XTI Subtitle Importer Release

Hi all,

Finally got a release for XTI 1.1 with some new features:

FCPXML Template Management
Tags/Marker for Subs
Notes for Subs
Basic Subtitle Generator(s) - automatic install
Style Transport für "Basic Subtitles" with SRT
Tab-Text export to sync with external translators


To read more you can download the manual
www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/XTI/XTI_Help.pdf

Or install the (free) app - the manual comes along with it
www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/XTI/XTI.dmg


Regards
Andreas

Fantastic! And as always with your products you can learn so much invaluable background stuff from the manual - an amazing resource.

You're a hero

Danke schön...for this application. I work with subtitles almost every month and this was one of the most needed features to start thinking about FCPx for my daily workflow. I'll give it a try ASAP!

PS: this post should be pinned!

Thanks for the feedback.

There is one thing I'm thinking about.

As mentioned in the manual the XML implementation of FCPX is pretty poor. Some workflows are affected more than others. Subtitles are affected heavily.
As I did with my "Basic Subtitle" I created Motion Templates for each font style. This allows to have those titles to reflect the original source style in a kind of "something is better than nothing".

So the idea is that anybody using this app can create his custom "Basic Subtitle".
But there are some rules which need to be followed to allow the app to manage these - and help the user to manage the workflow.

1. A folder with your "brand" within the "Titles" folder
2. A sub folder named "Standard Subtitles" - this must be set in Motion as well
3. A naming convention for the templates i.e. "myTemplate Plain", "myTemplate Bold", "myTemplate Italic", "myTemplate Bold-Italic"
(4. A description of the template set up in Motion)
(5. Only one text entry set up in Motion, just to make the FCPX browser not to crowded)

This way the app could scan reliably all available subtitle templates during launch - or on request.
Within the app the user can then select the "template group" which should be used.

I made a test last week "hacking" Simon's subtitle template which uses a background box and it worked fine with the beta of the beta app.

So what do you think?

Regards
Andreas

P.S.
I will make MTT available with more features end of October - it will make the above described easier.

Hello Andreas, I tried XTI and it worked great for a very small project.

I have a question about updating subtitles. Reading the manual on pages 11 and 12, it says I can paste UUID and text to a .XLS file, so someone else can check/modify subtitles. I don´t understand what "Using a spreadsheet will allow a co-worker to do changes to the subtitles which easily can be retrieved within FCPX by their UUID even if the text and timecode has changed" works. Could you explain this workflow? I don´t understand how to import only the modified subtitles to FCPx even if they are in a different position.

Thank you so much.

Hello Matias,

It's both simple and complicated with the current XML implantation of FCPX.

If you use the UUID option together with the text export you can import the text file into Excel (I hope - I don't own any MS product).

So an entry could look like:
UUID - My text.
If a coworker will do a translation for that, as an example into German, it will look like:
UUID - Mein Text.

Other than the old FCP XML the current basic FCPX XML does not not support any style information (beside other things) and it's left to the user to replace wrong/changed/translated titles manually.

The UUID is a helper here.
If you got the changed export from a coworker (or you might have done it by yourself) you can copy the UUID and paste it into the search entry of the project's browser.
Using the example above the timeline will jump to the selected subtitle "My Text" wherever it is. Then copy the text from the translation and paste it into the text entry of the subtitle. You may have to edit the title's styles again.

I know that this is a pretty poor workflow, but it is the only workflow FCPX allows at this time.
The only good thing is that XTI can write UUIDs to the subtitles to "notes", and this "notes" can't be changed by the user within FCPX - so it's pretty save to find subtitles and change them if needed.

Hope that helps.

-Andreas

Oh... OK! I thought this could be done automatically. So UUID are used to search for specific text faster, now I understand.

Danke!

Amazing tool! Many thanks!

One question though, I am having to work with Japanese subtitles.

My workflow would be doing the subtitling in Aegisub and then saving a SRT or STL and then putting it through XTI to be able to import the .fcpxml in FCP X where doing the hardcoded Japanese subtitles.

Problem is, that when loading the same .SRT that looks great in Aegisub (Japanese Kanji), looks like weird random stuff (i.e. ÉrÉäÉÖÉìÉqÉãÉfÇÕêÌÇ¢Ç÷ìÀêiÇæ, etc) in XTI.

Opening the .SRT in TextEdit results in the same, but in Microsoft Word by converting to Unicode Text and then choosing "Other encoding: Japanese (Mac OS)", it looks like it should.

Wondering if it's actually possible to do this with the Japanese symbols or not... I would imagine XML must support Japanese though?

Any info appreciated

Hi,

This might happen if there is no header in a text file which tells how the text should be interpreted.
XTI uses the same (system build in) text interpreter as TextEdit or many other apps.
You may try not to use a double click on the text file (to open in TextEdit) but the menu to open a file, then choose the file encoding - it's usually either UTF-8 or UTF-16. Copy the the contents and paste it into document and save.
Feel free to send me a Japanese file and I'll have a look whether there are option to convert the file automatically on import.
FCPXMLs are UTF-8 so they support any language -- but some fonts may not support special characters.

-Andreas

Hey Andreas,

Thanks for the ultra swift answer

Now I managed to sort my workflow, that I can do a plain .txt with the Kanji... line break after each sentence. Save it in Word as plain .txt but with Text Encoding: Other: Japanese (Mac OS) and include "Insert Line breaks" and "End lines with: LF only".

This way I'm able to open it in Aegisub and time the sentences, export the .srt, which looks good in XTI now.

But now my problem is, that when I save the FCPXML from XTI and Import it to FCP X, I get all the subtitles piled up on top of each other, not in the time & place they should be in...

Am I n00bing here hard or just didnt notice something simple? :woohoo:

Hi,

As said above, saving text files looks simple -- but it isn't

Send me the .srt (my email is in the help file) and I will give you an advice how to do best.

-Andreas

I had a similar problem working with subtitles in spanish. The solution was achieved downloading TextWrangler and changing the text encoding until it worked fine.

PS: My issue was not with FPCx, was with Assimilate Scratch, but I'm pretty sure the root of the problem is the same.

Yes Matias,

It is.

That's why I offered to have a look at the .srt to build in a better text converter.

-Andreas

Hi all,

rokotiili did send me an example.

It showed some interesting things.
a) Obviously I haven't been clear enough to explain how to create a template.
b) FCP X can have some really serious problem with Japanese (and probably Chinese etc) fonts with some Title Effects using fcpxml.

About a):
I created a new version of XTI which cleans up badly formatted XML Templates.
It's not explained in the manual yet *

About b):
rokotiili used the "TKY Subtitler Effect" -- this shouldn't be a problem, especially as Simon Ubsdell is one of most experienced creators of Motion Templates. But in this case using this effect for Japanese language everything screws up FCPX.
On my system FCPX was crashing on import. Re-open it wouldn't allow to select any project without a crash.
Creating a new one though worked at the first glimpse. At the second it was still there since I couldn't paste any Japanese text into any text field of any title effect without crashing FCPX.
Removing the imported project in Finder fixed that thing.
But suddenly a lot of other Title Effects (including those I've created) were shown as black for the font color. Even the style popup showed "Normal" in black. Opening the effects in Motion showed the default fill correctly and the "Normal" still is default.
Bad thing was/is that this affected all projects where these "crash-modified" templates are used.
I figured out a solution after some time (I have no hairs since some time, otherwise I would have none now). Select one of the "black" effects, change the fill color to default and save as "Normal". Quit FCPX and relaunch.

To clarify: this is NOT an issue Simon is responsible for!!
It's an FCPX/FCPXML/Apple thing!

-Andreas

*) will be updated over the weekend

Web:
www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/XTI
Download:
www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/XTI/XTI.dmg