🧠Cerebite

Fireworks Show Maker

Pick a shape and a colour for five shells, then launch your own fireworks display across the night sky.

Tap the sky to fire a shell right there

1. Build your five shells

Shape

Colour

How to use

A real fireworks display is planned shell by shell: the crew decides which pattern bursts when, in which colour, and how the show builds towards the finale. This tool lets you do the same thing in your browser — pick five shells, press start, and the night sky above the skyline does the rest.

Step one — build your shells. There are five slots along the top. Select a slot, then choose one of eight burst shapes and one of ten colours for it. A chrysanthemum throws a dense, even sphere of long-lasting sparks, the classic round burst everyone pictures. A peony is the same sphere but with shorter, rounder stars and no trailing tails. A willow sends its stars high and lets gravity drag them down in long drooping curves. A palm uses just a handful of thick stems that arch outward like the fronds of a tree. A ring opens as a flat circle seen edge-on, a star and a heart hold their outline for a moment before falling apart, and crackle fills the sky with flickering sparks that pop at random. Colours run from red, orange and gold through green, aqua, blue, purple and pink, plus silver for a bright white burst and rainbow, which gives every star its own hue.

Step two — run the show. Press start and your five shells launch in sequence, each one climbing on a trail of sparks before it bursts, then repeat for a grand finale where several go up at once. While the show is running you can tap or click anywhere on the sky to fire an extra shell at that exact spot, so you can fill a gap or set off a cluster wherever you like. Stop the show at any time, swap a shape or a colour, and start again — nothing is saved to a server and there is no limit on how many times you can run it.

Watching and keeping it. The full-screen button expands the sky to fill your display, which is the best way to watch on a phone or on a TV browser. The save button captures the sky exactly as it looks at that moment, sparks and all, so you can keep a still of a burst you liked or use it as a wallpaper. Timing a screenshot mid-burst takes a little practice; the moment right after a chrysanthemum opens usually looks best.

Everything runs entirely in your browser using the HTML canvas — there is nothing to install, no account, and no video streaming, so it works on a slow connection and on older phones. If your device is set to reduce motion, the simulation automatically uses fewer sparks so it stays comfortable to watch.

How a real display is put together

A fireworks show is planned shell by shell, months in advance. Each shell is chosen for its pattern, its colour and the exact second it should burst, and the sequence is built to rise from single opening shots towards a finale where many shells fire almost at once. Choosing five shells here and pressing start is the same decision on a smaller scale.

The colours come from metal salts burning at high temperature, and each metal produces one narrow band of light. Strontium burns red, barium green, copper blue, sodium a strong yellow-orange, and a mix of magnesium or aluminium gives the brilliant white sparks. Blue is famously the hardest to make bright, because the copper compounds that produce it break down at the temperatures that would make it intense.

The shapes and where they come from

Building a show that works

Vary the shapes rather than repeating the one you like. Five identical shells read as one long burst, while alternating a wide peony with a slow willow gives the eye something to follow. Save the busiest shape for last, since a finale works by contrast with what came before it.

Colour works the same way. Two shells of similar hue in a row wash together against the night sky, so put a warm burst next to a cool one. Blue and white read best against a dark background; deep red is the most easily lost.

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Frequently asked questions

Are these shape names real fireworks terms?
Yes. Pyrotechnicians classify shells by the pattern they paint in the sky, and chrysanthemum, peony, willow, palm and ring are all standard names in the trade. A chrysanthemum and a peony both open as a sphere, and the difference is the tail: chrysanthemum stars leave a visible trail behind them, while peony stars burn as points of colour with no trail. Willow and palm are named after the trees their drooping stems resemble. Star and heart shells exist too — they use stars packed into a shaped pattern inside the shell so the burst holds an outline for a moment.
Why does a real firework burst in a particular colour?
The colour comes from metal salts burning inside each star. Strontium compounds glow red, barium gives green, copper produces blue, sodium burns yellow-orange, and a mix of magnesium or aluminium makes the brilliant silver-white you see in crackling bursts. Blue is famously the hardest colour to make bright, because the copper compounds that produce it break down at the temperatures needed for a strong flame. That is why a deep, vivid blue shell is considered a mark of a skilled maker.
Is there any sound?
No — the show runs silently on purpose. Browsers block audio that starts on its own, so a sound track would either be blocked or would surprise people watching in a classroom, an office or on a bus. A silent display also means you can run it as ambient background on a screen without disturbing anyone. If you want sound, playing your own music alongside works well; the shells fire roughly every second, which suits most tracks.
Can I fire a shell wherever I want?
Yes. Tap or click anywhere on the sky and a shell launches from the ground and bursts at that exact point, using one of your five designs picked at random. This works whether or not a show is running, so you can fill a quiet corner of the sky, set off a cluster in one spot, or just play with single bursts without starting a full display. Tapping also works during the finale if you want to make it even busier.
Will it work on my phone or an old computer?
It should. The display is drawn with the standard HTML canvas rather than streamed video or a heavy 3D engine, so it runs on modest hardware and over slow connections. Nothing is downloaded beyond the page itself. If your phone or computer is set to reduce motion for accessibility, the simulation automatically uses fewer sparks per burst, which is gentler to watch and lighter to run. The full-screen button gives you the biggest view, and turning the phone sideways makes the wide sky fill the screen properly.
What does the save button capture?
It captures the sky exactly as it looks at the moment you press it — the gradient, the stars, the skyline and every spark currently in the air — and saves it as a PNG image to your device. On a phone the share sheet usually opens so you can put it straight in your photo album. Timing takes a little practice because the brightest instant passes quickly; pressing save right after a chrysanthemum or a heart opens, while the outline is still holding, usually gives the best picture.