FCPX: Subtitles

Hi

Is there an easy way to add subtitles in FPCX?

I need to translate a video with subtitles, and when I just place "blocks" of normal text objects, it's both cluttering to look at, but worse - it makes FCPX sooo slooow!!

I am using an iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz quad core with 16GB ram, 1TB internal disk and a 2TB extenal "video only" disk.

Hope for help, as this project makes FCPX crash, beach ball... you name it!

Thanks!

Hi, for what it's worth, don't.
I use Jubler for the creation of the Sub file and then I use Submerge for the hard burn.
Hope I understood your situation properly.

whoa, having re-read your post I think you might be trying to replace subtitles that are already present(?)
In that case output a version with a big black lower third and then take my method for generating and burning.

Yeah - my bad. The video does not have subtitles - but that is what I am trying to create.

Unfortunately, I'm don't think buying new software is the solution for me though.

Do you use Motion?

There is a text generator called "File", you point it to a .txt file with all your text on it and it generates the lines one after the other.

I don't have the time at the moment to see what's possible with publishing it and I don't think it could be published for general use in FCPX, i.e. then adding the text, but I'm sure you could publish a generator that has your text already input in Motion then use the FCPX retiming tool to position the subtitles in time in FCPX.

If not you could just export a ProRes 4444 with alpha. It might be quite big, but not as the full length of your timeline as your going to retime it with hold frames anyway.

Jubler is free and submerge is $9, coffee and a cake and a bus fare;)

I just had a play around, the Motion Text "File" Generator isn't any good for subtitles. First off you can't retime generators in FCPX, there would still be other options but there is no way to make double lines of subtitle text.

Although Motion integration with FCPX is nice I think we still need real title editor with realtime playback. Problem is FCPX sees every title as individual Motion file and it gets super slow when you add many of those. I hope when real plugin API for FCPX becomes available some plugin developer creates title editor so FCPX sees plugin as still graphic and realtime playback is possible even with hundreds of titles.

I have great playback with titles in FCP X. Playback will always depend on your particular system config. And the API is already out.

NocoDave wrote: I just had a play around, the Motion Text "File" Generator isn't any good for subtitles. First off you can't retime generators in FCPX, there would still be other options but there is no way to make double lines of subtitle text.

Thanks for trying anyway!

I do have Motion, but I'm really not very good at it yet :whistle:

So is there a pro app for adding subtitles in a good looking and intuitive way?

I must be lost, cause I have no problems generating manual sub-titles, and in multiple languages. I'm not sure what exactly the issue is.

Mac Caption is the way to go for closed captioning.

BenB wrote: I must be lost, cause I have no problems generating manual sub-titles, and in multiple languages. I'm not sure what exactly the issue is.

Can you explain how you do that, and what kind of computer configuration you are using?

I have a 27" iMac 2.93 quad core i7, 16GB ram, 1TB int, 2TB ext disk. Running latest version of Lion and FCPX. Sometimes I have to reboot the computer, in order to get rid of the worst "sluggishness" in FCPX.

EG: When the app gets really slow with text objects, trying to edit the text in the player is basically impossible. In the time you enter two lines, 3-4 characters has been visible on the screen!

Quad core Mac Pro, 16GB RAM, internal 2TB SATA drives. The internal drives are making a difference compared to an external FW drive. I've worked with T'bolt drives and they're way faster. I also have a Radeon HD 4870 graphics card, and it's the GPU that makes the most difference. All latest software/OS updates.

I get slow downs on occasion, and I simply quit, run Preference Manager (free from Digital Rebellion) to trash my prefs, re-launch FCP X and go back to work just fine.

I also keep rendering turned off. I don't have much user for rendering.

And I'm working on ProRes 422 and DVCPRO-HD files, not anything Long-GOP.

I took the "Custom" text template from FCP X, opened a copy in Motion, lined up the text at the bottom of the screen where I need it, tweaked it a bit, set some defaults, works fine.

Hi,

what's your destination platform? If, for example, you plan to create a web video, there are quite easy ways to create text subtitle files which Flash Players players like JWplayer can read and display on demand.

That is technically Closed Caption, not subtitles.

That is technically not correct. Closed Captions where encoded into the visible part of the screen. We don't do that anymore.

Closed Captioning is encoded into the video file or stream itself and can be turned off and on.

Subtitles are burned permanently into the screen.

I work extensively with CC all the time.

Which application do you recommend? (And this is not for a broadcasting company :lol: )

MacCaption
www.cpcweb.com/products/

Not sure about subtitles.