I have an introductory video that I’m going to use on my company site for the homepage. However the formatting for desktop is going to be what we call anamorphic wide screen. So it’s going to be much wider than the traditional 16 x 9 format, the ratios more like 1.85 to one, theatrical wide screen.
However I want to take the very same video and reformat it as far as it’s display size for mobile because something that wide and thin simply isn’t going to look right on a phone or a tablet.
So what is the proper method for what I need to do? It’s going to be the same video, but I’m going to output two different aspect ratios. Do I upload both and then just use the hiding procedure between desktop and mobile or is there a better way so it doesn’t get confused between which one is supposed to be used for desktop or mobile?
I’m not a pro on the video side of things, but yes you are on the right track in how to display the two different sized videos in Sitely. Sitely will move across the appropriate video as per the device it is being viewed on.
Yea, thats the way. Render the same video with different resolutions. Hide the mobile one in the desktop view and vice-versa. I would recommend running the rendered video thru Handbrake app to adapt it to web sizes so it’s not a big deal for the user browser to download.
Handbrake is great and free. Reduces a lot of the video size while keeping the quality just by handling metadata thats useless on the web. It’s the pineapple one.
It depends on how the original video was shot. If it was shot with an anamorphic lens with the ratio you have described and then de-squeezed in post, then the only way to change the ratio to fit another size is to crop it. Simply taking it into Handbrake and resizing one side (width or height) will just squash the video. You will have to crop the sides to get to the new ratio.
Just to clarify that Handbrake handles file sizes, not resolution. So you still would need to edit/treat the video in the video editing software before rendering. 1920x1080 for horizontal and 1080x1920 for vertical
Well aware of Handbrake, Primo. I’m a commercial film producer so I’ve got nearly all the software tricks available, including an edit suite based around Davinci Resolve - pic enclosed.
But thanks anyway for the info - that will be useful to others who don’t know how to prepare a video for web publishing.
I’ll have to do a lot of testing when I get to that part of the build to make sure there’s no confusion in the browser so the two versions don’t get confused.
That was definitely part of my learning curve with Sparkle years ago, the hide/show process so that it’s “responsive” as Duncan and his team designed it to be.
Honestly that process became so frustrating to me back then I started to look at Sparkle alternatives, like Blocs. But I quickly realized that all the others forced you into a very narrow approach to design - Blocs literally forces you into “blocks” of design which is absolutely horrible for a creative who needs to have an open canvas to truly create.
It’s been years since I did any web-building so I’m still getting my head around the proper process, but this time I remember certain things that are making it easier. And to date there’s STILL nothing like Sparkle/Sitely, so I’m looking forward to a very long-term relationship with it.
Not de-squeezed, there’s 2 separate timelines/edits. One with the 1.85 ratio and the standard 16:9. Not the same video forced into a different size.
The way you’re describing never works properly because you’re throwing away pixels to force a fit.
