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Subs import is an addon for Blender that allows users to create and edit subtitles for movies or music. The keyboard shortcuts and automatic syllable separation tools make it a very fast tool.
- Download the repository.
- Open Blender.
- Go to File > User Preferences > Addons
- Click "Install From File" and navigate to the downloaded zip file and install.
- Check the box next to "Subsimport"
Use the correct release for your Blender version. Add-ons for Blender 2.80 and above will not work for Blender 2.79
A video tutorial is available.
The user interface is located to the right side of the video sequencer.
The sequencer channel where The addon will have effect. Keyboard shortcuts, duration changing, exporting, syllabifying, splitting, and combining subtitles all depends on this value.
Importing, splitting, and combining subtitles will automatically adjust the subtitle edit channel.
The font size that will be applied to imported strips. You may change this value and refresh using the button to the right. (Changes only applied to the Subtitle Edit Channel)
3 filetypes may be imported with this addon: .txt, .lrc, and .srt files.
.txt files do not contain any timing info. The text is imported so that each line of the text file becomes a strip in the sequencer. It is recommended that each line of text be no longer than 62 characters long.
.lrc files are used with programs like MiniLyrics for displaying subtitles with music.
.srt files are the standard subtitle filetype for movies. They work well with the VLC media player.
Subsimport also supports "Enhanced" .srt and .lrc files. These are special subtitles that highlight parts of the subtitles at a time.
On import, AV sync, scrubbing, and frame drop will be enabled.
It is recommended that if you're making lyrics for songs that you increase the scene FPS to 100 or even 1000 frames per second before importing. The reason is that .srt files support time data down to the millisecond, but strips must conform to the scene's FPS value. If a low FPS is used, then the minimum timing difference will be limited by the scene FPS.
Furthermore, if you attempt to import strips and one or more strips has a duration that is less than 1 / the scene fps, you will create an error.
Subimport does not allow any subtitles to overlap times and will automatically remove overlaps on import.
Doubles or halfs the duration of the strips in the "Subtitle Edit Channel".
These buttons allow you to edit subtitles with a song playing at 50% speed, then convert the subtitles to normal speed.
When making subtitles for music, I like to use Audacity to slow the music down by 50% and export it as a .wav file. I then use this in Blender for matching the lyrics to the song.
Export the subtitles from the "Subtitle Edit Channel" as either .lrc or .srt file.
After subtitles have been imported, you can separate words by syllables. Before splitting the syllables, you should create a syllabification dictionary for your subtitles that defines how each word should be broken up.
Subsimport has a dictionary of words and an algorithm for splitting words. Both are enabled by default. The algorithm's accuracy depends on which language is set.
After clicking the "Syllabify" button, you'll create a .txt file containing all of the words of the song. Subsimport will try to split them up into separate syllables. You should read through the .txt file and make any corrections as necessary before you split your words.
After syllabifying words, you may save your dictionary to the default dictionary that Subsimport uses. This way, any words you may have needed to edit will be correctly syllabified the next time Subsimport encounters them.
After defining how words should be separated, you can split them apart and create individually colored text strips that will highlight sequentially as your audio plays. You can set the timing of each syllable in the song.
Text strip color can be changed with the highlight property and the refresh button to the right.
After synchronizing the syllables to the music, you can recombine the strips into enhanced strips prior to exporting the subtitles.
The method used for combining the strips (ESRT or ELRC) depends on what kind of subtitles you would like to export.
Make sure the "Subtitle Edit Channel" property is set to the channel where your subtitle strips have been imported.
Note that splitted strips are set to not respond to these 4 shortcuts if it means going outside the bounds of their base strips.
| D: | Set the start of a text strip. |
|---|---|
| F: | Set the end of a text strip. |
| S: | (like pressing F, then D rapidly) |
| W: | (like pressing D, then F rapidly) |
| Z: | Send top strips to the end of the base strip. Useful for resetting the position of syllabified lyrics. You must be within the start and end points of a base strip and the "Subtitle Edit Channel" must be set to the top strips channel for this to work. |
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| Ctrl + Shift + Right: | Select all strips in the Subtitle Edit Channel to the right of the current time indicator. |
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| Ctrl + Shift + Left: | Select all strips in the Subtitle Edit Channel to the left of the current time indicator |
Pull requests, feature requests, donations, and example song .srt files are welcome! Also, adding syllabified words to the default dictionary is encouraged.