For those who are curious, my release process is:
1) Obtain raws -- generally pre-encoded DVD raws from the Japanese P2P scene, found via various torrent trackers and DDL sites. Some projects use new encodes done by people in the English fansub/ripping scene.
2) Obtain subs -- via requests made of original fansub staff, OCR, or transcription. Typically I will have all basic scripts prepared before releasing the first episode.
3) Karaoke -- OP / ED will always have English translations + romaji with simple k-timing. Insert songs will have English + Romaji with no effects. This is usually done by manually copying the song lyrics from the TV-rips, retiming them from the ground up, and then splitting them into English Romaji lines for k-timing.
3) Retiming -- shift times appropriately for DVD source, and retime all individual lines for proper leadin/leadout/scenetiming.
4) Editing/TLC -- go through each line to fix mistranslations, correct English spelling/grammar/usage errors, and edit the content of the lines into flowing, natural, enjoyable English. Typically this means taking some liberties with wordings and phrase orders, doing some localization of idioms/jokes/puns, and making sure that nothing is grossly undertranslated in a "keikaku means plan" fashion. TL notes will only be used for information that the Japanese audience would be expected to know by nature of being Japanese.
Eastern name order and most standard honorifics will be retained. So in essence, you'll get somewhat "liberal" subs with typical fansub flavoring.
5) Typesetting/Styling -- Position onscreen text and set specialized styles for dialogue. Some effort will be made to imitate the TV-rips in terms of fonts/colors used. However, due to the limitations of softsubbing and my relative lack of skills and manpower, some typesetting items will be simplified or omitted. Dialogue styling will follow the principles outlined here.
6) Quality Control & Release -- I create a "test mux," and watch it with pencil and paper in hand, ready to note any remaining errors I see. After going back and correcting said mistakes, I create the final release and send it into the wild at a blazing speed of 60 kB/second.
Obviously this process is slow and painstaking, but I guess I believe in a "quality over quantity" approach.
