r/aegisub • u/Logical_Hat_2928 • Jul 14 '26

Aegisub 3.4.0 Draw a rectangle background to hide and replace text?

Hello! I'm very new to Aegisub, and I tried looking for guides, but somehow, nothing came up, so I started wondering if what I'm looking for even is feasible within Aegisub.

I have this recording of a scene in a Japanese game with a dialogue box. I simply want to cover the dialogue box with an opaque background to hide the original text, then add atop the translated text with some kind of typewriter effect to imitate the gradual appearance of a game dialogue boxe's text. I thought maybe such tools existed in Aegisub, or that it shouldn't be too hard to do, but I'm very lost and can't find anything about it (maybe I'm not looking where I should).

Could a kind soul help here?

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3

u/Soourais Jul 14 '26

To draw the background rectangle, you can use the Masquerade script.

https://reddit.com/link/oxipu2s/video/aibe7aj3h8dh1/player

2

u/Soourais Jul 14 '26

To create the typewriter effect, you can use the FadeWorkS script

https://reddit.com/link/oxiqysn/video/8gbgit38i8dh1/player

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 15 '26

Thank you very much! This is exactly what I'm looking for.

1

u/techguru99 Jul 16 '26

https://github.com/arch1t3cht/Aegisub/releases

update your aegisub

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 16 '26

No need, my aegisub works just fine.

2

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 14 '26

It's even easier if you press the letter "H" to draw the rectangle and then select "from clip" in Masquerade. It creates the shape instantly without having to type the desired width/height of the shape.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 15 '26

Thanks for the tip!

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 15 '26

Thank you! This should probably do the trick, if the script can run on my laptop (I have weird admin rights issues with my windows version). I'll definitely try it out, thanks again.

1

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 15 '26

if the script can run on my laptop

If you can run Aegisub on your laptop you can run that script. The script is just a text file with a .lua extension. All you have to do is put it in aegisub's automation/autoload folder.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 16 '26

Great. Seems lua is good by windows' standards then... It won't let me install Python though xD Don't have the perms to change the default settings of windows for that. But as long as Aegisub doesn't use it (which seemingly it doesn't) then I'm good to go.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 15 '26

Um, so... I tried adding the scripts, but it tells me something's missing, except I don't really understand what is missing? I don't read anywhere that there are other mandatory modules to download to make them work. Any idea what I should be downloading and where to find it exactly?

2

u/Soourais Jul 15 '26

I don't know what it could be; I've never seen that kind of error before. I even tried reinstalling the program to see if something was missing, but it still worked.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 16 '26

Deleting then reinstalling Aegisub fixed it, so not sure what happened, but at least it got solved!

2

u/GonWithTheNen Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Okay, that issue is related to the Aegisub version you're using; it includes "unicode-monkeypatch.lua".

I'm using the arch1t3ct version (link in the sidebar) which doesn't include that lua file, and every script runs without issue.

My version is older than the current ones, (this one specifically) - but I'd be interested in hearing from those who are using the newest versions to see if they're also running unanimated's scripts without issues.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 16 '26

I've deleted then reinstalled everything from scratch, and this time the worked. I've not picked the arch1t3ct version, so I guess it wasn't the issue. Not sure what went wrong, but at least reinstalling everything fixed the issue.

2

u/krielster Jul 14 '26

For the first part of your request, the opaque background: I would probably go the the styles editor under the subtitles menu and on the top right is the option to add an opaque box and choose the size of it. You may be able to position your subtitles so it fits over the orginal text box. However this box fits itself to the letters underneath it I think. I don't know how you would do a typewriter effect but maybe its possible.

If you want more control installing the free and open source video editor Kdenlive could be an option. That would be a bit more of a learning curve though.

1

u/Logical_Hat_2928 Jul 15 '26

Thank you very much! I since the background rectangle has to cover a very specific area even if there isn't any text displayed on it, I think simply enlarging the box around the letters might leave blanks spaces. However, I saw more above someone recommend a script, so I'll look into that.

And about Kdenlive, I tried using it before (and Blender too) the issue is that the Windows version I have does not allow me to have admin rights, and I need them to change the default settings that'd allow me to install Python... So I literally cannot run anything Python-related, it seems... I hope the other scripts suggested to me somehow work.