Subtitle Help! (C# scripting or perhaps Javascripting help)

[danielsangeo]

Greetings, you fine folks! It is I, danielsangeo, your friendly neighborhood captionist.

 

I adore making subtitles for Accursed Farms (I've done it for years!). Every step of the process is fun. Well. ALMOST every step. I'll explain.

 

Here are the steps I go through with every video Ross puts out (aside from Video Chats with fans, or interviews and the like because they are just too damned long):

1. Watch the video. Enjoy it. Write notes about things to ask Ross about (like words he used) if necessary.

2. Download the video.

3. Open video in VEGAS.

4. Open a Word doc (for spell check purposes).

5. Loop a portion of the video (usually about 10 seconds) so it plays over and over again so I can type into the document what is being said. Each line I want to appear as a separate "screen" goes on its own line (I try to keep things at a maximum of 90 characters per "screen"). I could possibly invest in a foot pedal controller for this, but enh, I'll see how long my sanity holds out. This is neither here nor there.

6. Move the loop to the next portion.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until the video is completely typed up (with responses from Ross if I have any questions about what is being said). This part takes the longest amount of time.

8. In VEGAS, insert a "Marker" where I want the "screen" to begin and give it some very quick description so I can keep track of what is being said at what point. If I need the "screen" to end before the next "screen" begins (such as showing a cutscene where no one is talking), I place an empty "Marker" down.

9. Once all the Markers are down, I have something that looks rather insane: https://i.imgur.com/IFcGwkb.png (This is from the Quadralien Game Dungeon). Each of those orange flags is a Marker. It represents when each "screen" appears and disappears.

10. I then import the text file I typed up into VEGAS, which results in something like this: https://i.imgur.com/6TLqiFd.png

11. Oh no! The blue "Command" flags don't match the orange Markers! Time to move each individual blue flag to the appropriate orange Marker. One. Flag. At. A. Time. For. Hundreds. Of. Flags. One. By. One. There's a place that I need to have the "screen" disappear? Well, manually create a new blue flag and add {EDM} as the comment so that the "screen" disappears. One. "Screen". At. A. Time. This can take at least an hour if not more of just moving flags to the associated Markers. Tedium in the extreme.

12. Once all flags are synced to the Markers, I get something like this: https://i.imgur.com/X3d2iXy.png . Much better.

13. Export the Command flags into an SRT file and it's off to Subtitle Workshop.

14. Subtitle Workshop can automatically go through and fix the formatting of the SRT (because VEGAS doesn't do a very good job on its own). Then I just play clean up on what Subtitle Workshop missed (like places where I want a linebreak to appear) or accented characters which VEGAS weirdly removes.

15. Upload the SRT to the website and the Compendium. DONE!

 

Every step I just mentioned is fine. Except step 11. FUCK YOU STEP 11!

 

Anyway, why do I mention this? I need help. For sanity's sake, I need to stick it to step 11. Thankfully, VEGAS comes with scripting that allows one to automate certain tasks. However, I am not at all knowledgeable in programming. This is where you come in!

 

Are you knowlegeable in C# programming or maybe even Javascript? Want to help me destroy step 11? If so, let me know, either in this thread or through a private message, and I can give you further information. I am willing to pay for a completed script that works for what I want.

 

Here's a link to VEGAS's page talking about their scripting, including a link to their API and a FAQ on how it works: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/downloads/#c24726

 

If anyone is willing to help me, I'd be most appreciative. Thank you for reading!

[danielsangeo]

I have received a script from someone that works perfectly for automating step 11! Thank you so much to those that offered to help! Subtitle turnaround should be quicker in the future.