Building a Firework simulation using an Arduino and LEDs

Hey, there so I'm building a small little project for my girlfriend but I am completely new to hardware electronics. I want to build a little Firework LED animation that involves a rise-up and an explosion. Now I figured out that for that I should probably use an Arduino to program the LEDs and WS2812 LEds since those are individually addressable. Now the question is should I cut the LEDs into different strips for the rise up ray for each "explosion ray"? If so do I put every single strip to its own pin so as to control them individually? Since that would mean a lot of pins. Or can I put them all on one pin and control them from there?
Thanks in advance.