Index
Selecting and Loading a Text File
Optional steps:
Timecoded Subtitle File Definitions
Verifying and Modifying Timecodes
TitleFactory has several ways to generate timecodes however, in this Quick Start Guide we provide quick start steps for users of TitleFactory who already have a timecoded text files and just want to create image files, and a timecoded subtitle text file for use in their DVD authoring software. The guide assumes that image files are being created for NetBlenders DoStudio product but this quick start guide can also be used for other DVD authoring tools with minor changes as will be noted.
This Quick Start Guide uses a timecoded subtitle text file as input. TitleFactory also provides two tutorials in the documentation. The first tutorial has a script file (non-timecoded) as input. You may want to look at that tutorial if you have a non-timecoded test file as input.
The basic process involves:
specifying project settings,
loading a timecoded subtitle text file,
specifying image style settings,
creating images,
and writing a timecoded subtitle text file for your DVD authoring software.
Other steps are presented but are optional.
The first order of business is to Start TitleFactory. You will be presented with the following start up window. The Use Previous Display Setting will not be shown if this is the first time that TitleFactory has been started.
Click on New Project. You will be presented with the TitleFactory Main Window with a request for you to pick a name and location for your first TitleFactory project file.
Press the OK button to get the standard "Save As" window which should look something like the following, depending on which version of Windows you have.
Select a location, type in a project name and press the Save button. We named our project "getting_started". The current project's name is displayed on top of the window. One of the following windows will be displayed depending on your TitleFactory release level.
The only difference is that the Media Sub Window has been minimized automatically because there is no video file that has yet been added to the project.
The combo Sub Window displays several buttons that can be used for functions that operate on both the Timecodes and Subtitles. For this quick start guide, it is not needed and can be removed by pressing the minimize button.
The other sub windows (Subtitles, Timecodes, and Timeline) will then be expanded automatically if needed.
Press the
button on the main toolbar and look
at the 'Project Settings' window. These are the
settings that control the processing within TitleFactory.
Look at the processing settings documentation for explanations of individual settings. Note that Movie Size on the Media Tab, is only for media window display size and does not need to be changed).
At a minimum, if needed, you should change the Video Format, and Media Length (on the Media Tab),
the Frames per Second. on the Timecode tab,
the (Maximum) Characters per Line and (Maximum) Lines Per Image on the Text tab,
and the Image File Name on the Image tab. The #### on the image file name is replaced by the subtitle number with up to 3 leading zeroes. A single # would be replaced with the subtitle number with no leading zeros.
Now return to the Main Window by pressing the OK button.
Selecting and Loading a Text File
On the Main Window press the Select Text File button
on the main toolbar display.
Find your file on the subsequent display window.
You will then be presented with a format selection type window. Select a Textmode of Timecoded and then select a Format that matches your input format. Select proper Encoding for the input file.
If your format is not displayed then you can create your own format using the Timecode Definitions window.
Press the OK button and the Main Window will be displayed and will be populated.
If you had problems loading the text file, that timecodes or text were not found, and you believe that the format of the file is correct then you may want to look at this section which describes how to examine, modify, create Timecoded File Definitions and how to test them on the Input Settings Window.
If some text was loaded but it looks corrupted, then the selected Encoding may be the problem.
At this point you may want to try out TitleFactory's Timecode Audit function. Press this link if you want to try it out.
You can save your project now by pressing the Save
Project button 
. If you close
TitleFactory, you will be asked to save the project if you have not already done
so. The information that is displayed on the main page, along with the
Project Settings information is saved in the project file. If you find
that you need to make changes your Timecoded Subtitle Text file in the future
then you will need to re-load the text file using the "Load Text" menu item
within the Process Menu. Press this
link for more information on Reloading Text.
Now let's go back to
the main window, click on the
button and let's look at the Style Definitions Window.
This window defines the image styles for the CREATE IMAGE process. Scroll down to see all of the settings for the 'Factory' style and go to the Style Definitions Window if you need explanations of the parameters.
The default Style definition is called "Factory". You can create your own definition or simply use change the default settings. For simplicity we will assume that you will always want to the same settings on subsequent project so you will just change the default Factory settings.
The correct settings for use with NetBlenders DoStudio are:
If you are using another DVD Authoring product then click this link..
You may also need or want to change other settings on this window, such as the:
Note: For DVD (non-Blu-ray) production, antialias (AAlias) and Shadow must NOT be used, and therefore should not be checked.
When you specify AAlias and "Inner Stroke" then the "Inner Stroke" width is ignored, and "Outer Stroke" is completely ignored.
If you are using a font size greater than 45 with Antialias off, and you want to Stroke the text then you should increase the "Caption Grow Amount" to 12. This is a workaround to a problem in Imagemagick. Failure to increase the "Caption Grow Amount" may result in a stroke that does not completely stroke the bottom of characters that fall below the text line such as 'p', 'q', and 'j'.
The SHOW button at the bottom of this window expands the window for prototyping purposes. That is, you can see what the text will look like after making changes to the text parameters. Pressing the PROTOTYPE button will also expand the window and show the prototyped text.
To change the default text, type in some new text into the text box. Press the PROTOTYPE button to test the settings.
Press the OK button, and save your settings when asked.
If you have not activated your product yet, you should do so now. Otherwise you will not be able to create a full set of images. Instructions to activate the product can be found by click on this link.
To CREATE IMAGES, first press either of the Select Folder
buttons to select an Output
Image Folder.
This is the folder where TitleFactory will place its images.
Now you can press the 'Create Images'' menu item within the Process Menu. Press "Select All" or choose a subset of the images that you want created.
Press the 'PAUSE' button
before the process ends to pause the
CREATE IMAGE process.
Images that are created are listed on the Subtitle Sub Window on the Main Window. This can be seen by expanding the Subtitle Sub Window or, better yet, by temporarily minimizing the other sub windows which will cause the Subtitle Sub Window to expand automatically..
Select a subtitle text entry. Use the 'View Selected Image' within the View Menu to view the images that have been created. (Here is a sample)
Use the tool buttons to zoom in
or
zoom out 
and the Hand Tool
to scroll images when you zoom into them.
The Image Information section displays the image size, the position of the
cursor and the color values of the image pixel under the cursor. Use the
PREV, NEXT, and JUMP TO buttons to display the next, previous, or any image,
respectively. Use the 'title safe' checkbox to turn the title safe
rectangles on or off.
Verifying and Modifying Timecodes
If you do not want to watch the subtitle text with the media file you can skip this section.
Even though your input file already has
timecodes associated with the text, you may still want to check them out and
potentially even edit the timecodes. To check out the timecodes, you
will need to specify either a video or audio file (or both). Use the
button to select a video file and/or
the 
Audio File button
to select an audio file. Use the timeline pointer or the timeline
counter to
position the video and/or audio file.
Now press the "Play from Beginning' button
. As you listen to the
media file(s), the text and timecodes will be highlighted when the timecode is
reached. It will un-highlight when its ending timecode is reached.
If you need to change the timecode, you can do so by using one of the
record buttons 
,
,
(see documentation for
explanations) or you can manually update or adjust the timecodes.
As noted earlier, there are lots of functions that available for modifying,
checking, and converting timecodes.
Now that you have loaded timecodes, you can overwrite them, save them, write them to a timcoded text file, write the timecodes via the Write Timecodes entry in the Process Menu, edit them (double click on the timecode), adjust them (click on the AD button), delete them, append to them, and more.
Now lets try to write out a timecoded text file. Simply select Write Timecodes entry in the Process Menu, select the Output Format of file that you want to write and press OK.
Select the file location and name and that is it.
The timecoded text file can now be imported into your DVD authoring package.
You can save your project by
pressing the Save Project button .
If you close TitleFactory, you will be asked to save the project if you have not
already done so.
If you find that you needed to make changes your Timecoded Subtitle Text file in the future then you will need to re-load the text file using the "Load Text" menu item within the Process Menu. You can then proceed to create new images, and create the timecoded subtitle text file specific to your DVD authoring package, if necessary.
|
Copyright © 2002-2009 . All rights reserved. |