I'm currently using DaVinci Resolve to subtitle my videos but I realize now that it has no support for people speaking with multi track subtitles. I want to color code subtitles for different speakers and perhaps move the subs closer to the speaker depending on who's speaking. What other software should I be using instead? Does premiere have a good workflow for this usecase?
2 Answers
Resolve does support multi-track subtitles. To add a second subtitle track, right-click in the track header and select "add subtitle track." This is used for language localization, so that you can deliver different caption versions for the same program. Resolve is advanced in this respect, with support for updates via supplemental IMF and DCP, so that film and broadcast studios don't need to re-export entire programs whenever they need to make minor corrections.
You won't be able to use two tracks at the same time in any software, because you can't display two languages of captions at the same time within current broadcast television standards. It's the same reason you can't choose English and Spanish on your television at the same time.
If all you want to do is control the appearance of two different styles of text, use the "Title" category of tools, located in the effects library, not the subtitle track. I'd recommend "Text+" over the legacy "Text" which doesn't offer any advantages. Define the settings you want for each style on independent titles on the timeline, then drag a copy of each look from the timeline to the media pool. Use these as your templates/presets, it helps to rename them accordingly.
If you need to alter the appearance of a batch of titles at the same time, you can copy the source style via cmd/ctrl-C and then "paste attributes" to multiple destination titles via alt/opt-V.
answered May 19, 2021 at 4:08
-
I don't want to use titles because of the poor workflow, it's harder to adapt from the auto speech to text generated subtitles. But thank you it's good to know that broadcast standards hold back video editors. I'm used to Aegisub and SSA formats that can handle this fine so this is quite unfortunate, but thanks.– HarryMay 20, 2021 at 23:15
-
@Harry I’m sorry, don’t know what you mean by “auto speech” vs “text generated.” Resolve/Fusion does support scripting via Python/Lua, though, so real-time text generation and formatting is about as straightforward as it gets. May 21, 2021 at 2:52
-
Thanks, for letting me know about the scripting, maybe I'll look into that to see if it works out for me. I meant "speech to text", automatically.– HarryMay 22, 2021 at 13:15
I had the same question and I even came up with 2 ways to solve it!
The first solution is: simply add another line of text in the same box, but 1 line lower. If you start the bottom line with 20-30 spaces every time, that line will move to the right and the top line to the left, if you centralize the subtitles of course. This way you can easily create two different lines of text. Just make sure that the text is never longer than one line. (And if so, cut the lyrics in more parts, or adjust the font size.) Here's an example, with two separate lyrics lines:
In this example, the top and bottom lines always start in the same frame. If you want them to start in different frames, just cut the boxes into different parts with blank lines where applicable. Just make sure the letters don't jump as you move from one box to another.
The second solution (which I haven't tried yet) is very simple: complete your project with a line of subtitles burned into the video, save the file, load it as the base file in a new project, and add the second line below the first! It may affect the overall quality of your video, but you can always try. And you will be able to choose a different font or color to distinguish the two lines even better. Also in this case: make sure that your text is never longer than one line. Good luck!
