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A Brief Guide to TCAX for Foreign Users [复制链接]

milkyjing

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TCAX Dev.

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电梯直达

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发表于 2012-3-5 16:12:33 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

Requirements

When I am writing this guidance, I assume the readers already have the basic knowledge about karaoke subtitling effects including timing, styling and encoding based on ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) and AVS (Avisynth Script). Being able to programming using scripting languages, such as Python, Lua, etc. can be a great advantage, but not a must. :-P

Introduction

Before we start, I should point it out that in this guidance I will not cover too much details about what TCAX is and what it can do, but will focus on how to get it work to produce some real karaoke FXs. So, let's continue,

TCAX is a program to help us create awesome karaoke FXs and some other types of subtitle effects through scripting. And it also provides built-in scripts for ease of use, and enables users who cannot programming to still make excellent karaoke FXs.

Since I don't know too much about other similar software, Aegisub (I only use this cool tool to timing -_-) or whatever, so I'll leave the comparisons between these tools up to the readers. :-P

Although there are already many good manuals/examples/tutorials/etc. on TCAX written in Chinese, English stuffs are if not too fundamental, just a way too far from being practical. So this guidance will first solve the most urgent question, that is how to get it work. :-)

Installation

Due to simplicity and flexibility considerations, I didn't pack the TCAX to be a stand-alone software, so if it is your first time to use TCAX, you may need to install the following programs before you can run TCAX properly.
1. Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 run-time (vcredist_x86.exe)
2. Python 3.2 (python-3.2.msi)
3. Avisynth 2.5.8 (Avisynth_258.exe)
4. Miscellaneous:
a) Media Player Classic Home-Cinema or other video players which are compatible with AVS.
b) Python Script Editor

TCAX itself need not to be installed, however, from TCAX 0.9.9 you can use assoc.exe under TCAX's root directory to make the file association, which may simplify some common operations and give the file icons a better appearance.

Local download links:
vcredist_x86.zip
python-3.2.zip
Avisynth_258.zip

or you can Google the official sites of the above programs.

You can download the TCAX main program from this thread or from TCAX Repo, then just unzip it. To test if TCAX can work on your PC, just run the tcax.exe

If you can see this screen, it means everything works fine. :-)
Then just close the program, it is a fact that you will seldom interact with TCAX directly through that console, as the later examples will imply.

Examples

Download from TCAX Repo: example.zip
or download from local: example.zip

Unzip it, you will see the following files under Nekogami_OP folder

If you have executed the assoc.exe, just right click on the Nekogami_OP.tcc file, and choose Parse,

Parse

Else, choose open with tcax.exe,

Result of parsing,

execute

Do the same thing with Nekogami_OP_cn.tcc

Now you will get more files, as the screenshot shows,

Open Nekogami_OP.avs with Notepad, simply edit the plugins' paths, the two plugins are under the TCAX's root directory. Save, if you haven't installed the two fonts, epgyobld.ttf and 方正行楷_GBK.ttf, just installed them, open the AVS with MPC or whatever video players which are compatible with AVS. Now you are able to preview the FX. :-P

That's it,

preview