Dress Selection
I chose a white dress with sequin fabric and a thin lining from Hebeos.com. Lighter colors will show the light more brightly, darker colors will make a more subtle and less diffused end result. It's not a bad idea to bring a pixel strand with you when you shop for your dress, and try holding it behind different fabrics to find the result you want.
My dress is form-fitting but not tight. A skintight dress will not hide the wires and pixel strips as well as one with a little bit of ease will. I also chose a velvet fabric since it's a little thicker and will do a good job of hiding the electronics inside.
Pixel Layout Planning
Figure out how many drips you want. My dress has seven drips: three across the front, one on each side seam, and two on the back. The Oozemaster code will run up to 7 individual drips -- if you want more drips, you can either build two separate, unconnected systems or you can mirror some of the drips. Check out this page for more info.
The original Ooze Master project has one strip per drip. This project takes an unconventional turn — each drip is “Y” shaped — where two streams converge at a point before falling. This is done with clever NeoPixel wiring and doesn’t require anything special in the code.
Figure out how many pixels go in each drip. Each drip has three sections:
- The top "ooze" section, made of two lengths 90/m side-light NeoPixel strips; one length will be 1 pixel shorter than the other, e.g. 9 and 8 pixels.
- The vertical "drip" section, made of 60/m pixels.
- The bottom "splat" section, made of slim NeoPixel dots.
My dress used
- 120 pixels of the 90/m side-light NeoPixels (1.5 m)
- 136 pixels of the 60/m standard NeoPixels (a little over 2 m).
- 20 pixels of the 20/m slim NeoPixel dots (one strand)
The drip action looks best if the vertical "drip" portion spans about half the distance to the "splat" pixel on the hem.
Keep in mind that you'll want to be able to sit down in this dress without breaking your LED strips. The pixels bend nicely front-to-back but will break if you bend them side-to-side. I stopped the pixel strips above my hips so that sitting down won't break any of the pixel strips.
Data Flow
This photo shows the data flow direction of the strips. The red arrows are 90/m side light pixels, and the two halves are mirrored so they're showing the exact same thing. The green arrows are 60/m NeoPixels and the orange arrows are the slim NeoPixel dots.
I ended up adding strips on each side under the armpits as well. And for my final version I found the splats looked best when they stayed on the hem, rather than going up the slit in the dress.
Dress Build Planning
My dress is white. And it drags on the ground. It's going to need washing every time I wear it.
It is possible to wash a dress with electronics in it but it's really pretty hard on the electronics. Also, LED strips break no matter how robust I try and make them. It seems to be pretty unavoidable. If this was easy, everyone would be doing it.
In order to make repairs and maintenance as easy as possible, I decided to attach the lights and electronics to an under-dress instead of sewing them to my fancy dress. This way I can wash the dress as needed, and I also have very easy access to the lights without having to cut apart my dress lining.
Enlist Help
Though it would seem a simple thing, it’s a Costuming 101 fact that measuring or placing things on your own body is unreliable and error-prone. To position and align these LED strips, you’ll either need a “dress form” that’s sized or adjustable to your body measurements, or a trusted friend who understands the project and can help measure and mark while you wear the base garment.
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