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Frame by Frame

Sometimes a sign appears where instead of working in a single line, you will have to split the line into multiple lines where each line's duration is equal to one frame of the video and work on the lines frame by frame (fbf).

Splitting Lines by Frame

Splitting the lines into individual frames is easier said than done. For example, if your line has fade in , the first few lines should go from transparent to opaque. All the transforms (\t tags) should also be interpolated. So of course we won't do it manually. So we use a script called FBF-ier by arch1t3ct from Dependency Control to do this. There is another script called Line to FBF by ILL team which can act as alternative.

The only thing you need to do to split line to individual frames (often called line2fbf in conversation) is to select the line(s) you want to split and run the script.

Animated on 2s

Most of the video you will typeset will be 24 frames per second(fps) (24000/1001) to be precise but drawing 24 frame for each second means that animators will have to draw a large number of frames. That is why to save and effort, animators will use the same frames consecutively. For example, if you draw 12 frames and repeat each frame twice, you will have 24 frames per second.

If frame is only used once, we call it animated on 1s. If each frame is repeated twice, we call it animated on 2s and so on. Most of the anime is animated on 2s for example. In scenes where they need extra smoothness, they can switch to animated on 1s.

So this information is crucial to typesetters because when they are doing fbf work, it means they can also save time and effort. To find if the scene you are typesetting on is animated in 2s or not, just go to the video box and spam Right and count how many frames are repeated.

Let's say the you find that the scene is in fact animated in 2s. How do you split the lines in such a way that each line is exactly equal to 2 frames? We use Aegisub script of course. The script we will be using is called Split Timer by petzku. It is available in Dependency Control.

  1. Select the line you want to split.
  2. Go to Automation -> Split Timer -> N frames...
  3. In the GUI that opens, enter 2 since the example is animated in 2s. Change this accordingly.
  4. Enter OK button.

Frame by Frame Transform

Now that you have split the lines into frames using either of the above two methods, now we have to make changes. We will be using another script called Frame-by-Frame Transform by Lyger. It is available in Dependency Control so download from it.

  1. Split the lines into frames.
  2. Make changes in the first line that is correct in that frame. Make correct changes in the last line too. So in the first line and the last line, the tags have correct value.
  3. Select all the lines from the first to last line.

  4. Run the script by going to Automation -> Frame-by-Frame Transform -> Frame-by-Frame Transform. The GUI looks like this:

    frame by frame transform gui

  5. Tick the tags that you want to transform and click OK button.

  6. Normally all the lines you select must have same text/shape since this is where fbf transform makes most sense but if you want to fbf transform in a selection of lines where text changes, click on Ignore text checkbox.

If you split the lines into frames, it does not mean you have the select the first and last line of this split. When you run FBF-ier, let's say it splits the line into 10 lines. Then you can change tags in line 1 and 3 and 7 and 10. Then you can select lines 1 to 3, run fbf transform. Then select 3 to 7 and run the script. Then 7 to 10 and run the script.

Example

TODO: Add example