To all our readers & friends from USA,
I wish you a happy, fun & safe 4th of July.
For the last 4th of July (2013), we (Jo, kids & I) were in USA. We went to Washington DC to meet up a few friends for that weekend. And we had one of the most memorable evenings of our lives when we went to national mall area in the evening to watch beautifully choreographed fireworks. Kids really loved the amazing display of fire-crackers and enthusiasm. (here is a pic, taken by Nakshu, our daughter)
While we all are back in India this time, it doesn’t mean we cant celebrate 4th of July. So I made some fireworks. In Excel of course.
Here is a little Excel animation I made for all of us.
4th of July Fireworks – Excel animation
First watch this quick demo (<15 secs)
Download the 4th of July fireworks workbook
I got the Excel fireworks idea very late in the evening. So the file is not very clean. But easy to understand and play with. Download it here.
How is this made?
Lets spare the detailed tutorial for another day. Here is a quick summary.
- Lets assume a fire work goes in a straight line at an arbitrary angle between 75 to 105 degrees (90 being vertical) to a random height.
- Lets assume the firework effect creates 40 spokes of a perfect circle whose radius grows as the firework explodes.
- So we create a scatter plot with lines & spokes.
- Thru VBA, we increase the length of line from 0% to 100%, thus creating firework shooting to sky effect.
- Then, we increase the radius of circle from 0% to 100% to create firework explosion effect.
- Finally we change the previous line height & circle radius back to 0% before showing next firework.
- At last, we toggle the display visibility of message (“Have a fun 4th of July”)
That is all. Here are a few previous examples that detail some of these techniques.
- Creating a spoke chart in Excel
- Happy Diwali, animated chart in Excel
- Hurricane Sandy explained in Excel with animated chart
- Showing & hiding a message – Customer service dashboard
So thats all for now. Enjoy your 4th of July weekend and lets meet Monday with something awesome.
39 Responses
Fireworks in an Excel sheet? It’s pure art.
Congratulations Chandoo.
Chandoo….pure imagination…I never thought of FIREWORK in excel and that without any coding. Salute to your thinking.
I have had been learning from your blog. I sense confidence and can use my imagination as well in designing different dashboard application. Thanks.
You are the man Chandoo!, Great and funny macro!
cheers from Peru! And also Happy 4th of July to everyone in the States from Lima Peru!
Very cool, thanks, Chandoo! Happy 4th!
You are awesome man…. @chandoo..
Only Chandoo can think and do like this……………..
Awesome…..
Brilliant piece of digital art… 🙂 Am sure this actually inspires many to look at how this works ~~~ as creative as ever!
Coolllll
Wonderful……………
Chandoo!!!
You’re the man!!!
I’d learned so much stuff just for reading your posts.
I’d improved in excel usage quite a bit. Thanks again.
My best regards for You and your family from Mexico!!!!
Best regards,
Manuel “Manny” Martinez
PS: Mtz is a contraction on my last name
I have learned a lot with Chandoo too.
Manuel is my last name too. 🙂
As always, you are AWESOME!!!
Well done
Nice Chandoo,
100% Awesome, two thumbs up for you
hi
Are you a Muslim? in Indonesia?
=UPPER(CHAR(117)&CHAR(32)&CHAR(114)&CHAR(32)&CHAR(114)&CHAR(32)&CHAR(116)&CHAR(104)&CHAR(101)&CHAR(32)&CHAR(98)&CHAR(101)&CHAR(115)&CHAR(116))&”!!!!!”
Its Beautiful
Awesome chandoo,
You are the grateful man !!!!!!
It is very helpful for me thanking you.
simply awesome, wonderful
Dear Chandoo,
I use to wonder if you and Mynda Traecy are human. But today you just proved that you are some kind of alien with Excel technology. (Laughs)
This is mind blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nicely done Chandoo. (I just couldn’t resist taking your great work and adding a fireworks sound effect.)
Wow. Never imagined animation in Excel! This is too good.
@Naina
Check out: http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/07/06/3d-dancing-pendulums/
grt chandooooooooooooooooooo
I love the animation of the fireworks, but when i download the excel file and try to open it, it comes up with the message “This files is not in a recognizable format”. It will still open, but it is just a bunch of garbage characters on the page, and there is no vba modules at that point. I have opened other samples indicated on this page such as “Creating a spoke chart in Excel” and that opens just fine. Perhaps this is a corrupted file we are downloading.
Hi Tom,
I just checked and the file works alright. Can you please try again? I think it should work alright in Excel 2010 or above.
made a piano in excel that records and playback, also include features like changing the key of the song and echo effect
this is a masterpiece!!! great work in excel…really awesome!!!
This was just awesome. I keep learning new things from you. Keep it up!
Excel is an amazing tool with your guidance, the world is witness to exactly that. Thank you!
Chandoo you have nailed it.
Here in Kenya we say -“heshima” to imply hats-off.
Bravo!
Thanks Chandoo. How can I change the picture? I’ve tried: Ribbon>Page Layout>Selection Pane, but can’t see the image to change.
Hi all, its not working for me.. i am using excel 2010 pls help me
@Ahamed
It works fine in Excel 2010
Did you accept the error and down load it ok?
Did you enable macro’s when you open the file?
Are any errors shown?
@Hui
I have clicked macro enables while opening the file. While I am clicking the start fire work button it does not start. Showing only the “happy 4th july” message..
Thanks in advance..
Or I need to change any thing
Try, Saving the file on your PC
Then close Excel
Restart Excel and open the file
Accept Macro’s
Now it’s working, thank you Hui…..
@Ahamed
It sounds like a permissions issue
Opening from your local directory should be safe under most conditions
Yes.. it’s really nice art.. I am loving it..