The SRT slide gives you both a way to integrate subtitles into your video as well as inline assets. It is also very flexible in text positions and you can add your brand colors.
What does the process look like?
You will probably start with having a Video file, likely an interview of some interesting person. To use the SRT slide, you need to have both your video asset and an SRT file created from that video.
Steps in this article
- First steps
- Do you have your SRT file already?
- How do I use the SRT slide in my video?
- Adding inline Assets
- Adding a Name & Title
- Subtitle Settings
- Color settings
First steps
- As always, the first thing you do is create a new project for your new video. Read more here on how to do it.
- Create a new Video, a blank storyboard. Read more here on how to do it.
- Add an SRT slide in your storyboard and add your video asset by clicking on the Main asset lane (the field under the slide) and then the symbol + for add an asset.
- Now you're in the asset browser and this is where you add your video asset. Upload your video by "Drag and Drop" or use the browser to search for it.
- Now it's time to add your SRT file.
Do you have your SRT file already?
If NO, Read here on how to create an SRT file from your Video asset.
If YES, go ahead and start working with your video!
How do I use the SRT slide in my video?
The SRT Slide is created in a way so if you want to play the whole clip in a flow, you can do it. The Slide will create all the subtitles in just one slide. But if you want to "cut" your interview/instructions/invitation (or whatever it is) into several slides, you can do that as well. Just duplicate the first SRT slide (you will use the same SRT file for all slides) when you are satisfied with the subtitles and styling. This will streamline your working time.
- When the storyboard is created and you have copied the SRT file, you simply paste it into the "SRT" field.
- If you want to have the whole clip playing in one slide you can just adjust the duration of the slide to the length of your video asset and then move forward to the styling of the slide.
- If you want to "cut" your clip into several slides or if you know that there is some "quiet time" at the beginning of your video, you need/can adjust the starting point of your video asset. Read more on how to set the starting point of your video here.
- In this example I have split my asset into three SRT slides. I want the first SRT slide to play from 0 seconds until 16 seconds in the video (it's a natural place to cut the asset). You can use the SRT file to check on what time it's good to cut.
- In the second SRT slide I want it to start at 16 seconds and I therefor adjust the video starting point to the time where this part of the video should start, at 16 seconds into the video.
- Since the video asset now will start to play 16seconds in, I have to adjust when the SRT file should start so it starts playing in sync with the asset. To do this I set the Offset SRT (ms) to 16000.
- The duration of the slide decides when the asset will stop playing, it will be your "cutting tool". In the first slide, the video asset starts at 0.00 and plays until 16.00 seconds in the video asset so the duration will be 16.00 seconds.
In the second SRT slide, the slide will start at 16.00 seconds into the video asset and play until 24.00 seconds in the video asset.
That means I need to calculate the duration. Just calculate 24-16 and you will have the duration of the slide = 8 seconds. - In this example video I have split my SRT file into three slides and the last slide will play from 24.00 seconds (in the video asset/SRT file) until a natural end of it (in this case until 34.60 seconds) meaning the duration will be 10.60 of the last SRT slide.
- The SRT slide has a Custom Duration option so it's possible to set the duration in milliseconds to be able to set the duration very precisely.
Adding inline Assets
You can add up to three inline assets in the SRT slide. This is perfect if you are interviewing a person about something and you want to display it at the same time.
The asset will be displayed in the slide as if you had added a new slide in the storyboard without having to do so!
How to do it
- Toggle on "Asset 1" to activate the function.
- Use the "Click to browse" to add your asset.
- Turn off the animation (it's on by default) of the asset, to be able to see the asset in the preview.
- For the same reason, don't change the "In time (ms)" from 0 until you are satisfied with the rest of the settings.
- You set the "Out time (ms)" to the time you want the asset to be animated out of the slide.
- If you have a video asset that you don't want to play from the beginning, you use the "Start offset" to decide when the asset should start playing. For example, if you have a 2-minute long video that you want as a b-roll, but the part you want to use starts 24 seconds in, you set the start time offset to 24000 and the asset will play from there.
- If you want to change what part of the image/video asset is displayed in the slide, you can use the "Position" slider to do so. It's set to 50 by default, meaning the middle part of the asset will be displayed (in 16:9 format there will be no position shift when using this). If you have an asset in landscape format and a video in Square format and you want the left side of the asset to be the part that is shown in the video, then you pull the slider towards 0 until you are satisfied.
- If you have styled your SRT slide, it's nice to have the same styling on the asset as well. The only thing you have to do is to check the "Use Main Asset Styling" box and the styling is done!
- Now you can turn on the "Animation" of the asset and also the time you want your asset to be animated in, in the "In time (ms)" field.
- If you want more assets you toggle on "Asset 2" & "Asset 3" and do the same procedure all over again. If you want more than three assets in the same interview, you need to add another SRT Slide to do it.
Adding a Name & Title
In this slide, you can add a Name and Title.
- Toggle on "Name & Title" to activate the function.
- Add Name and Title.
- The animations of the Name & Title is OFF by default, so that you are able to see in the storyboard preview how it looks when you are styling it.
- You have in total, 9 possible positions of the text when using the preset positions, but if you use the Text X-Position "Fixed" ("Fixed X-position" (0 = at the left side of the canvas)) and Text Y-Position "Fixed" ("Fixed Y-position" (0 = at the top)) you can place your Name and Title wherever you want on the slide.
- When you are satisfied with the styling and position of your Name & Title, you can turn on the animation (then the name & title won't be visible in the storyboard preview anymore). You can also set the time when the Name & Title should be animated in and out by using the "In time (ms)" and "Out time (ms)" functions. You set the time in milliseconds. In this example I want the Name & Title to animate in right away and then be animated out after 3,5 seconds.
Subtitle Settings
You have a lot of options on how to present your subtitles.
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Subtitle style - this is where you choose how your subtitles should look. The options are "Disabled" (meaning no subtitles), "Text only", "Dropshadow", "Plate - Square", and "Plate - Rounded".
The default setting is "Text only".
"Text only"
"Dropshadow"
Dropshadow Opacity at 40% (default setting).
"Plate - Square"
Subtitle Plate Opacity at 100%.
"Plate - Rounded"
Subtitle Plate Opacity at 100%.
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Font - You can choose between the "Default" font, which is a very suitable font, and the font you are using in your theme. If your font in the theme is suitable for subtitles, it can be a nice touch to use the "Theme (Small)" setting.
Theme (Small) font.
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Text Position - You have many possible positions for your subtitles. The positions are Text X-Position Left, Center, or Right. Text Y-positions are Bottom, or Fixed. By using the "Fixed" position you are able to place your subtitles wherever you want on the Y-axle. Use the text alignment as well if you for example want to have the subtitles to the left due to brand guidelines or just for aesthetic reasons.
- Clip Start Text - This is a function that is very useful when you want to "cut" your video asset in a place where the person just talked about something not showing in this slide. When toggled on you can set the Clip Start (ms) to, for example, 1000 (default), and the slide will not show subtitles from the previous second. Otherwise, you risk having a subtitle just "flash by" before the subtitle you would like to start with.
- Clip End Text - This is the same function as for the start, only it works for the end of your slide instead. So toggle on Clip End Text, and enter the time in milliseconds in Clip End (ms), if you want to be sure that the next subtitle doesn't have time to to start before the duration of the slide is out.
Color settings
You can adjust the color of the Subtitle Text, Subtitle Plate, Dropshadow, Name Text, Name Plate, Title Text, Title Plate, and Fine Print. You can also adjust the Opacity of Subtitle Text Plate, Dropshadow, Name Text Plate, Title Text Plate, and Fine Print.
This opens possibilities for using your brand colors in the subtitles and you can also be playful when creating videos for special occasions like Christmas, Valentines day, Halloween etc.
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