LED Clothing

[HolyPhish]

Firstly Apologies if this is the wrong department, I battled with putting this under Lighting but in the end I thought more help could come from Props and Wardrobe.

 

I'm looking to have 4 T-Shirts made, each with a different design, which at the flick of a switch, (sewed into the clothing) will light up.

 

The effect is used in the dance movie Step Up 3. Although I am not looking for a colour change.

 

I'm sure there is a company out there who could make such a thing, however I do not know who they are or how to contact them. A search of google throws up an American company but I'm looking for someone this side of the pond if possible. I would have a go myself but my skill with a needle and thread isn't particularly good.

 

There's no deadline, no budget as of yet, I'm am purely looking to see if such a thing could be done, and if it can, I'll will then look at all the surrounding circumstances.

 

So, Does anyone know of a company who can make such a T-Shirt?

[ImagineerTom]

Firstly the effect in the movie is heavily CGI based - they're either using infra-red LED's or just costumes with reflective patches on reflecting infra-red light in to the camera which can then be very easily re-coloured and edited in "post production". You could never hope to get anything that clean and even in the real world.

 

It can be done, LED built in to costumes is something any half decent costumiers could create (heck even I've done it before) BUT they need plenty of maintainance and if you want to get any kind of lifespan out of them you'll need to have the costume made an an outer-skin and have the performers wear some sort of wicking under-skin as you really cannot wash any costume with the LED's in.

 

 

 

 

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[HolyPhish]

Firstly the effect in the movie is heavily CGI based - ...

 

...any half decent costumiers could create (heck even I've done it before) ...

 

 

I did suspect the entire thing was done in post production, however a boy can dream......

 

Could you recommend any establishments who do/may be willing to try to make these?

 

D

[kerry davies]

http://www.flashwear.com/online_store/animated_tshirts_7.cfm

 

But for the real DIY fabulosity we go all the way back to;

[Tom Baldwin]

There was also this great homebuilt LED coat, made for Burning Man:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_idEnjlR32vU/TKLRdxDbs5I/AAAAAAAAAAo/2R4gf4FirSk/s400/IMG_5926.JPG

[GreatBigHippy]

I haven't seen the movie in question but the suits used in Tron legacy are all real, no post production effects.

The downside is that one suit for a bit part in the light cycle sequence cost $30,000, so you may be having some difficult conversations with production ;)

I believe the effect is done with led strips, you can buy similar ones for car and motorbike customisation.

Like these, but better

Anyways. Hope that helps.

[w/robe]

I've done this and the problems are;

 

- Holding the leds in place, particularly if you want to do words.

 

- Keeping the fabric flat so that what is written can be read.

 

- Carrying enough batteries, both weight and location.

 

- If you buy pre-made strings of leds you will have large amounts of wire to hide.

 

You could look for a company call cyberdog or possibly cyber dog who used to do T-shirts with scrolling led panels that you can programme, if that would work for you.

 

ETA cyberdog link http://shop.cyberdog.net look in mens wear and then light tees

[ImagineerTom]

I haven't seen the movie in question but the suits used in Tron legacy are all real, no post production effects.

The downside is that one suit for a bit part in the light cycle sequence cost $30,000, so you may be having some difficult conversations with production ;)

I believe the effect is done with led strips, you can buy similar ones for car and motorbike customisation.

Like these, but better

Anyways. Hope that helps.

 

erm.... whilst it's theoretically possible for those suits to be real, actually they're NOT. The bulk of the suits in Tron Legacy were done in post (using a variation on the method I mentioned above) as it's a lot easier and cheeper. Whilst the original film required every frame be hand re-touched nowadays it's little more than a couple of mouse-clicks to calibrate the auto-detection and software can do it all automatically. I'm sure a couple of EL panel suits have been created for promo purposes but they wouldn't survive a single day of filming. The DEFINITLY couldn't be built using the LED strip you referenced as the light output they provide is completely different (unless there's an inch thickness of defuser built in to every panel) and are far too brittle for use in this situation.

 

 

[Superpants]

Whilst this is not a commercial supplier, it does give some good ideas on how to achieve a good light up effect;

 

Tron T shirt

 

Other options are electroluminecent wire, but this is somewhat hard work as it is very fiddly to solder.

[GreatBigHippy]

I haven't seen the movie in question but the suits used in Tron legacy are all real, no post production effects.

The downside is that one suit for a bit part in the light cycle sequence cost $30,000, so you may be having some difficult conversations with production ;)

I believe the effect is done with led strips, you can buy similar ones for car and motorbike customisation.

Like these, but better

Anyways. Hope that helps.

 

erm....... EDIT..... The DEFINITLY couldn't be built using the LED strip you referenced as the light output they provide is completely different (unless there's an inch thickness of defuser built in to every panel) and are far too brittle for use in this situation.

 

Firstly, I did say "but better".

Also I pull this quote from the IMDB.

The skintight "electric" suits worn were actually fitted with embedded light strips, thus eliminating the need for any such effects modifications in post production.

Although other sources I have read since (in trying to find out why I may have thought I was correct, I don't just pull this stuff from ether, at least not usually) have suggested phosphorous strips. The helmets absolutely were powered, 1 PP3 each, went through them like nobodies business apparently.

I was wrong in my statement though, one suit cost $60,000, not $30,000. The overall costume budget was $13 million.

Sorry about that and for any distress caused by being wrong on the internet.

:)

 

Just read this on the iMDb also. Facinating :)

The costumes worn by the actors proved to be problematic on set.Each of the suits worn by the actors in the film were fitted with a small lithium battery that powers the circuitry inside the suit but the lifespan for each can last up to 12 minutes. Thus, they would only be turned on just before shooting each take began. Worst of all, the electronic components inside the suit are very fragile, which makes them impossible to seat down so they had to recline / lie on vertical boards between takes.

And I thought radio mics were a pita!

[matt_h]

Last year I went to a trade show where there was a company printing with phosphor based inks onto clothing, which illuminated when a small voltage was applied to them. By seperating the inks they could animate an image to some degree.

 

Unfortuately which show it was and what the name of the company is currently alludes me. I have a suspicion that it was this show, but their exhibitor list from last years show seems to have disappeared.

 

nb. I don't remember them being especially cheap for short runs.

[ImagineerTom]

googling around I see that the costume designer has made some very vague, wishy-washy statements about the costumes lighting up themselves with "EL tape" but she's incredibly vague and you only have to dig a little deeper to find all the comments about the problems the EL componants produced to see all is not as it seems (think about it, would they really go through the hassles of dozens of actors who cannot sitdown or move more than a few steps without destroying their costume when they could have complete freedom at the click of a mouse?) - also anyone who's ever used the stuff will be able to tell you that just walking across the room with a strip strapped to your leg (they're perfect figure-hugging costumes) would destroy it at all the joints meaning new costumes would have to be created for almost every take. If you watch the film there's clearly (at the very least) some post work to make the glow significantly more powerful and work on all the switch on/switch off moments, injuries etc. It would be madness to go down the expensive impractical route of using entirely "real" costumes when every frame is going to be post'd anyway.

 

From a PR point of view it's a good story that these costumes are completely real (they can technically be made) but in the same way as flying cars and jetpacks do exist in the real world but whenever they're on screen it's much easier to fake it...

 

 

[jeffgough]

Hi,

 

My friend linked me to this post. Interesting conversation!

 

I've done quite a bit with LED's and clothing. In fact, I made the shoes for Step Up 3D. The rest of the costumes were done in post production, but the shoes were real!

I give a little lightning talk about them here (skip to the end if you're not into the technical stuff)

 

I am also half of the engineering team behind Rihanna's LED dress:

 

Bono's laser jacket:

 

and plenty of other crazy things.

 

I work freelance; please get in touch if you'd like some help with this project. Though I should mention that I'm quite busy for the next two months.

 

Cheers!

Jeff

[rossmck]

Not seen the film so not entirely sure what you're trying to achieve but if it's suitable (i.e. it doesn't need to look like individual lamps like LED does) I'd make another vote for electro-luminescent materials - I've seen EL wire added into a costume quite effectively before it's also available as sheets which are very flexible and can be cut to different shapes.. now if only I could remember who I saw do it before :/

[innocentspyke]

skip to the end if you're not into the technical stuff

 

Something I never thought I would read on BR!!!