04.01 Principles of good fireworks VFX

First, I'll teach you the principles of realistic fireworks VFX.

Colors

Be realistic in colors.

Stars can be almost any color, however they cannot be overly vibrant, for example pink is usually way more white than it should be and blue is usually very dim, and if it's bright it looks more like cyan.

Tails cannot be colorful. Tails of stars almost always are white, silver or gold. This does not count to something like tails with red strobe behind.

Effects

Remember, some effects DO NOT exist for the time being, one famous example is blue strobe. Blue strobe simply does not exist.

Decay of stars

Stars have different decay depending on color, for example pink will usually decay very quickly because of how it is made, however blue will stay for long. This isn't applicable everywhere though, be sure to have a reference video to make it as realistic as possible.

Size of stars

Don't make them overly big, unless it's something like a dahlia effect. Remember tails usually are really small and dense.

Adjust the effect size to the caliber

People often do a mistake of making a 20mm cake have a 24" shell effect. If you're mistaken on what values are for each caliber. Check out 04.03 Effect size guide.

Beware of:

• Blue strobe (DOES NOT exist currently)

• Glittering tails other than white, yellow and orange (red does not exist and other colors)

Advice

• Blue stars transition from being white at first into being blue, that is because they take time to heat up as copper has a high burning point. Because of it is, they also have higher hang times.