We often hear complaints about how captions do not allow customization.
Converting captions to titles is a way to allow for that customization.
The great Mark Spencer, of rippletraining, has just published a video that explains a simple, quick, and free way to convert captions to titles. I think this may help some. I will keep it in my bookmarks, for sure.
MacBook Pro 17″, macOS 10.13
Luis, Thank you for the useful information.👍 terryb, Thanks for the new link. I'll try it too.😊
*I asked Luis a question, but the OP seemed to have disappeared, so I was having trouble getting a reply. I don't know how to switch between subtitle sections. Where do I start?
Hi, Fox. Thank for your reply. It's weird, indeed.
The video has been removed.
The tool in question is still there (albeit it says "experimental") in
editingtools.io/subtitles
One can upload an srt file and download an fcpxml
I tested just one example and it worked correctly.
um, yeah...
I guess a color solid is okay for captions/subtitles that are continuous, but what if they are more sporadic? If you're going to spend all that time blading the Solid, what's the point of using the converter script?
I would have thought Mark Spencer would have used a better way to add positioning and backgrounds to all the titles. I know he knows how.
An easier and faster way would be to create a Title in Motion that applies a (conforming) background to the text and a default position on the screen as well as default font and size (and possibly tracking) — call it "Basic Subtitle" — then after applying all the captions turned to titles in a project, Select all the titles and double click on the Basic Subtitle title from the Title browser — the storyline titles will ALL be changed according to the Basic Subtitle defaults. Then find the long lines and add returns as necessary (the backgrounds should automatically conform).
I've made this title available free here: https://fcpxtemplates.com/sdm_downloads/basic-subtitle/
(PS - it took all of 2 minutes to make the original version — i.e., less time than it takes to mess with the solid color generator. The added published parameters came after some consideration for the end user's experience and the easiest way to deal with customizing.)
Fox, of course there are better solutions.
We know that Mark knows it.
I guess that this was just a quick video that described how to do it without anything extra - for a user who does not have or know Motion, and does not want to download a third party template. It only requires FCP and a free website access.
That video seems to have evaporated!
And going to the editingtools.io website and seeing what's available, there doesn't seem to be any tools that fit the description... very weird!
Updated Ripple video link:
Thank you, terryb and fox_m
A nice (and free) way of converting captions to titles
