FAQ
Who are Black-Order?Black-Order are a group of like minded people from various geographical locations all gathered to provide free fansubs. We chose the group name to fit with our first project, D.Gray-man.
What happened to Air Gear?
Before we were called Black-Order, we did speed-subs of Air Gear. We only subbed from episode 17-25 and there are only 25 episodes to the season. We have no idea whether a new season is going to be made, or is being made. There are signs of an Air Gear movie coming up, but we are awaiting confirmation.
How old are the fansubbers?
The fansubbers in our team range from 15-28, but there is no age limit to skill, anyone of any age can fansub provided they have the right skillset for the area they want to participate.
How did you learn Japanese?
Not all of our team memebers can speak/understand Japanese, but the most common way people learn Japanese is simply by getting involved. Read books, listen to Japanese radio/music/audio commentary etc. There are plenty of good books out there, and even some free sites that give tutorials and lessons.
What is your fansub process?
If there is such a thing as a conventional process, then ours is far from it. Our process for fansubbing is actually very efficient, however, due to staff schedules, it's hard to get everyone together to show that fact.
The typical process goes like this: Download raw, Translation of Raw, Editing, Timing, Typesetting, Soft QC (quality check), RC encode (release candidate), QC (quality check), Release (if QC succeeds).
Our process goes like this: Download raw, Translation + Pre-Timing (simultaneously), Editing, Typesetting + Lunar-timing (simultaneously), SoftQC, Encode, Final checks, Release.
Effectively, this means... when all our staff are around at the right time and are able to work, we can squeeze out a release within 16-20 (or less) hours of the raw being made available.
Why "Pre-Time" and how is it done without a translated script?
Pre-timing is done while waiting for (or parallel to) the translation of an episode. This is done so that when the translation is complete, the lines can be quickly and easily inserted into the timed script, and then passed along to the editor. The secondary reason for this is our editor prefering to work with a timed script so he can see the text fit with the animation + audio.
How is this possible without a translated script? Well... most timers must have some basic idea/concept/knowledge of Japanese speech in-order to do a decent job of timing. If you know where speech will start and end correctly (taking into account breaks/pauses and grammar), you can pre-time.
This phase isn't really necessary, but it does shave off some hours if your timer has some spare time knocking around.
What is "lunar timing"?
Timing an episode can be done in different ways, "Audio-timing" for example is where the translated dialogue is timed to match the audio perfectly- regardless of scene changes. "Scene-timing" or "Frame-timing" is where the dialogue is timed to fit not only the audio, but also match with scene changes; this type of timing is precise to single frames and takes longer than audio-timing.
"Lunar-timing" is a name our group has come up with, it is not an "official" name. Lunar-timing is basically a homage to a great fansub group called Lunar-Anime. If you have ever seen some of their releases, you will notice that their dialogue is scene-timed, but ontop of that... some lines are timed to reveal parts of the text as it spoken. This is ideal for keeping the pace of the anime, especially for people that read faster than the audio-dialogue is heard. We like this kind of timing, and so we have adopted their style for it. This kind of timing is a tedious and takes the longest, but we think the results are worth it.
It should be noted, at this stage is our secondary timing. We also clean up the primary/rough timing to eliminate scene-bleeds, and typeset simultaneously.
What is some of the fansub terminology?
TL: Translation / Translator
TC: Translation checking / Translation checker.
TS: Typesetting, this involves some styling, and positioning signs/text that may appear through the episode.
Timing: Translated lines are timed to fit the audio/scene changes from the episode
QC: Quality Check, this is where work will be checked for all errors.
RC: Release Candidate, this is a full quality encode which will be QC'd as a possible final release.
Pre-distro: This phase is distribution of the final release to large bandwidth distributors such as bots, ddl sites, and bt seeders.
Distro: The final phase is where the file is mass-distributed to anyone that wants the final release.
Where can I donate?
We don't have a donation button, we like to fansub for free... but if people are going to keep asking, we may put a button up and distribute the donations to the staff that actually spend money to help (ie. distro staff). Many of the distro staff already have donation buttons on their websites/xdcc listing pages, if you download from them... those are the people that deserve your donations.
We do however, appreciate it when people drop by our chatroom (#black-order @ irc.rizon.net) to say hello, leave us a comment, or review/rate us on fansub/anime review sites. After all, you are the people we're fansubbing for! :D
What's the difference between H264(mp4) and XviD(avi) releases?
The difference is all about quality. Typically, the h264 release is of considerably higher visual quality, the audio is the same in both releases. The only drawback with h264 is that it guzzles CPU and memory, so you need a fairly capable computer to play it without lag. H264 is also slightly smaller in size, so even better for archiving.
To play H264 properly, we highly recommend the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack), which is available from here: http://www.cccp-project.net/
If you're wondering which version to get, we will always recommend the h264/mp4 version.
Will you teach me how to...?
By default, we just like to produce fansubs and not teach about it. Sadly, most of us don't have the time to teach individuals how to do various things. The best piece of advice we can give anyone is to Google up some tutorials, and get your hands into it is you're trying to learn. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, because if you don't make mistakes, you can't learn from them! Most of all, don't give up, and be patient with yourself!
Why is Sirus such a hot girl?
Nobody knows, she just is <3
Is kip really a girl?
Ya darn tootin'!