Then hit “G” to commit and go onto the next line. The next line will start off where you ended the previous line.
2. There is a Keyframe near the end of the line.
If you can see that there is a Keyframe within 500ms of the end of the line after you apply lead out, then you shift+right click near the keyframe to snap the end of the line
to the keyframe.Right click (0:09.76)…
Shift+Right click near the purple line (Keyframe) (0:10.82)…
Actually, there is 1020ms of lead out here, but remember what I said about “When in doubt, more is better than less”? I wasn’t sure, so I went for it and snapped to the
keyframe which resulted in 1020ms of lead out..Then hit “G” to commit and go onto the next line. The next line will start off where you ended the previous line.
3. There is an Adjacent line near the end of the line.
If you can see that after applying 500ms lead out, the next line is within 500ms of the current line, then you right-click at ~125ms before the audio of the next line
starts.Right click (0:53.06)…
Right click at ~125ms before the audio of the next line starts (0:54.25)… (The audio of the next line starts at 0:54.36)
Then hit “G” to commit and go onto the next line. The next line will start off where you ended the previous line. Did you notice that the next line already has lead in (~125ms),
because you anticipated this when you were ending the previous line?Here are a few more points to bear in mind. Some may seem obvious, but I’ll mention them anyway.
Use “S” to listen to the your selection. This is how you judge where the audio starts and ends.
A line must NEVER start in the middle of speech.
A line should not end in the middle of speech, expect in rare circumstances, where the line is already quite long, and there happens to be a keyframe right before the speech
ends. The last syllable should have already been spoken. In a case like this, you can end the line at the Keyframe, cutting off a tiny bit of speech.
Scene changes/Keyframes overrides all. If there is an adjacent line, and a keyframe, the keyframe takes priority, and you end the line at the keyframe.
Timing is highly tedious, like I said earlier. Your first attempt at timing an episode may take you 4+ hours. Don’t get discouraged, because you will improve the more you do
it. The average timer takes about 1 hour to time a standard 25 minute episode. The fastest timers will take 25 minutes (the length of the show, which makes sense). I take
about 45 minutes to time a normal episode, down from 2 hours when I first started.
If a line is too long, break them up. The maximum lines on the screen must not exceed 2. Three-liners are fail.
After you have finished timing, you should watch the whole thing once, in Aegisub, or your video player. Even though you have generated a pass file, which has the correct
keyframes, it is only 99% accurate.
You have to watch the whole thing once just in case there is 1% chance that a keyframe was incorrectly placed. You are looking for scene bleeds. More on that in the next
section.
6. Scene bleeds
Scene bleeds are what will happen if a timer does not snap to keyframes correctly.If a line ends, followed very quickly by a keyframe/scene change (within a few frames), you’ll
have the subs disappearing, followed by a change in the scene, which produces a “flashing subs” effect.Similarly, if the line ends, and it goes over the keyframe by a few frames,
you’ll have this “flashing subs” effect again.This “flashing subs” effect is known as a “Scene bleed” and is very uncomfortable on the eye. While a few scene bleeds might be
inevitable, these will be caught by the QC. But if there are frequent scene bleeds throughout an episode, then the timer has failed. If you follow my instructions above, then you
won’t have any scene bleeds. Promise.
7. TPP
TPP stands for Timing Post Processor and is very useful in the hands of an experienced timer.This is a tool which will snap your keyframes for you, add lead in, lead out, and join
up adjacent lines.While this may sound useful, in reality, if you used this, you will need to do another pass to check whether it has screwed up or not. This is why I do not suggest
TPP be used when you time.
8. Random but important Misc advice