This week y was thinking about a type of visualization or content I could add to my blog and to Tableau Public. And since it was close to the 4th of July, United States Independence Day. I thought: Would it be possible to create an animated viz of fireworks in Tableau?
So I googled: “Fireworks in Tableau.” Among the first results, I found this publication in Tableau Public, and this article in English in the Tableau Blog.
In this entry, I explain how leveraging the work created by “Andre Goehler from the Information Lab – Germany” I created this visualization that I used for July 4th.
In this video you can see the final result.
And here you can find the Tableau workbook and download it.
In this particular case, I just wanted to create something in the least amount of time possible. So once I found the visualization with the fireworks in Tableau Public, the next step was downloading it and re-utilizing it in a new design.
In the following steps, I will explain how to do this, but I won’t explain how to create the fireworks or prepare the data to place them and create the motion. If you would like to learn more about how to place elements on a spatial file, you can see the video of our June Comunidatos event, in which Benito Peña shared about maps in Tableau.
Preparing the document to recycle
So like I mentioned, the first step was to download the workbook created by Andre to re-utilize for the visualization I had in mind.
Once I had my downloaded document, I opened it and started changing the names of some of the elements to make them easier to recognize since they were in German. Then I changed the colors of the fireworks. To accomplish this, I first created a new color palette (using the Hispatip of the week) that has the colors white, red, and blue from the US flag..
In this particular case, we just need to add the colors ##b22234 red and #3c3b6e blue, plus #ffffff white.
OK, once we have the new palette, we can assign it to the elements that were on the original visualization, so we will edit the field called type that is on the color card and select the new pallete. Then we can assign the colors, red white and blue to the values E1,2,3… or R1,2,3… In order or as you prefer.
Now we have the Fireworks in the right color, but I also wanted to use another background. So since the background image with the stars had been added as a map background. I opened the location where it was stored and used GIMP to edit the image and change the image of the stars to one single color.
Once the image is edited, you need to load it as the background of your map. Since I used the exact dimensions of the original picture, I can maintain the same values for the X, and Y fields.
Design
OK, now I can start to add design elements. I thought of adding and image of the Atlanta Skyline and having the fireworks behind the image. I found this image in Freepik (Recommended by Jonathan Minutillo in our Comunidatos April 2021 session, minute 48 of the video.)
Once the image was downloaded, I edited it using GIMP to remove the background and keep only the buildings. (If you look closely at the video, you can see some white lines from the cuts I made, I did not want to spend too much time cutting the buildings perfectly, and I am also no designer. You can ask my wife. http://www.lalanzastudio.com/)
Then I inserted it on the Tableau dashboard and ordered the elements so that the building would appear in front of the fireworks.
I added another element using the show hide containers functionality with the message Happy 4th of July from Atlanta, GA.
Credits and Links
Finally, I added on the bottom part the links to my social networks and the ones for Hispalytics using this Hispatip of the week. And I added a message mentioning the Hispalytics blog to share this entry and giving credit to the person that created the original visualization. (Remember to always give credit to the people that you learned from or utilized their work.)