DCI XML subtiltles - custom positioning for each line?

[mdudzik]

Hello all,

I am aware that DOM forum is not the best place for my question, but hopefully someone will be able to help me?

From time to time, mostly for festival screenings, I need to change position of a single line (not all of them) to completely custom (eg. 10% to the right and 20% up) from eg.:

HAlign="center" HPosition="0.0" VAlign="bottom" VPosition="8"

to make it for example:

HAlign="center" HPosition="10.0" VAlign="bottom" VPosition="28"

Is there any application that you could suggest me that is able to to it? Doing it manually is not really conveniant; I'd love to have some kind of WYSIWYG so I could test the result in real-time... not necessarily FOSS but of course - the cheaper the better.

Clipster can do it, but I am looking for something much more affordable...


Well, looking forward to read your ideas.

all the best!
M.

[Carsten]

Did you try one of the various subtitle editors?

- Carsten

[mdudzik]

Dear Carsten,

I believe I've tried/checked almost all of them - starting with SubtitleEdit, Subtitle Workshop and Jubler, through MacCaptions, EZTitles, FAB and Belle Nuit, SubtitleCreator and Aegisub. Does anything else come to your mind?


thanks,
Marek

[barber]

Hello Marek,

I had found a simple workflow for this some years ago :
- creating and adjusting the subtitles in Final Cut Pro 7 (Outline Texts)
- exporting the subtitle track to XML
- using Andreas Kiel's TitleExchange Pro to convert the subtitle file to the required format (setting "Font Align" and "Font Style" to "From Source")

I haven't tried recently and don't know whether it is possible with more recent softwares like FCPX.
Nevertheless TitleExchange does output SMPTE DCI XML and other formats that DOM can import without losing custom positioning.

Best,

Dan

[mdudzik]

Sorry for archaeology in my own thread - but perhaps there are any news in this subject?

New EZTitles can do what I'd need, but it's crazy expensive

[barber]

Hi Marek,
That's funny, I had forgotten I had posted here my antique subtitle workflow...

Hopefully there's now an actual (free) solution.
- In SubtitleEdit set your project to Advanced Sub Station Alpha (.ass) format.
- Create ASS Styles (in File>ASS Styles..) corresponding to the different positions/margins you want to use.
- Assign (right click>Set Style) the corresponding style to each subtitle.
- Export to .ass, import in DCP-o-matic.

If you load a video in Subtitle Edit, the preview will help you to find the correct formatting values (size, margin...) in the ASS styles.

DOM is now very good at keeping positioning/formatting from various formats (ass, stl, DCI xml...). The problem is that (last time I've checked) SubtitleEdit cannot set custom positioning to each line in DCI xml, so we have to use .ass as "intermediate" format.

Best,
Dan

[mdudzik]

Hi Dan,

Actually I forgot I asked this question here few years ago and it popped up in my Google search when I looked for the new solution few days ago

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try!

best!
M