June 29th 2019 08:00:07am

Update 5/5/2020: Free project file now available.

July 4th
With the 4th of July around the corner, I thought I would share a way to build digital fireworks with X-Particles. I’m sure this has been done thousands of times by artists, but it can be nice to have a different thought process to check out sometimes. I figured this could be an extra post this weekend for those with some extra time or need to learn about how to do this for any last minute projects.

Backgrounds
This particular tutorial tries to capture the essence of big display fireworks shows. We are not going for photo-realism or anything, just that fun fireworks feel. Rendering these fireworks out as is and post processing them with a simple lens blur of your choice could create some cool backgrounds for videos.

These bokeh images were done with After Effects and the Frischluft LensCare plugin. There is a custom shape layer of a heart, star, and the last one is the standard iris shape.