I've subbed a couple of projects, so I can offer you advice as far as the process/steps I follow ^^ First, it depends on where you're getting your subs from. If they're already in .srt format, then timing them is easy. You simply need to replace the French subs with the English subs and voilà - you have your new English subs. If, however, you're translating from a streaming website and don't have access to the original subs, you'll need to use another program to time your subs to the video. I use
Aegisub, so that's the process I'll explain here.
The first thing I usually do is translate the entire episode into English and have that translation in an easily accessible format, like a .txt file. Then, I open up Aegisub and go from there. Note that to use Aegisub, you'll have to have an original video source (in other words, you'll have to have the file for the episode downloaded onto your computer so Aegisub can read it and get the audio from it). Here are my steps :
- Open Aegisub
- Open the video file (Too Late to Say I Love You 001.avi, for example. If the file's a big one - a 720p source, for instance - I usually zoom out 50% so it fits better on my screen, but that depends on the size of your monitor, of course ^^)
- Extract the audio from the source video (an option in Aegisub, really easy to do. Without this step, you won't be able to time the subs, though, so don't forget it!)
- Resize the font so you can see the text your putting onto the video
- Time the subs~ Aegisub is really user friendly, so this part is easy. Just match the text from your .txt file to the audio being said and click the check mark. The only reason why it's so time consuming is that some videos can have over 700 lines of dialogue! You'll have to time every single line ><;;
- Save your file as either a .srt or a .ass file. .srt is the simpler of the two merely because it has limited things you can do to the actual text. Most subs are released in this format because the majority of video players can read it. .ass files can have their text more stylized (different colors, having the text on the top or bottom of the screen, etc), but not all video players can read this format.
- Release your subs to the public!~
If you want to hardsub your project so that the subs can never be separated from the correct video they're timed to, that's a whole 'nother, completely separate process altogether. Also, I admit that I know nothing about "segmenting" nor what it is. I assume it has something to do with timing subs that are going to be cut into pieces on a streaming site since segmenting is something Viki does, but I'm not for sure because I've never done it that way. I think it's better to just release the whole file as one anyway ^^;;
That's just one way to do it, though. I'm sure a lot of other subbing groups have their own processes ^^ All in all, I think it's great that more people are getting interested in subbing Chinese dramas - they really do need more love. Good luck to the both of you!
