Fireworks Allowed Here! - Creating Keynote Builds & Animations

Use Keynote to easily create animated gifs of historic fireworks celebrations and send to friends, students, colleagues as part of the U.S. 4th of July celebrations.

Celebrating in Washington DC

Library of Congress - July 4th fireworks, Washington, D.C.

July 4th fireworks, Washington, D.C. - Library of Congress

 Celebrating in Houston, Texas

Library of Congress - Fireworks over Houston, Texas

Celebrating in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 

Library of Congress - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's, renowned Independence Day (July 4) fireworks

Celebrating in Denver Colorado

Library of Congress - Fourth of July, or American Independence Day, fireworks light up the sky over Denver, Colorado's, downtown Civic Center 

Keynote Animation has a fun array of Builds that can be added to images. Here are the steps I’ve used on the fireworks primary sources:

1. Find a fireworks primary source (check the Library of Congress Flickr site or National Archives).
2. Add that photo to a Keynote slide, then duplicate the slide
3. On the duplicated slide, tap Edit Mask to reduce the image to just a small part of the firework explosion. 
4. Next, copy/paste the section of the masked  “firework photo” on to the top of the full Firework image on the first slide.
5. Tap to select the pasted firework mask and select Animation/Build in/ Fireworks. You can adjust your Build under Animation
6. Export the Firework slide as an Animated Gif, or Movie then Save to Photos to add to Photos.

Here is a visual explainer:

Resource: Animate Objects on a slide in Keynote on iPad - Apple Support