How to create a hard sub

There are many roads you can travel to complete a hardsub. This article describes the method I prefer, variations are possible.

What you will need:

• Virtualdub
• SSA-Hardsub filter plugin for Virtualdub
• Aegisub

Using Aegisub for timing and typesetting.

You can import subtitles from nearly every format, even plain txt files. The most important buttons to Aegisub are found in this screenshot:

The most important hotkeys are ctrl+3 and ctrl+4 which set start and end time of the sub. If you wish you can import a txt file in aegisub first, export as *.srt and do your timings in Subtitle Workshop if you prefer this program for rough timings.

Above is the style manager. Always create your styles in the storage first. Many times you will need to reuse styles for follow up episodes, etc.

Aegisub can sub-to-video and sub-to-audio. Some subbers prefer the ‘audio only’ modus. I wouldn’t recommend this as the only thing to time to, because sometimes you may want to adapt your sub to scene changes. From the video menu you are able to load your video file. When you’ve loaded your video file, in the audio menu you can now select ‘load audio from video’. It’s something I’d only recommend when you’re going to do Karaoke.

Exporting to SSA

Aegisub works in the format *.ass. You will need to export your work to *.ssa for it to be ready to create a hardsub. Go to the File menu -> Export Subtitles. This time, select format *ssa.

Using Virtualdub / SSA Plugin to hardsub

When your file is completely done you can proceed to create the hardsub. For this load your RAW video into virtualdub and go to the filters menu under Video. Look up the newly installed “Subtitler” filter. Select your subtitle file in *.ssa and preview. If everything is ok, set all your compression options and go to the file menu to ‘Save as Avi’. Now you have created your first hardsub.