Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

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balvarenga
 
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Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by balvarenga »

Hello!
My name is Bianca, I'm from Brazil. I need help to chose what is the best hardware for my personal project.
I wanna make for a cosplay. Its going to cover my chin up to my nose. I intend to use your NeoPixels with an adafruit-arduino micro-controller board. My plan is to make them animate with simple pre-recorded frames.

It's my first time trying something with microcontrollers and I saw there are a lot of options for boards and I don't know what would attend the needs better.
Also I would like to know you opinion if it would be better to use a flexible NeoPixel Matrix for the mask or to sow solo neoPixels on a cloth.

I need the light point to be as close as possible to the other, or the draw I want to make will look a little bit weird if the leds dont stay very close! This detail is very important

Thank you so much for the help! I am very excited to start this project

Bianca Alvarenga

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oesterle
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by oesterle »

Olá, Bianca!

Sounds like a fun project. Can you post a sketch, showing the placement of the individual LEDs, and the number of LEDs you're using?

Obrigado!

Eric

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balvarenga
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by balvarenga »

Hey, I dont know how many LEDs I need because I dont know it measures yet
But I believe I need a area of 16cmx8cm covered in leds to make the mask and the mouth I want to animate have teeth
Im afraid the singles are going to have a huge gap between them, I wish they could be as small and close as possible
Attachments
mouth 2.png
mouth 2.png (29.87 KiB) Viewed 498 times

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oesterle
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by oesterle »

How do we get LEDs to look less obvious? Distance, light piping, reflection, diffusion, and masking are all ingredients for turning these digital points of light into smooth analog shapes. With these techniques you'll often end up with simpler and smaller LED configurations, saving money and reducing points of failure.

There are a number of mask projects in the Adafruit Learning System to inspire you. Erin St Blaine's Glowing Mirror Mask cleverly uses a small strip of NeoPixel LEDs for indirect lighting:

Image
Erin St Blaine's Glowing Mirror Mask


Alternatively, you could use one or two of the the NeoPixel Stick - 8 x 5050 RGB LED with Integrated Drivers for each row of teeth.

Often, I get the illusion of more LEDs by layering a translucent or milky layer above them, which spreads out the light. One of my favorite materials for this is packing foam sheets. You can find them at building supplies stores, and office supply stores. The ones pictured below are from Home Depot, a popular building supply chain in the US.
pratt-retail-specialties-foam-pouches-cushions-2002012-64_1000.jpg
pratt-retail-specialties-foam-pouches-cushions-2002012-64_1000.jpg (48.79 KiB) Viewed 489 times
16 in. x 18 in. Large Foam Pouches (10-Pack)

I'd try two or three layers of that, then maybe some black felt on top, with the teeth and other lit areas cut out. Here's a nice video on using packing foam to diffuse LEDs.


Cheers,

Eric

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balvarenga
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by balvarenga »

Thank you so much!
The movement I intend to make with the leds is the one in the gif below!

https://i.imgur.com/h5w8RzM.gif
https://66.media.tumblr.com/74e9c645d30 ... o2_250.gif

I love your help <3 Do you think its possible to animate this kind of leds to make those?
The teeth changes position everytime and there are few details, I know Im probably going to lose some of them
My intend was to make several differents mouths and making it light up in sequence to look like Im singing

I saw this one too
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2612

Its flexible, so It would fit better on my face, right? I can conect two matrices togheter, Cant I?

EDIT:
Ok, I made a grid to see if I could make the mouth with 120 lights
they are too big :c
Attachments
mouth 03.png
mouth 03.png (126.24 KiB) Viewed 478 times

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oesterle
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by oesterle »

Yep, you could connect two of those matrices. But I think you can achieve the effect with a smaller number of LEDs, using diffusion (packing foam) and masking (black felt).

As far as the animation is concerned, I'd consider merging all the face shapes into one set of teeth and face parts, then turning on and off sections to create the illusion of animation.

I'd simplify the faces to two:
  • smiling mouth shape
  • "O" mouth shape
I'd sketch these on layers of tracing paper to figure it out. For example, if you overlay the "O" mouth shape on top of the "smiling" mouth shape, you could divide some of the teeth into two segments, so the same mask can display both.

You could then use a single button on your fingertip to switch between faces.

If you have time, you could also divide the upper teeth and lower teeth with a cut, so that when open and close your mouth, your jaw moves the lower section of LEDs and teeth up and down. To disguise this cut, and hide all your magic, you could cover the whole assembly with a layer of stretchy, translucent, sheer black material (maybe from black nylon stockings).

Here's the animation we're talking about, from a fictional K-pop group called K/DA, in League of Legends, performing the track "POP/STARS":
Image


I'm thinking for your face and hair, you could use something like Neon Face & Body Paint, and neon nights UV Black Light Fluorescent Glow Fabric & Textile Paint Ultraviolet - Set of 8 together with some of Adafruit's UV/UVA 400nm Purple LED 5mm Clear Lens - 10 pack mounted under the brim of your hat, to light your face, hair, and jacket; and above the brim, to illuminate a K/DA logo.

Cheers,

Eric

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balvarenga
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by balvarenga »

Thank you so much!
Your help gave me some new ideas!
Im going to try them, I hope they work <3

I had a plain to try to make the mouth change and I guess I know to to make the lower teeth move with my chin!

Im very happy you helped me! <3
If I need help again I'll post here again 8D

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jim_lee
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by jim_lee »

Looked at the video, I agree with oesterle, 2 frames would probably do it. The video looks like two frames.

If you can get your hands on a 3D printer, print out the shapes about 2..3 mm thick usung clear PLA with insets for..

Image
These https://www.adafruit.com/product/1758

The 3D printed shapes do a pretty good job as diffusing the light. Then you glue them behind your mask cloth for more diffusion. You could then just have a battery and button in your hand to switch from frame A to frame B. No coding necessary.

Good luck, this looks like it would be a really cool project!

-jim lee

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Disciple
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by Disciple »

This just appeared in the blog.
https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/11/27/ap ... enkrasnow/

It looks a bit advanced to me, but maybe some ideas will form?

Hallelujah!
Disciple

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jim_lee
 
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Re: Wich kind of adafruit led is better for my project?

Post by jim_lee »

Disciple wrote:This just appeared in the blog.
https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/11/27/ap ... enkrasnow/

It looks a bit advanced to me, but maybe some ideas will form?

Hallelujah!
Disciple
OMG! That's brilliant!

-jim lee

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