LED + Prosthetics help?

Cosplay: Karlach - Baldur's Gate 3
My skill level: Intermediate with makeup SFX and latex prosthetics. Beginner with LED/cable wiring
What I need: Advice on LED wiring, course recommendations

Howdy! I'm planning on making a Karlach cosplay next year. One thing I would really like to incorporate into my cosplay is Karlach's infernal engine. I've got the idea to make a chest prosthetic with LED lights to give that fiery glowing effect. But before I get too ahead of myself, I want to make sure this is feasible goal.

How difficult is it to mix LED wiring onto a prosthetic? I've got my eyes on the terminator course. I have no previous experience with working with electronics into latex, but am more than willing to learn! I just want to make sure my goal is realistic with my skill set so I am not wasting time, energy, money, and supplies! Any recommendations for classes, materials, and application techniques would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • LEDs are not too hard to work with.  They can, however, get complex once you start working with many LEDs animating in patterns or with specific timing.

    The first question you need to answer is what will be controlling the LEDs to make them blink/fade/etc, or set their color if you are using RGB LEDs.  There are off the shelf controllers, or you could program something like an Arduino to control your LEDs.

    If the LEDs will be embedded in a prosthetic, are they exposed at the surface, or do they shine through the prosthetic?  If they need to shine through the prosthetic you'll need to do some material and LED brightness testing to insure the effect you are looking will work as intended.

    This course covers working with Arduino and LEDs, and should help:
    https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/animatronic-control-systems-arduino-programming-basics-part-1

    It goes into other topics as well, but you can skip around to the chapters that relate to your application.

    And then there is our Terminator makeup course which has the embedded eye LED:
    https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/terminator-prosthetic-makeup-fx-part-1-cast-rig-prepaint-appliances

    Hope that helps!

    /Chris
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