In Depth: Fireworks Extravaganza with Fun New Content

July 3, 2024

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

The AlteredStates video below is from 2014 but is still one of the most incredible fireworks videos I’ve ever seen. It was shot with a DJI Phantom 2 with a GoPro Hero 3 silver.

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

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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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DaVinci Resolve Fireworks Tutorials

How to add Fireworks to your videos

Video Editor Studio explains how to composite fireworks into your shots in Resolve.

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!

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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

Ignace Aleya walks you through the procedure of designing your own firework display 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!

Learn MoreTry Red Giant - Annual Subscription for free!

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.

Download Project File

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

Learn MoreTry Boris FX Continuum Perpetual License for free!

Fireworks in MAXON CINEMA 4D

How to make fireworks with Cinema 4D, Tracer, and Particles

There’s no narration in this tutorial but the process is clear.

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.

Learn MoreTry Maxon Cinema 4D Subscription for free!

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

All INSYDIUM products in one collection

INSYDIUM Fused gives you the ultimate toolkit to create mesmerizing particle effects, realistic terrains, animate plants – and more! With this powerful collection of plugins and products at your disposal plus an array of assets just waiting for you to discover them, there’s no limit to what creative solutions can arise. Plus with technical support available any time should anything come up along your artistic journey – you’re guaranteed success in completing even the most complex projects easily.

The INSYDIUM Fused Annual Subscription provides the Fused license on an annual basis. The full collection is only available if your license has Maintenance or you have a Subscription.

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INSYDIUM Fused Perpetual License

INSYDIUM's collection of Plug-ins, Products, and Benefits

Plus with technical support available any time should anything come up along your artistic journey – you’re guaranteed success in completing even the most complex projects easily.

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INSYDIUM Fused Perpetual License

12 Months Maintenance for Fused Users

INSYDIUM Fused Annual Maintenance, existing users get 12 months of Technical Support and instant access to exciting new features for Fused.

If you purchase Fused perpetual, the first 12 months of Technical Support and Updates are included. With this in mind, to continue to receive Technical Support and Updates, you must purchase the INSYDIUM Fused Annual Maintenance.

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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.