Check glyph coverage before animating multilingual copy

Create a sheet with one row per language, using the real headline, supporting label and longest sentence. Add the actual names and punctuation used by the project. For an illustrative Slovak specimen, include “Ľahšie plánovanie, čistejší prehľad.” Also inspect characters such as ľ, Ľ, š, č, ť, ž, ý, á, í, é and ô if they occur in approved copy.

A mixed-script row such as “Atlas / Αθήνα / 東京” can expose substitution, but it is only a diagnostic example, not an approved translation. Have someone who reads each script review its form. A complete-looking glyph is not necessarily a correctly shaped or linguistically correct word.

For each row, record font filename, weight, expected language, rendering context and observations. Look for replacement boxes, unexpectedly different strokes, detached marks, clipped accents and punctuation that sits at the wrong height. Inspect line spacing at the largest accent or tallest combined mark, not just ordinary capital letters.

Then reveal the same phrase in its final box. A line that looked correct while static may clip when a mask crosses its accents. If the animation splits text into individual characters, inspect joining and ordering especially carefully. Keep complex-script shaping intact rather than assuming every visible character can be animated independently.

An illustrative decision log could read: “Primary display file lacks the approved Japanese characters; use the approved companion family for the complete Japanese phrase; retain the primary family for the separate Latin brand name.” Record who approved that choice and attach the specimen.

Avoid replacing one missing letter with a visually similar letter from another alphabet or stripping accents to make a font fit. A companion family introduces differences in width and tone, so reapprove breaks and baseline alignment. If brand rules prohibit substitution, return to the brand owner with the failing specimen and a concrete alternative.

A working design preview is not the final artifact. Inspect the exported phrase at intended playback size and compare it character by character with the approved copy. Check beginning, mid-reveal and final-hold frames, because masks and scaling can fail at different moments.

Keep the source strings as text in the handoff alongside the exact font assets. When a translation changes, rerun the specimen and layout check rather than relying on the previous pass. For a two-language film, approve separate line-break maps; trying to morph one word shape into another can conceal a mistranslation or distract from the message.