While I love the weekly “what is TLC?” jokes, I figured I’d make a little summary of each thing we have over in the sidebar to the right for future reference. Note that this is for original translations; simuledits are slightly different.

Encoding: Creating the actual video file. First a workraw is made for the group to use. The workraw has a smaller filesize and minimal processing and just exists to let the other work start faster. After that the premux is made, which is done with proper processing and is attached to the final release. If you’ve ever done any video processing, you’ll understand that this is cpu intensive and takes time (read: hours).

Timing: Deciding how to split all of the dialogue lines. I do this before translating for convenience. First you “rough time”, which is cutting off each line exactly where the audio starts and stops while keeping in mind the keyframes and scene changes/cuts. If a character speaks a line that runs over two different cuts, I’ll usually also cut the spoken line there too for aesthetic purposes. Then you do “fine timing”, which is adding lead-in and lead-out (the subs are visible before and after every spoken line) and snapping between lines and keyframes. Timing is easy to learn, but takes a fair bit of experience to be good at.

Translation: You know, making the entire script into English (or whatever target language). For most shows you only have the audio to go by, but for LWA and some other shows there are closed captions in Japanese to refer to.

Editing: Going over the translated script and, well, editing it to be nicer. This can include small changes like line spacing or comma placement, or big changes like reworking an entire conversation to flow better. Translators and editors have a unique relationship where you can really feel each other’s base writing style and how your upbringing and surroundings are different. Back in the old days, TL used to be making a Japanese-sounding script and editing was making it English-sounding, but nowadays the original TL is designed to be read from the start, and editing makes it better.

TLC: Translation check. Traditionally, a second TL in the group goes over the script to make sure there aren’t any errors, but there’s kind of a dearth of us these days. We use it to mean the TL going over the edited script and making sure there weren’t any accidental errors added, and also to double check himself.

Typesetting: Making all of the Japanese signs into English. This can be very easy (if there are no signs) or very hard (if there are a ton and they move all over the place). In LWA they’re mostly in English already (thanks Tattun), so our job is easy. TS may also include styling the songs, but doing so is so rare we usually don’t even bother including it in the percentage.

QC: Quality check. You combine the script, songs, and signs into a single file and watch through it as a whole to make sure it all works. During this point we check everything “in motion”, as the viewer would see it. It’s the last chance to catch stupid mistakes like typos and incorrect layers and timing before someone yells at you for it. All that’s left after this is muxing and releasing, which are so fast/minor that they don’t need to be put up here.

Love: Without love it cannot be seen, but it’s always at 100% or more.