Dubbing & characters

A dubbing project starts from someone else’s spreadsheets: one that names who speaks each subtitle line, and often a second, independent one that names who speaks each heard line on the audio track. Aquilla lets you import both, cast characters from them, and catch the places where they disagree.

Casting a character

Every row in the media/timeline view carries a small circle at its left edge, the character gutter. Click it to open a voice picker and cast that line:

• A line with a character shows its cast voice as a solid, colored avatar.
• A line nobody has cast yet shows an empty dashed ring, not a faded default face, so it reads as “nobody chose this,” not as a weak choice.
• No character at the top of the picker clears a line’s cast without replacing it.
• Under Use this voice for, choose how far the pick reaches. This line is selected each time the picker opens. “Every «{name}» line in this file” (with the file’s count) casts each of the character’s lines in the open file and leaves other episodes as they were. “Every «{name}» line, in every episode” casts the character itself, everywhere it speaks.
• A line without a character offers only this line: “This line has no character, so the voice is for this line only.”
• No character works on this line or this file. With every episode chosen it is greyed out: “Choose this line or this file to remove a character.”

If one line holds narration and a quotation, split it first so each speaker gets a line of their own: see Splitting a line at its quotation marks.

Casting a character (cast.assign) needs Maintainer access. The gutter is visible while you edit at any role, but attempting to cast below Maintainer fails and surfaces an error rather than saving.

Importing character sheets

Open a file’s Sources menu in the timeline toolbar to import a character spreadsheet (.xlsx or .csv), one row per subtitle line or one row per heard line. Importing is Maintainer-only, same as casting. A sheet casts each character once, so every line it names picks up that character’s voice. Rows are matched to lines by their times. A sheet that writes its times as video timecode, with a frame number after the seconds such as 00:01:03:05, is read at the frame rate (23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 or 30) that lines up the most of its rows with the file’s lines, and the summary says so: “The sheet’s times are video timecode, read at {rate} frames a second.” When a row’s time still doesn’t match a line, or the timecode lines up at no common rate, and the sheet also carries the line’s words, Aquilla matches that row by identical wording instead. A sheet from a different episode still leaves rows unmatched and is refused. A subtitle file whose lines carry speaker names, such as <v Name> tags, does the same on a fresh import; an Update existing re-import keeps the characters already on the lines and casts its speakers line by line.

To undo an import, open it again and choose Clear subtitles or Clear heard lines. Aquilla asks first, naming exactly how many lines are affected, and warns that heard lines read their character from the subtitle sheet by default, so clearing the subtitle sheet blanks them too unless they have their own name. Clearing removes the assignments but keeps every character already in your Voice library, so re-importing later gives each one back its same voice and color.

Checking for disagreements

Open Check → Check characters to compare the two sheets. The Characters drawer lists every place they disagree, in two sections:

• Who says it: the sheets name different people for the same line.
• Camera: same person, but the sheets disagree on whether the camera is on them. Camera has four states: on camera, off camera, mixed, and group shot.

Each disputed line is a card with one button per candidate answer, labeled with the value itself (never an abstract “left” or “right”); pick the one that’s correct. A confirmation lets you apply one sheet’s camera answer to every remaining camera dispute at once, and “Un-resolve everything” backs out of a check in progress. If neither sheet has been imported yet, the drawer’s empty state offers an Import character sheets button that opens the import dialog directly.

Opening the Characters drawer, and Check → Check links (which pairs a subtitle line to the audio cue that performs it), both need Project lead access or above: this is setup work, done once before a file reaches translators and dubbers.

Recording against a heard line

In a dubbing project, a take belongs to the audio cue it performs, not to the subtitle cell itself. Opening a subtitle line’s Recording tab shows the takes recorded on its heard line, labeled “Heard line · {time range}.” If that heard line also performs other subtitle lines, a warning says so: re-recording it changes every line it performs, not just the one you have open.

Removing an imported source

A file’s Sources menu also removes what was imported: taking off the Source audio track (and every cue and subtitle pairing that came with it) or unlinking a video. Both ask first, naming what goes with it, and both are a soft delete: a project lead can restore it from Recently deleted, or you can re-import a fresh file. Removing a source needs Maintainer access, the same as importing one.

Watching more than one language track

If a linked video’s file carries several dubbed audio tracks, a small globe icon in the corner of the video pane opens a searchable list of them. Aquilla defaults to the project’s own target language rather than the first track alphabetically; pick another to preview it instead.

Protecting the timings

Because a dubbing project’s timings come from the client’s own file, every project starts with its timeline locked against dragging, project leads included, until a Maintainer turns the lock off in Project Settings → Timeline. See Media view & timing for how the lock behaves and how to unlock it.

Roles at a glance

Action	Needs
Cast or clear a character on a line	Maintainer
Import or clear a character sheet	Maintainer
Remove an imported source (audio track or video)	Maintainer
Turn off the timing lock	Maintainer
Check characters or check pairings	Project lead
Link a film to a file	Project lead
Pair a subtitle line to an audio cue	Project lead
Record, trim, or move a clip	Contributor

See Roles & permissions for the full role ladder.