Creating subtitles with RED 4.3

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Those who like making subtitles raise your hand! Adding subtitles to your project may prove daunting, time-consuming and error-prone. However, subtitle work is much easier if you have a copy of Boris RED 4.3 in your toolbox. RED is a very capable text creation tool that provides a rich environment for static lower thirds - the common way of treating subtitles. But how do you make hundreds of lower-thirds without going mad? Follow the easy steps in this tutorial to generate any number of subtitles automatically.

Subtitles are typically created by specialized tools and saved in a text-based file format. Such formats, at a minimum, would include the text for each subtitle, the fonts and style information, and most importantly the timecodes that correspond to the starting time and duration of each text element.

From the File/Import menu, choose Import Subtitle and choose an .stl file from your hard disk. A dialog window will appear displaying some important parameters to facilitate the import.

Make sure to select the User Mark option to create user marks indicating the starting point of each subtitle. Such user marks will greatly help in navigating the timeline. Click the OK button to start the import process.

Once the import process is finished the timeline is populated with the new text tracks, all enclosed in a special Title container.

The title tracks are staggered in time according to the timecode information from the import file.

>TIP: Note the green user marks. They help you move the CTI from one slate to the next. Use Alt (Option) L and J keys to go to the next/previous user mark. The commands can be found under the Track/User Marks menu.

The Title container track has a number of useful options for further customization of text and backdrops.

Any option that you apply in this panel will automatically propagate to all subtitles in the project.

A very common style for subtitles includes a backdrop. Backdrops help to call out text on the screen and make it easier to read. To create a backdrop check the checkbox at the top and pick color and opacity. The color should be opposite to the color of the text. A two stop fading gradient can easily be created with the Gradient option. The second color will default to black.

For convenience, font and size options are included in this tab. Keep in mind that rebuilding of a long subtitle sequence with new fonts or sizes can take some time so be patient adjusting any parameters on this tab.

The Tracking parameter is used to increase the space between letters while the Leading parameter will change the space between multiple lines.

TIP: Sometimes it is necessary to re-import the subtitle file to rebuild the geometry of subtitles after adjusting the Tracking or Leading parameters.

Applying Text Styles

RED allows you to apply any saved text style to an already imported subtitle. With the Title Container selected in the timeline, open the Style Palette (Ctr/Cmd 6) and switch to the Text tab.

Here you have a much wider range of text styles which came with the RED installation or were previously saved from other text work. Double-click on a style thumbnail to apply that style to the entire sub-title sequence.

TIP: Note that the Font and Size checkboxes on the right sub-panel are not checked by default. That means that the font and size will remain unchanged while strokes, fill and shadow will be applied to the subtitles. You can check or uncheck any of these checkboxes to select a partial style.

Press the play button on the Composite window or the Space Bar to visually check all imported sub-titles before rendering out the final sequence. Your tough job is done!

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