Layout reads the words from subtitles — a subtitle track in DaVinci Resolve, an SRT file, or subtitles ROKLIM makes from the audio — and turns every word into its own Text+ clip on your video tracks. Words that are on screen together form a group; inside a group they fill rows; each row gets the biggest size that fits the part of the frame you allow. Because every word is a separate clip, you can fix a typo or a timing later and the layout stays.
Before you press RUN
- Subtitles with the text you want: a subtitle track, an SRT file, or ROKLIM’s own subtitles from audio (below).
- A Text+ title is in the Media Pool (see Getting started).
- The font is calibrated for this timeline (below). Once per font and timeline.
The window, top to bottom
Subtitle source
Subtitle Track — the number of the subtitle track to read (1 is the first). or SRT file — read an .srt file instead: … picks one, ✕ goes back to the track.
Subtitles from audio (DaVinci Resolve Free)
The free DaVinci Resolve has no Create Subtitles from Audio, so ROKLIM makes the subtitles itself — on your computer, word by word. It works in Studio too.
- Press DaVinci Resolve Free.
- In Resolve mark the part with I and O — ROKLIM reads the marks by itself. No marks = the whole timeline.
- Press Create subtitles. The first time, the speech model downloads (181 MB) — or get it beforehand with Download model; the button turns grey (Model ready) once it is there.
Speech recognition is OpenAI Whisper (via whisper.cpp) with the Silero speech detector, all under the MIT license, running on your computer.
ROKLIM renders the audio, recognizes the speech and sets the new SRT as the source — RUN works right away. The SRT also goes to the ROKLIM bin of the Media Pool, and the message shows where the first word starts. To fix words in Resolve, put the playhead there and drop the clip on a subtitle track; then clear the SRT field (✕) and set the track number.
Text position zone: Top Tilt, Bottom Tilt, Left Pan, Right Pan
The rectangle where the words may go, in pixels from the frame centre (right and up are positive). Every group starts at Top Tilt and must fit down to Bottom Tilt; a row may not be wider than Left Pan to Right Pan. A bigger zone means longer rows and bigger text.
The block is folded: click TEXT POSITION ZONE to open or close it. Folded, it still shows its four values.
Time range
Only subtitles inside From – To are laid out. In Resolve press I at the start and O at the end of the part you want — ROKLIM reads the marks by itself and shows the times in From and To, and every RUN takes the marks as they are at that moment. One mark is enough (no In = from the start, no Out = to the end); no marks = the whole timeline.
Mode and Text layout
Mode sets what RUN does: only make Text+ clips from the subtitles, also split them into words, or split and lay the words out on the text tracks (the full job).
Text layout sets how many rows a group of words takes: 1 row, 2 rows, 3 rows or Custom. Each choice keeps its own Fine settings (below) — pick one and its values fill in. Custom is your own setup. Change any choice under ⚙ Fine settings and press Save to … there.
Clip colours
After RUN, ROKLIM can colour the new clips so Animations and SFX can pick an animation or a sound by colour:
- Line — by row number: row 1 gets the Line 1 colour, row 2 Line 2, row 3 and below Line 3.
- Role — every group gets one key row, Big, and the rows around it are Context. Big is picked by position: the only row, the bottom row of two, the middle row of three, the one before last of four or more.
⚙ Fine settings
Everything that shapes the groups is in its own window: text tracks, groups, rows, gaps, one-word rows and punctuation. The values (all but Text tracks, which belong to the project) belong to the Text layout chosen in the main window; Save to … keeps them in it.
#### Text tracks The video tracks for the words, separated by commas. Word 1 of a group goes on the first track, word 2 on the second, and so on — so the number of tracks also caps the words per group. Use free tracks above your footage.
#### Groups A new group starts when the group reaches Words/group or Max chars, after a pause longer than Group gap frames, or after a word ending with one of the Break on punct marks. A group shorter than Min words/grp or Min chars joins a neighbour — the previous group if it ends a sentence (End punct), otherwise the next one.
#### Rows Inside a group, words fill a row until Max words/row or Max chars/row, or until the row no longer fits the zone. Max rows caps the rows; extra words move to a new group instead of getting smaller. Uniform size gives everything one size (rows that do not fit run off the edge instead of shrinking). Word gap and Line gap set the space between words and between rows.
#### One-word rows A row with a single word is placed by Pan mode: Random — anywhere between Pan from and Pan to, which keeps single words from always sitting in the same spot; Manual — always at one Pan value.
RUN
Lays out the subtitles of the range with these settings. Progress and any problems appear right below.
Text Settings: font, colour, calibration
Open Text Settings to choose the font, style and colour of the words.
Calibrate the font once per font and timeline. Press Auto-measure: ROKLIM renders every word of your subtitles in this font and remembers its real width, so words never overlap or drift apart. Before you press it, set the timeline playback resolution to Full. ROKLIM puts a Text+ from the Media Pool on a new track at the playhead for the measurement and removes the clip and the track afterwards; if the playhead is on a Text+ clip, it measures on that one and puts its word back. No Text+ in the Media Pool — it says so. Project and timeline names must use plain Latin letters.
Apply keeps the font and style for RUN. It does not touch clips already on the timeline.
Changing words that are already laid out
These tools in Text Settings change clips that are already on the timeline, for the time range or the selected clips:
- Change Font — switches the font and keeps every word in its place (sizes are fitted so the look stays the same). A plain font change without refitting is now built into DaVinci itself.
- Update Existing — one or more of: - colour, anchor; - one size for everything, or Resize by an amount or a factor — rows re-flow and re-stack so nothing collides; - Line gap — the space between rows of every group; - Word gap — the space between words of every row; - Centre — centre each row of every group horizontally; - shift Pan and Tilt of all clips.
Groups are always changed whole, so half a phrase never moves on its own.
Save and reuse
- Save as Default remembers the window for next time (including the chosen Text layout); Profiles keep several setups.
- To reuse the look of a finished group — sizes, colours, animation — on other groups, use Premade layouts.