EncodeDoom9 - This is the Encoder's hideaway. You will find your tools, senpai, guides and just about everything you need here. I recommend the forums there too.
http://www.doom9.org/ZX encoding manual - A outdated guide to encoding. Supposedly was the shit back in the day, so maybe it's worth giving a look at.
http://guide.zhentarim.net/ CCET (The Core Community Encoder's Toolkit (Proposal) - Possible nice toolkit in the making. Keep an eye on it.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=62472Quick Encode Guide/Intro to Encodes - Checked it out and seems to be a nice place to start.
http://www.totalgamingnetwork.com/main/showthread.php?t=163511Translator:The most important job in the fansubbing "industry," so to speak. To summarize, know Japanese, live it. XP Thank god we have Kryss.
Translator's Toolkit - Just a list of books/references that can be handy for a translator.
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df4pzdbs_12gmvj24So you want to be a translator... - Little quiz and some FAQs about translating. If you're learning, check this out. If you know Japanese and are fluent in it, no worries here.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/SoYouWantToBeATranslatorPositions in the Anime Industy - Handy for knowing how to translate credits.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/AindustryEditor:The editor is in charge of taking the Engrish that comes from the translator and changing it into a more... normal form. They rely on their knowledge of grammar and language.
Helpful Language Links - A list of links that can assist the editor in his position.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/Editorlink
^ NEVER do something like this. PLEASE. XP
Timer:The timer is the position that "times" the lines from the translator to the actual video. This job can be covered by the typesetter too (and commonly is). In my opinion, the timer actually helps a lot and takes a workload off of the typsetter.
The Art of Timing - A great guide to learning how to time. If you want to learn timing, check this out.
http://www.fansubbers.org/index.php/KB/TheArtOfTimingHow to Time: By Chihiro Subs - A quick little guide to timing by some people at [Chihiro] subs. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of their work, but this guide is alright. Check it out for a quickie. XP
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III. Conclusion/EndWell, That's all I have as of (1/25/09). I'll be updating this whenever I find more stuff (Since this is the start of it, it'll probably have updates daily). If any of you has any contributions you would like added to this thread, please PM me with the info, link, or whatever it is you'll be asking me to add in. Trust me, I have plenty more coming. Thanks for reading and good luck in your future fansubbing endeavors! XP
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