Image files here:
Build a Sushi Restaurant Website with Sitely
Watch my latest video as I build a sushi restaurant website with the Sitely app. It’s a quick build as I premade the assets (images, sliders) ahead of time. I run though some interesting concepts such as Image/Video Grid, Icons, External Links, and Video on Page Background.
Check it out!
Sitely High Level Walkthrough Part 3
Sitely High Level Walkthrough Part 2
Sitely High Level Walkthrough Part 1
Sitely (formerly Sparkle) is a web design application. The features described in this Youtube video go over a topics:
- Look and Feel
- Sitely Website and product versions
- Opening the Application
Note, that Zee Digital is not sponsored by Sitely.
Some of the images from the video:
EU Population Projections 2024 Fun Project
So I did a fun project to incorporate 3D and video editing. The idea was to use some form of data that would speak to a story. I stumbled on United Nations data as it was free to use and very comprehensive. After compiling the data, I used Blender and DaVinci Resolve to do some fine editing.
The idea was that the camera would pan through the various EU country populations and it would be stylized for a certain look.
Here are some screens of what the project looks like in Blender. It is 2000 frames in entirety.
I used some cool edits in DaVinci including “Glow” and “Light Rays”. Here are screenshots.
Here is the Final Video. Please Subscribe.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Making the Drone Adventure Video
These days, people are posting drone videos all over the place. We wanted to do the same as well to promote our media service offering and share how we did it. The Drone Adventure video was posted on our Media Page and it is also available for viewing below.
The thing is, most people cant fly drones all over the place and with new FAA rules in place, one should be cautious flying very high. You’ll have to know where controlled airspace is as well. Just like drone shots, timelapse, slow shutter, and slow motion shots have a market online for makers to sell to individuals such as Youtubers that want to integrate content.
So this is what we did. We looked at two low priced options for grabbing drone videos. The first Widyos which cost $27. It does have quite a lot of content such as 4K and HD video, photos, audio, and vector graphics. It is not a subscription, so you are provided lifetime access. There is a sizeable number of drone footage.
Note that there was a lot of marketing when it first came out however, that has died down and it only now has a signup page.
We also used JVZOO’s StockNation. For $67, you’ll get access to thousands of videos and other content. This is also not a subscription and the price comes with with lifetime access.
StockNation has a very nice searchable dashboard. It also has a video editor built-in but it is easier to download the videos and use another editing tool (see a few paragraphs down). Note that the $67 will not give you access to Photos and Audio files which Widyos provided. That’s another fee of around $47.
After selecting our video files, we use a free editor called Hitfilm Express. You will have to download it for Mac or PC and then start editing. Although there is a paid version of Hitfilm, the Express version is more than capable of editing and composing your video and audio. It also comes with video and audio effects.
Below you will see a composite shot. After each video is imported into Hitfilm Express, the video is placed into each composite shot. This is optional it is but easier to edit the composite shots separately and the combine them in the main editor afterwards.
Below is how the main editor looks like with the various composite shots.
The whole idea is to fit, splice, and, transition the composite shots to your liking and same goes for the audio as well. If you are familiar with using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, Hitfilm Express should be an easy adjustment. Exporting your final product is simple as well. There are various video profiles to choose from your you can create your own.
All in all, a straight forward editing process. Enjoy!
Making of the Blog
This is the first post of the blog and the only expression that is right for the post is “hooray!” Finally it is done. Making a blog is straight forward if you are using blog specific services such as wordpress.com. Pick a theme, use canned graphics, and you are good to go. Starting writing.
However, if you are hosting the site yourself, you’ll have to either:
1) install your blogging platform or
2) build your blog from scratch (e.g. HTML, PHP).
Zee Digital, decided to use the WordPress installation available from the hosting vendor. It was easier. Next, stylize your theme and plug in images and content. Sounds easy right? Well, it does take a long time to stylize your theme and create all the elements around it. Like many blogs, a free theme was used and because of additional features available, was purchased. Zee Digital stumbled on a theme from WP-Royal called Ashe. There were modifications but not a whole lot. As you can see, the blog theme looks fairly clean.
The Ashe theme has a clean and responsive look. From the screen capture below, you will see how neat the menus look. The theme definitely fits travel blogs but is versatile for other types of blogs.
Ashe comes with a Pro version which was purchased for more features. One of the features that stuck out was the pre-made 14 styles depending on your blog choice. Since the Zee Digital blog is technology project related, it aligns with either a darker background style or a style with a slider. However, the use of the travel style keeps this blog differentiated from other similar blogs in this genre. Hopefully the clean lines and decluttered feel help readers focus on the content.
Note the blog has sliding menu widgets. On the Zee Digital blog, it is on the left (click on the hamburger icon on the left after the header image). This is one of the excellent features Ashe provides. In additional, demonstration content is included which makes it easy to build the blog. Load the demo content and delete, modify, and add what suits your blog.