I am teaching myself how to fansub. Can use SE pretty well and have been fuckin around with Aegisub. What do people want in their fansub? What shouldn't I do?
People want grandiose fancy karaoke with trillions of stars and particles flying around that needs a computer from the future to play without stuttering.
>>288475299That dude on github restoring the Hikaru no go fansubs and finally fully translating it after decades seems pretty cool. Maybe you can look thru the PRS there and learn somethingt. edited an SRT file once and muxed it with mkvtoolnix
>>288475588This is a thing for niggers. Please understand.
Stick as close as possible to the original japanese while still using proper english and getting the right feel. Everyone has a different idea of what "as close as possible" means, so just do your best.You can use common or important japanese terms without translating them. (Bento can be "boxed lunch" but something like chuunibyou or wabi-sabi can stay.)No matter how funny you think you are, never add your own commentary.As long as you only do it once or twice a season, doing something silly with the subs during a comedic moment can be hilarious. (Leaving a gap in the subs so you can see tits, having the subs tumble off screen when the character saying them tumbles, etc.)This is largely thankless work, so don't burn yourself out. Nobody feels the need to comment when everything goes right. You're going to hear a lot of whining and you won't hear all the people who enjoyed a show because of you.Ganbare, anon!
>>288475853Thank you, anon.
>>288475299I did some fansubbing and now have the delight to see homosexuals passing my subs off as their own in "new" releasesthere is no more thankless task on the internet
>>288475993I'm doing it now mostly because it seems like the bar keeps getting lower as far as what you find out there. AI is making people lazy and not putting any work into making sure its ready. By all means, use AI. But you still need to make it human and natural
>>288475299>>288475993y'all are doing gods work and i wanna say thanks for not being faggots
>>288475299please for the love of god don't put the subtitles at the very bottom of the screen and don't make them too big. i hate having to shift my eyes all the way down to the bottom of the screen to read the subtitles and being unable to watch the anime because i'm too busy reading the gigantic subs at the bottom. when the subs are too fucking big i have to trace my eyes across the screen to read them which fucks up the flow because it's harder to group words visually. imo subtitles should be a little less than 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the screen and no bigger or longer than like half the screen width, they shouldn't meander into the side flanks of the screen. i always have to adjust all this shit in mpv and it's annoying.
>>288475299I want honorifics.
>>288475299Change the subtitle color to match the color of the character who is speaking.And include translation notes for Japanese expressions that cannot be translated literally, as well as for Japanese cultural references that can only be understood within the context of Japanese culture and otaku references.
>>288475299>What do people want in their fansub?honorificsbetter translations than "official subs"don't use fansubbing as your personal stand up. Don't think you are more clever than the original.If you cannot translate something well, because of big language/cultural differences, then add translation notes like old school fansubs
>>288475299>What do people want in their fansub?Special font effects when the characters call out the name of their attacks.
>>288478648>picWasei-eigo words don't mean the same thing in Japanese as they do in English. Oshi no Ko's official subs are shit, but that particular line is fine.
>>288478722my point is to change as little as possible and use TL notes when necessary
What would be nice is natural language that can be understood by all age ranges and English cultures without stupid slang that dates it (unless the characters are using some kind of slang in Japanese, then by all means.) Whenever possible, use easy words and sentences that can be read quickly at a glance. My primary focus should be on the show, not your writing. Your job is to aid my enjoyment, not be where my eyes are focused at all times. One to one translation wherever it is possible should be the bare minimum. I shouldn't be hearing any of the common Japanese words that I know not make it into the subtitles. When you can't do one to one, please do your best and realize that it is probably better for a little bit of information to be lost in translation than for you to make something up that is unfaithful. Understand that people can hear the characters speaking. For example, if a character has their mouth full of food, I am fully aware that they are speaking differently because of it. What I need to know as a subtitle reader is what the character is saying, not for you to type it garbled to convey the fact that the characters mouth is stuffed. I already know that. I'm watching the story and have ears. Typing it garbled makes it harder to read and watch and ruins the flow. Keep stuff like this in mind. Don't reverse the Japanese names. Leave them alone. Family name goes first. I don't give a shit about conventions, it's wrong and is trampling on the Japanese-ness of the work. The work is Japanese. There is no reason to remove or alter anything that. While it's obviously not ideal, a translation note is fine if you have no other choice. Even if I have to have a joke explained to me, once I understand the joke, it can be funny for the same reason it's funny to a Japanese person. Keep the honorifics. If there is anyone that doesn't understand them, they can easily learn about them. Overall, have respect for the source material and its culture.
Make sure you translate obvious things like laughter and grunts because even if (you) can clearly hear the character and understand what they mean regardless of language, you still need to keep in mind that deaf and hard of hearing people are watching. So even if a character laughs and you clearly know that they are laughing and not saying actual words, you still need to write a subtitle for them laughing.Another thing is to make sure you can tell who's saying what. Sometimes characters are off screen, and if you are hard of hearing (or my american friend who can't tell the difference between any of the japanese female voices) then using subtitle offsets to tell which person said what, or color code them based on character would be good. It's really fucking annoying coloring each person's subs, I have experience doing this, so sometimes you'll just want to make them color coded whenever there's several people talking at the same time, or only if they're off screen or whatever.There's a lot of debate over Direct Translation vs. Localization, both sides have good points, both sides have their strengths and weaknesses. Actual professional literature translators all have their own standards as well, and debate amongst each other just as much as we do. The choice depends on your audience, depends on the original author's writing style, depends on each individual sentence too. 4chan likes to suck Direct Translation dick, but I think that's really just because current shit-ass crunchyroll translators stick in their headcannon or straight up incorrect translations, or change the script to push their political agenda and hide behind the "It's a localization" excuse, when it reality Localization is a way different discipline from made up bullshit.
>>288475299What anime are you planning to translate?
