Handling multiple subtitle tracks (or actors) at once

Hi, everyone!

I'm working on a very plot-heavy videogame gameplay which I need to hardcode subtitles in my native language.

The thing I want to achieve is to have different characters to have differently colored subtitles. I could do it by making ass/ssa format subs and then re-hardcode them on rendered material using libass filter, but I'm afraid that another pass of encoding would have a negative result on image quality.

So I thought I can create multiple subtitle files for each actor and then have them on separate tracks in Resolve, so I can handle styles individually, but it results only one subtitle track can be displayed at once

Creating and timing all the titles manually is out of question as I tried it last time and it resulted to be very tedious, as 30 minutes of game material I worked with had 175 separate lines of dialogue.

Is there any workaround for my problem or the only cost-effective solution would be rendering the material with best quality possible and then re-encode the video hardcoding the subtitles with a 3rd-party software that handles subtitles with multiple styling?

Thanks.

Did you ever solve this problem? As I am currently facing the same issue

+1 Need to render all the subtitle tracks at once, as those aren't overlapping (one track per actor).
The only solution is to use single track and give each actor just a color, but this is really not the way it should be

Hey, I have the same problem . I would like to add other subtitles but it doesn't work. So I will just burn the first subtitles and then burn the second video. Its pity that Da Vince does not allow two or more subtitles....

Here's a partial workaround I found for this problem. If you have an external caption/subtitle files you need to use in your video (two or more at the same time), so that they can not only have different look but also overlap with each other, the only solution, obviously, is to use a Text tool, but manually recreating your captions using Text clips (of which I would need over 500 for a 20 min video) is insane, so here's what you can do:
First, you need to save your captions/subtitles in .fcpxml (Final Cut Pro xml 1.5) format. Any decent subtitle editor should be able to do that, I used Subtitle Edit.
Then what you need to do is import the .fcpxml file as a timeline into Resolve project. The result will be a new timeline with a whole track of Text clips, which you'll be free to use however you like.
This will not only allow to use overlapping subtitles, but also to apply transition effects and whatever is applicable to a Text tool.
The downside of this method is, of course, there will be no "track style", and also you won't be able to export your "subtitles" as an external subtitle file, like .srt (if you will really need to, I guess you could use something like VideoSubFinder to recreate caption file from rendered video).


It's kinda crazy that Blackmagic won't allow us such a simple thing as using multiple captions/subtitles at the same time in one video. I just don't understand, why limit this. Hopefully, they fix this at some point.

+1 on this. Please Blackmagic, make it possible to use more than one subtitle track at the same time.

+ one on this problem!

I "requested" this right from the get go last year when they first introduced the subtitle tracks. As working in Asia, often you need more than one language on screen.

Like in Malaysia, they have three different languages.

The film I'm working on has two, which means, as some have pointed out, I have to do two pass render.

I know I'll regret saying this, like I said I would pay to have a second screen on full display. I'd pay to have concurrent subtitles!

I didn't solve the problem...but I managed to insert de secont subtitle in another way.

I added a new video track and insert titles > text (in the same settings of subtitles, just changed the color).

In Brazil we call this GAMBIARRA... LOL
No Brasil chamamos de GAMBIARRA... UhauAU

I export the srt, then turn the srt into an fcpxml so it goes in as titles on the video track.

Same issue as what Eric Tang mentioned above. Need Japanese subtitle on top row and English on bottom, but Resolve only allows showing one at a time. Are there some newer solutions people have found?

Our original editing was in Premiere, where we set up both language subtitles, and then we moved to Resolve for adding the subtitles.

I could output a black file with just subtitles from Premiere, but the export of subtitle text from Premiere is never very high quality. Also, in Premiere it doesn't allow italicizing Japanese subtitles, we could only do that in Resolve.

Same issue as what Eric Tang mentioned above. Need Japanese subtitle on top row and English on bottom, but Resolve only allows showing one at a time. Are there some newer solutions people have found?

Our original editing was in Premiere, where we set up both language subtitles, and then we moved to Resolve for adding the subtitles.

I could output a black file with just subtitles from Premiere, but the export of subtitle text from Premiere is never very high quality. Also, in Premiere it doesn't allow italicizing Japanese subtitles, we could only do that in Resolve.

The only one I've used so far is still exporting it as SRT, then turn the SRT into a FCPXML via some website, then importing that said FCPXML back into DaVinci, it'll become a Text Layer. From there, you just need to reformat the Text.

The one downside is, when you highlight too many, and your machine doesn't have enough memory, it can be very slow.

Can you fix this blackmagic????

+1 For multiple independent subtitles displayed simultaneously.

+1 for revisiting subtitles generally. There are lots of features which would be very appreciated (eg. style presets, timeline specific maximum line-width).

+1

I am unable/unwilling to migrate to Resolve from Premiere, until Resolve supports multiple subtitle tracks.
It's just not realistic to do all my editing in resolve, then export and have to re-export from premiere just to add the subtitles. As this thread is 3 years old, I don't know if this is even in the works. Anyone know?
You are limiting your international market significantly, because a lot of countries' media uses multiple sub tracks baked in. Hope someone sees this!

Sometimes, in a large codebase, there's a vital-but-hurriedly-implemented section that nobody has touched in a while. Usually you have to wait until some poor intern gets brought in and is forced to do a full-refactor as their initial assignment.

DaVinci Resolve 17 seems to allow me to add as many subtitle tracks as I want.
So perhaps others that were on this thread earlier last year can check again?
I have added the original subtitles and I can multiple rows above that and take notes on the video as it plays.

Things I wish I could do:

-Display on the video any combination of subtitles (i.e. put a small text track with my notes in the upper right and also keep the regular subtitles down at the bottom).

-Edit the positioning of the subtitles on the video directly without needing to use a control panel. For example with miro.com the text boxes can be edited by resizing them using handles. I prefer this type of tactile editing instead of needing to edit a control panel sizer and positioner.

-Search for text in any of the subtitle tracks and markers and across the entire library (sidebar widget that would allow filtering by current video, current track, entire library, etc.)

-Quickly enter subtitle text using keyboard only while controlling video play/pause/rewind with tab or some hotkey of my choice.

-Good integration with a dictation software like Nuance Dragon for entering text by voice and perhaps an option to play the audio from the video into Dragon to produce the text as if I was speaking it with my microphone.

- Perhaps some nicer ways to do translations inside the tool directly along the lines of what is provided with SubtitleEdit (open source software)

Thank you.

It had always allowed to add more than one subtitle track, the issue has always been your first wish, it couldn't display more than one at any one time. As I previously answer, the only work round is export the SRT, change it into FCPXML, then re-import that back into DaVinci, as have them as title cards. Downside is, it's very memory intensive when you select many multiple or all at the same time.

+1.

The only way I can see it being done is by rendering with 1 subtitle, then re-editing the rendered version and subtitling the second one over the top.

So for anyone still facing this issue I have a solution!

I've included an attachment but the solution is as follows.
Rather than trying to have multiple "Subtitle tracks", what you need to do is add a "Subtitle region" by right clicking on the timeline, after adding a subtitle track.

This still allows you to have different "Track colours" & positioning etc, but it gets around the annoyance of each track disabling itself when you go to edit the captions.

Which now I think about this as their work flow I can see why they've done it this way.
It actually makes sense that they force you to create a subtitle region within a track if you need multiple characters subtitles on screen at once.

Because you can put all of your subtitles for say English in that track, then on Subtitle track 2 you can add all your French subtitles, and track 2 would have it's own regions etc. Although it does make it feel clunkier than it should do.

Things of note, if you want to make your own life easier and have multiple characters I'd suggest doing the following.

Create a main subtitle track, set your font colour, background etc, then create subsequent subtitle tracks for each of your characters (just so you can label and colour your clips while you're adding them).
Then once you're finished adding your characters, create as many subtitle regions on your main subtitle track as your need, and then drag your finished subtitles from your other tracks into those regions.

Just remember any formatting you've done on those other tracks will not be preserved when you move the subtitles into their respective regions, so you will need to ensure each of your characters subtitles are in the correct position on screen, font colours are correct etc before exporting.
Nor does each region use the formatting from the main subtitle track (but this is actually a benefit).

This is a bit of a bodge, but subtitle regions don't show their names on the timeline; it may be possible to display these, but it's not easy to do if there is an option for this.

P.S Apologies if this is a bit all over the place; it's 5am and I should have been asleep 3 hours ago!

Thank you FatVeganLiberator. Very helpful to have it spelled out like that.

Is it possible to set defaults for the Region? I cna set track defaults for the primary subtitle track, but could see no way to set position, font, etc at a track level for the Region. Finished up selecting them all and then updating the clip properties.

Great to have this addition.

I just discovered the ability for subtitle regions. A lifesaver for my current client
BUT
Right-clicking in the ST1 track only allows me to "ADD SUBTITLE"
The 3-option drop-down displayed in the manual (page 1029) does not present itself!

I'll keep searching....and searching! Sounds like a 60's 45

BE SURE you have selected
VIEW>SHOW SUBTITLE TRACKS
about halfway down the drop-down

I found this after looking for a feature on the custom keyboard page!!!!
Sorry, I answered my question from 30 minutes ago - somewhere ELSE on this forum.