ELAN_make_subtitles
This script uses the MoviePy module to create video clips (with subtitles) from ELAN annotations. The output is an .mp4 file with the same name as the original video file but _subtitles_N added to the end (where "N" is the chronological position of the clip in the .eaf file, in case of several clips generated from the same original file).
In order to use it, you need the .py file on your computer, located in the same file as your .eaf files and their associated video files. By creating a new tier with the name "make_subtitles_<videoID>", where "<videoID>" represents a unique identifier for the video file associated with the tier, the script finds the annotations and outputs video files. NB: The video file identifier has to distinguish it from any other associated video files. For example, if you have an .eaf file with two associated videos (video1.mp4 and video2.mp4), you can create an ELAN tier with the name "make_subtitles_1", and the script then uses video1.mp4 as the associated video file.
You run the script by entering
python3 ELAN_make_subtitles.py
or
python ELAN_make_subtitles.py
and .mp4 video files (with subtitles, if text is added to ELAN annotation cells) are generated and saved to the directory.
For example, in the Swedish Sign Language Corpus file SSLC01_003.eaf, there are two associated video files. They are distinguished by containing the signer id number of the two signers ("S001" and "S002"). Thus, we can create a tier called "make_subtitles_S002" that will be associated with the video on the right in the image below, through the identifier "S002".
In the above image, the stretch of signing is rather long, and thus there is an added "//" in the middle of the annotation cell text. The script will automatically split all texts at "//" and put separate subtitle timings at even split points. Longer text without "//" will get an automatic line break in the subtitle text.
By adding more arguments in the command line input, you can choose to create clips from another tier, as long as the tiername is of the type "tiername_<videoID>", where "<videoID>" represents a unique video file identifier and this is specified with --tiername (or -t). If your target tier is called "default_<videoID>", you can use the following command line input:
python3 ELAN_make_subtitles.py --tiername default
It is also possible to make the output video files slower (or, faster) by adding a speed argument (--speed or -s) specifying the speed in % of the original. For example
python3 ELAN_make_subtitles.py --speed 60
makes the output file 60% of the speed of the original video file. The generated output file below (converted to .gif).
