In Depth: Fireworks Extravaganza with Fun New Content
Happy Independence Day, America! Our annual fireworks article was originally published in July 2015, and we’ve updated the article annually with explosive new goodies. This year, we gave it a total overhaul!
Some Breathtaking Fireworks Examples
Let’s be honest… fireworks on video are not usually too interesting. They lack the excitement and sensory stimulation of being there in person. Until smell-o-vision is a reality in your VR headset, you’ll have to light a match and imagine the smell of sulfur smoke.
We’ve found some visually breathtaking examples so when creating your digital fireworks, it’s important to look at examples to match the look for realism.
The Hidden Science of Fireworks
Learn about fireworks and pay close attention to the physics in this video from Veritasium.
Best Fireworks Festival “Nagaoka” Nigata JAPAN
I was in Montreal about 20 years ago and the city hosted a fireworks competition with different countries competing, including Japan. We saw displays from two countries but nothing like this!
GoPro Awards: FPV Drone Inside of a Fireworks Show
A drone is an incredible way to film fireworks, I’d be afraid of my drone being hit! If you have a drone in the US, there is no law against filming fireworks. Watch a video from Ken Heron with tips: Drone INSIDE fireworks Legally and Safely | Plus audio Editing TIPS
Fireworks filmed with a drone
Fireworks Stock Assets
Why start from scratch? Especially if you’re a video editor or 3D artist and don’t do this type of effect, we have some great options to add fireworks to your videos.
Pixel Lab VFX Elements Volume 6: Fireworks
Pixel Lab VFX Elements Volume 6: Fireworks
25 VFX Elements for Your Render Engine of Choice
The Pixel Lab VFX Elements: Fireworks has 25 incredibly realistic firework animations. They can be loaded into any render engine that supports VDBs such as Blender, Octane, Redshift, Arnold, Houdini, Cycles and many more. You can mix and match them too.
Pixel Lab Concert Pyro Bundle
The Pixel Lab created assets to save you time and hassle. These are baked into alembic files or VDB files which you can drag and drop into almost any 3D application and you will have instant pyrotechnics!
100 beautiful smoke, spark, confetti and fire simulations
Pixel Lab Concert Pyro Bundle gives you all 4 Concert Pyro products, Concert Confetti, Sparks, Fire, and Smoke Bursts together, with a savings of 30%!
Fill your library with 100 beautiful smoke, spark, confetti and fire simulations so you’re ready for any project!
VFX Central Essential Pack
VFX Central Essential Pack
Drag & Drop, Professional Stock FX for your Composites.
The VFX Central Essential Pack includes: 4k Anamorphic Flares, 5k/6k Fire Explosions, 4k Digital Storm Effects & 1080P Digital Fireworks – Perfect for a huge celebration environment shots!
Fireworks Tutorials
Fireworks can be created using a particle generator, taking time to get the physics right. To make things easier, multiple plug-ins are specifically for creating fireworks. That said, they don’t always look natural. One of the toughest things about creating fireworks is getting them to look realistic. They need glow, smoke, the proper physics, depth of field, etc. And, adding some sound effects can help your fireworks come to life!
Fireworks with After Effects
Since many of our readers are After Effects users, that’s a great place to start. There have been so many tutorials about creating fireworks over the years.
How To Animate a Firework Rocket (smoke, fire, stroke explosion) – After Effects Tutorial
Oliver Randorff explains how to make a fun animated firework rocket. I like the cell animation style he uses in his tutorials. Check out his YouTube Channel.
Firework Particles Text Animation in After Effects – No Plugins
Avnish Parker shows you how to create many different types of fireworks directly in After Effects without the use of any third-party plug-ins.
Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams & Businesses - All Apps
Creativity for all.
Adobe Creative Cloud gives you the world’s best creative apps and services so you can make anything you can imagine, wherever you’re inspired.
Enjoy the entire collection of our creative desktop and mobile tools, like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Premiere Pro, and more with Adobe Creative Cloud.
DaVinci Resolve Fireworks Tutorials
How to add Fireworks to your videos
How to make Realistic Fireworks in DaVinci Resolve
VFX BLEND shows you how to make realistic fireworks in DaVinci Resolve.
Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio
Over 300 new features, including HDR Grading, AI-based magic mask, improved editing, and much more!
DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production all in one software tool! Its elegant, modern interface is fast to learn and easy enough for new users, yet powerful for professionals. DaVinci Resolve lets you work faster and at a higher quality because you don’t have to learn multiple apps or switch software for different tasks. That means you can work with camera original quality images throughout the entire process. It’s like having your own post-production studio in a single app! Best of all, by learning DaVinci Resolve, you’re learning how to use the exact same tools used by Hollywood professionals!
Trapcode Particular
Fireworks Tutorial IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES
Michael Szalapski from Maxon shows you how to make fast fireworks with Particular.
Create Realistic Fireworks in After Effects with Trapcode Particular
After Effects Tutorial: Firework Animation using Trapcode Particular
This one is from 2019.
Red Giant - Annual Subscription
Get all the tools from Red Giant at one low price with Red Giant.
Maxon Red Giant is the leading provider of visual effects and motion graphics tools, offering innovative and powerful solutions for filmmakers, editors, motion designers, and visual effects artists. Red Giant tools empowers artists, filmmakers, and designers to bring their creative visions to life.
Get all the Red Giant tools for filmmaking and motion graphics. You’ll enjoy access to Trapcode, Magic Bullet, VFX, and Universe – each designed with innovative features that make it easy to craft eye-catching visuals!
Boris FX Fireworks Tutorials
Boris Continuum Particle Emitter 3D
I did a webinar for Boris FX back in 2012. I didn’t write the tutorial, and it is a bit complex with a lot of manipulation of the settings, but the final fireworks looked nice and believable. (The fireworks portion starts at 18:00)
Boris FX Particle Illusion
Download the free standalone version of the Particle Illusion tool now available! In addition, you can still get the premium filter here: Boris FX Particle Illusion Free.
Boris TV, Episode 173 – A Fireworks Spectacular
Here’s another tutorial from Boris FX. This time, Paul Ezzy teaches you how to quickly create a fireworks display in Adobe After Effects to add to your hometown skyline. Simply swap out the image after you download the complimentary project files – template and presets included! You’ll create 4 different displays with BCC Particle Emitter 3D − from basic to explosive − that rival the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Plus, learn how BCC Cartooner and BCC Pencil Sketch give you the freedom of using custom shapes.
Boris FX Continuum Annual Subscription
The Swiss Army Knife of Plugins
Meeting tight turnarounds just got easier. The post-production industry’s most complete plugin collection delivers nearly 350 creative effects in 20 categories, 4000+ presets, built-in Academy Award-winning Mocha planar tracking and masking, a Beat Reactor that drives VFX to music, and the FX Browser. Busy editors and artists rely on Continuum to get the job done.
Learn MoreTry Boris FX Continuum Annual Subscription for free!
Boris FX Continuum Perpetual License
The Swiss Army Knife of Plugins
Meeting tight turnarounds just got easier. The post-production industry’s most complete plugin collection delivers nearly 350 creative effects in 20 categories, 4000+ presets, built-in Academy Award-winning Mocha planar tracking and masking, a Beat Reactor that drives VFX to music, and the FX Browser. Busy editors and artists rely on Continuum to get the job done.
Learn MoreTry Boris FX Continuum Perpetual License for free!
Firework Particles In Cinema 4D
Lukas Thorup makes fireworks with Cinema 4D and Redshift
Maxon Cinema 4D Subscription
3D computer animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering software
Maxon Cinema 4D is a professional 3D modeling, animation, simulation, and rendering software solution. Its fast, powerful, flexible, and stable toolset make 3D workflows more accessible and efficient for design, motion graphics, VFX, AR/MR/VR, game development, and all types of visualization professionals. Cinema 4D produces stunning results, whether working on your own or in a team.
Cinema 4D 2024 provides unmatched speed and performance for the most sophisticated creative scenes. Rigid Body Simulations can now interact with all existing forces, pyro, cloth, and soft bodies. Pyro shines with a hot new feature that allows fire to be emitted from particles and matrices. And the new Vertex Normal tools offer artists unparalleled precision to perfect surfaces.
INSYDIUM Premium Training – Fireworks – 01 – Anatomy of a Firework
Explore how real-world fireworks are built to inform the design of our X-Particles simulations.
INSYDIUM Fused Annual Subscription
Includes both X-Particles and Cycles 4D
The INSYDIUM Annual Subscription allows for flexibility. INSYDIUM Fused contains all of our plugins and products in one complete collection. Everything you need to create stunning particle effects, realistic terrains and fulfill modeling tasks through to the final render. Plus, all our available 3D Resources, hours of Training, Technical Support, and Content Repository files.
INSYDIUM Fused Perpetual License
Includes both X-Particles and Cycles 4D
INSYDIUM Fused is their collection of plugins, products and benefits.
INSYDIUM Fused provides everything an artist needs in one complete collection. INSYDIUM Fused contains all of our plugins and products in one complete collection. Everything you need to create stunning particle effects, realistic terrains and fulfill modeling tasks through to the final render. Plus, all our available 3D Resources, hours of Training, Technical Support, and Content Repository files.
Creative Video and Photo Ideas Using Fireworks
This tutorial from PremiumBeat explains how to create unique effects, backgrounds, smoky atmospheres, and more by recording real fireworks in a variety of ways.
Freebies
XEffects 2023 New Year Fireworks Title Plugin for FCP X
This freebie from idustrial revolution was created for New Year 2023. The plugin works in Final Cut Pro X and it’s perfect for your July 4th celebration videos.
Posted by Michele
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