Introduction
Hi! At elomate studio, we focus on automating animation work. That’s why we have developed a tool that allows you to create animated subtitles for videos with just a single click of a button. My name is Przemek, and I am the creator of the captinelo extension.
captinelo is an extension for Adobe After Effects that enables transcription creation using the Google Cloud Speech-to-Text tool. This document will inform you about its capabilities and guide you on how to use it.
Sign Up in Google Cloud
Our extension utilizes the AI Speech-to-Text service from Google Cloud. It is necessary to create an account and enable the API for the Speech-to-Text service.
See the guide here: https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/docs/transcribe-console
IMPORTANT: The use of the Speech-to-Text service is chargeable.
Check the pricing here: https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing
Interface
The extension interface consists of 3 parts: under 60 sec., over 60 sec, and captions generation. Depending on the length of your composition, choose the appropriate method for generating captions.
Under 60 sec.
If your composition is less than 60 seconds, you can use automatic transcription directly in After Effects.
- For this purpose, you need to provide your unique API key generated and assigned to your Google Cloud account. This will "connect" our extension with the Speech-to-Text service. The key is generated once and can be used multiple times. Remember not to share your key for security reasons.
- Next, select the language of the recording.
Upon clicking the “CREATE TRANSCRIPTION” button, the program will automatically render the audio track, then send it to the Speech-to-Text service and use AI to generate subtitles. If everything goes smoothly, the button will display “DONE”. This indicates that you can proceed to the caption generation stage.
Over 60 sec.
Automatic transcription within After Effects works only for audio tracks shorter than 60 seconds. For longer recordings, you should use the subtitle generation via the Google Cloud platform, and then download the JSON file with the ready transcription.
See how to do it: LINK.
Once you have the JSON file ready, you can load it directly into our extension to create animated captions. In over 60 sec. section, click the Upload JSON file button and select the downloaded file. Now you can proceed to the next stage: caption generation.
Captions generation
If you have successfully generated transcription data or uploaded it directly from a JSON file, you can proceed to generate subtitles.
Prepare the text layer. Before creating subtitles, create a new text layer and set its parameters such as size, font, color, etc., according to your needs.
Generating.
Number of characters. The first parameter you can set is the number of characters in a paragraph. This parameter allows you to determine the length of the text in a single display.
Single line, two lines. Decide whether you want to display subtitles in one or two lines.
Animation presets. You can use the box animation presets prepared by us. You have the option to choose scale or position animation. Test to see what will look best in your project!
Finally, select your text layer and click the “CREATE CAPTIONS” button. The program will automatically generate all subtitles and layers.
Generated captions
The script will generate two additional layers.
The text layer “textBox” located above your main text layer is used for animating individual words. A box is created based on this layer. You can also use it to highlight individual captions, for example, in a different color.
See ways to use this layer:
Below your main text layer, a Shape Layer named “box” has been created, which is a rectangle used to highlight individual words. You can edit the box according to your own needs. By clicking this layer and going to the Effects tab, you have 3 parameters to choose from:
- width-offset - to set the width of the rectangle
- height - to set its height
- round-corners - to set rounded or straight corners.
Additionally, you can change the color of the box or add a stroke as in any Shape Layer.
Additional info
Check out our tutorials on how you can use captinelo to create your new captions in After Effects.
