Tron Legacy Costume
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colonelmasako
Active Member
All right, finally have time to explain for you how I made the LED strip method work. I was quite satisfied with how much brighter it is than EL wire, but there is a pro/con analysis you have to do before going down this path.
LED vs. EL Pros and Cons:
Pros: -LED is almost 3 to 4 times brighter (but this may vary on the brand or quality or length of EL material).
-LED is noiseless
Cons: -LED requires much more current to drive that brightness
-LED is slightly more bulky
-LED is less user friendly: you need to be good at wiring and soldering to pull it off
So heres what you need to do an LED strip section:
-? feet of flexible LED strip. Glowire.com is a good resource for this stuff, ~$6 a foot. More expensive for waterproof or multicolor. I chose to stay with a fixed color.
-Heat shrink wrap for insulating your soldering points
-Some thin gauge wire to carry the electricity from your battery to the LED strips. I used 22 AWG speaker wire for the connection to the pieces, and 16 AWG wire to carry the main current since the overall current is 100mA for a foot and I had 22 feet of it (2.2A).
-EL wire connectors. These are convenient in that they provide a quick method to connect or disconnect the sections. Coolight.com offers them cheap.
-A soldering iron and solder and a steady hand. And all tools needed to cut, strip and prepare your wiring.
-A 12V power source that has sufficient current capacity for your system. For a basic test of each section an 8AA battery pack will do.
-Some sort of reflective backing material, such as aluminum foil. I used this stuff from hobby lobby, cheap and worked great, quite flexible too: Deprecated Browser Error
-Masking tape, the 1" thick type. And electric tape, black at the minimum.
-Shower curtain
-A hot glue gun
-A sharpie, this is good for indicating the polarity of your wires so you don't hook it up backwards by accident.
Now the pictures attached show how I made the pieces. I give credit to many RPFers for how I did this, but the biggest credit goes to Eddie, how came up with the idea of using shower curtain plus masking tape.
1. The LED strips are able to be cut 3 at a time. There are clear lines that show where to cut. Cut your reflective backing to the size you want, but make it slightly wider so you have room to glue the strip on at an angle. So for a 1" light section, make a 2" total width. Size your LED strips to fit within the matrix.
2. Solder the LED strip wires using the speaker wire. Its best to use heat shrink on each line to strengthen the connection. At this stage put the EL connector on for ease of test and use.
3. Hot glue the LED strips to the backing. Put it at as close to a 45 degree angle as possible, as this will point the light bits toward the backing and create the glow you want, while minimizing the hot spots.
4. Cut your shower curtain pieces to be slightly wider than the piece you just glued, so you can wrap it around the back to tape it together. Put your masking tape strip straight down the middle.
5. Place the shower curtain piece over the LED+backing piece and have it turned on so you can see where light leaks will take place. At this stage, start using the electric tape to form your light pattern. Note that colored electric tape does not block the light sufficiently, you need to layer it. Use a black layer to form the light, and then for this example I put white over it.
6. Optional: mount it using superglue + velcro, or liquid nails it directly to your surface, as needed.
Thats just how to make the sections, now how did we do the siren suit? A major pain in the butt I'll never do again I swear, but glad it worked. To prevent wires running everywhere, we decided to have two layers of suit: an underlayer with a wiring harness, and a suit layer at the top. For this part it was a matter of measuring, soldering and strengthening. This is where I made a battery box to help distribute the current, and something she could wear. I'll leave those details up to you, but it involves cutting holes in the outer dance suit and using anti-fray glue to keep them stable.
Good luck if you go down this path. It requires some technical skill, but its really cool when its all done.
LED vs. EL Pros and Cons:
Pros: -LED is almost 3 to 4 times brighter (but this may vary on the brand or quality or length of EL material).
-LED is noiseless
Cons: -LED requires much more current to drive that brightness
-LED is slightly more bulky
-LED is less user friendly: you need to be good at wiring and soldering to pull it off
So heres what you need to do an LED strip section:
-? feet of flexible LED strip. Glowire.com is a good resource for this stuff, ~$6 a foot. More expensive for waterproof or multicolor. I chose to stay with a fixed color.
-Heat shrink wrap for insulating your soldering points
-Some thin gauge wire to carry the electricity from your battery to the LED strips. I used 22 AWG speaker wire for the connection to the pieces, and 16 AWG wire to carry the main current since the overall current is 100mA for a foot and I had 22 feet of it (2.2A).
-EL wire connectors. These are convenient in that they provide a quick method to connect or disconnect the sections. Coolight.com offers them cheap.
-A soldering iron and solder and a steady hand. And all tools needed to cut, strip and prepare your wiring.
-A 12V power source that has sufficient current capacity for your system. For a basic test of each section an 8AA battery pack will do.
-Some sort of reflective backing material, such as aluminum foil. I used this stuff from hobby lobby, cheap and worked great, quite flexible too: Deprecated Browser Error
-Masking tape, the 1" thick type. And electric tape, black at the minimum.
-Shower curtain
-A hot glue gun
-A sharpie, this is good for indicating the polarity of your wires so you don't hook it up backwards by accident.
Now the pictures attached show how I made the pieces. I give credit to many RPFers for how I did this, but the biggest credit goes to Eddie, how came up with the idea of using shower curtain plus masking tape.
1. The LED strips are able to be cut 3 at a time. There are clear lines that show where to cut. Cut your reflective backing to the size you want, but make it slightly wider so you have room to glue the strip on at an angle. So for a 1" light section, make a 2" total width. Size your LED strips to fit within the matrix.
2. Solder the LED strip wires using the speaker wire. Its best to use heat shrink on each line to strengthen the connection. At this stage put the EL connector on for ease of test and use.
3. Hot glue the LED strips to the backing. Put it at as close to a 45 degree angle as possible, as this will point the light bits toward the backing and create the glow you want, while minimizing the hot spots.
4. Cut your shower curtain pieces to be slightly wider than the piece you just glued, so you can wrap it around the back to tape it together. Put your masking tape strip straight down the middle.
5. Place the shower curtain piece over the LED+backing piece and have it turned on so you can see where light leaks will take place. At this stage, start using the electric tape to form your light pattern. Note that colored electric tape does not block the light sufficiently, you need to layer it. Use a black layer to form the light, and then for this example I put white over it.
6. Optional: mount it using superglue + velcro, or liquid nails it directly to your surface, as needed.
Thats just how to make the sections, now how did we do the siren suit? A major pain in the butt I'll never do again I swear, but glad it worked. To prevent wires running everywhere, we decided to have two layers of suit: an underlayer with a wiring harness, and a suit layer at the top. For this part it was a matter of measuring, soldering and strengthening. This is where I made a battery box to help distribute the current, and something she could wear. I'll leave those details up to you, but it involves cutting holes in the outer dance suit and using anti-fray glue to keep them stable.
Good luck if you go down this path. It requires some technical skill, but its really cool when its all done.
WolfMistress
New Member
PizzaCat thanks! We've found it hard to take pics - with flash on you don't get the lights, and with it off everything else is too dark.. If you can find a good camera it would be a nice idea to do a good photoshoot (which I haven't done...) and yeah get a roof 
Actually I was pretty much satisfied with the results, was surprised that glass paint could do so much - it has a nice green-blue glow. By the way, 1-2 leds aren't connected (we were too tired) so that's why it seems to a bit weak. Thing is something probably was gone wrong with the modding for the batteries die after 5 mins or something, which really sucks, I had to turn it on/off all the time to save batteries. Will improve that, although I don't have use for this costume till next year's holiday (we don't really have a good cosplay scene around here) I wanna be Quorra for some more!!!
AWESOME WM. Next stop.. a Full Disc Mod Kit to make the whole thing even that much more over the top.
Actually I was pretty much satisfied with the results, was surprised that glass paint could do so much - it has a nice green-blue glow. By the way, 1-2 leds aren't connected (we were too tired) so that's why it seems to a bit weak. Thing is something probably was gone wrong with the modding for the batteries die after 5 mins or something, which really sucks, I had to turn it on/off all the time to save batteries. Will improve that, although I don't have use for this costume till next year's holiday (we don't really have a good cosplay scene around here)
I wanna be Quorra for some more!!!
games001
Well-Known Member
(we don't really have a good cosplay scene around here)
Don't think that stops us here in NYC.. ever. Our CosPlay scene is somewhat restricted to Cons and the like, so my group of nutbars just goes out to clubs that play particular music (80's for TRON, Goth for Vamp looks, Techno for Cyber styles, etc), or have events where costumes are not completely out of sorts (i.e. Fetish clubs, Theme parties, etc), and run the place into the ground. :love Even when we go to events (and have been doing this as far back as '94) where no one but our group is dressed up in Cos gear, we always get odd looks right along side tons of hand shaking and compliments on our work.
The biggest requirement I find is matching look to theme. One should not CosPlay just anything in certain locations. I have never seen it become an issue beyond my look of a Cyber-Commissar that some Jewish woman (a rather drunk one) mistook me for a Nazi. Ummm.. Yeah. Beyond that I have never heard of anyone getting thrown out of a club or public gathering for being in costume. Some clubs won't let you in perhaps, but that's why you always have a Plan B location in mind.
Cos'ing is about being fun and looking kewl, not being around 'only other Cos People'. Just get the crew dressed, get your looks out there, and make people see and appreciate the work. That's how we see it.
The worst that happened the other night here was some drunk 20something girl walked by me and said "Wow, it's Darth Vader!" A clear miss, but still got a positive reaction. :thumbsup
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cyvaris
Member
Got an undershirt. Should I line the stitching with el wire or paint it with green glow paint to make it more of a flat green than a lime green?
I'm seeing all these cool jackets and boots people are posting but I could really use some help finding some pants. Teknic Supervent pants looks cool but waaay to pricey
If you are looking for pants I would hit up a Target. I got a pair of black cargo pants for under $20. They look fine, though they did have a logo on them that I had to cover up.
In other news I found a nice pair of batter' s gloves at a local sport's store. I also grabbed some shin guards and planned to attach them to my forearms. Sadly the bands on them cause the jacket to look all puckered. If I have time I will add velcro to the jacket and then add the "bracers". If I don't, well they were only $13.
thormungandr
Active Member
I work at Target and constantly check the pant section. I guess my Target just sucks haha
cyvaris
Member
They are black....long....and have cargo pockets. Maybe I should give you the brand off the tag. The definitely match the "program" look from the picture on the other page. I am just worried I may have too many "light" parts on my costume. I posted the front, but in addition I have a stripe running down the back "through" the disk holder. I added some of the "circles" to the gloves, have a pair of stripes on the pants, then some minor stripes on my leg armor. Ehh we shall see how it goes.
R3dJok3r
New Member
I got my pants I pictured earlier from Khols, that also match the picture of the program I posted earlier as well.
Some are, the ones I got from GlowHut, are Blue off, and Blue on
thormungandr
Active Member
Theres no such thing as too much haha. Go nuts and dazzle the crowd
thormungandr
Active Member
The good quality ones are. I heard white on/white off arent very bright
Thermistor
Active Member
ok, what are the benefits of split electrode vs. parallel electrode EL light tape? Is split electrode tape cheaper?
From what I know, the major benefit of split electrode is the ease of connecting cut pieces. With parallel, it is extremely difficult, and you will probably trash the tape. See here: FLATLITE Flexible Electroluminescent Panels, Strip Lamps and Inverters -- LUMINOUSFILM.COM --USA
Annisse
Sr Member
Also in parallel if one of your wire connection breaks, your entire light strip connection will go out with it. Split one piece goes out, the others stay lite up.
Annisse
Sr Member
Looking forward to seeing you in it Annisse
Annisse.. you never rest, huh?
Thanks guys! I am very excited about wearing this to SDCC for the 1st time. I got the perfect shoes, just need to style the wig and might add a the El Litetape strip down the center of my head as the Concept Art has it.
Yes, this stuff is a miracle! 1st I bent it in the \_ shape as you described, then folded it at an angle and then that is how you get the 90 degree angle. You are just not supposed to fold this stuff directly on the SCRIBE line. There is a thin line down the center of the El Litetape which is how it lights up.
You can even cut this stuff into any shape as long as you have equal amounts of Litetape on either side of the SCRIBE center line.
I hope any one that wants to light up their Tron costumes goes with this stuff. Much cheaper than the Light Tape company and works just as bright!
masterpotty
Member
What is Tron Day entitling fans to?
Annisse
Sr Member
I'm not sure. Don't think it is an official Disney event. But I am not going to wear any Tron related costumes myself.
Every time I go there this one and ONLY one ******* security gives me crap about my light up El Wire corset I wear. It doesn't even have anything to do with Tron, it just lights up.
One time security had my friend, who was taking photos of me and my friend with his nice camera, thrown out of the park and could not return for 24 hours on the premises. We all apparently were causing too much attention with the picture taking and my light up costume.
I went to ElecTRONica this past weekend, barely walked through the security check and that same damn guard ran up, and I am not kidding, ran up to me with this stupid grin on his face and asked me if I had a Tron costume under my jacket?
I could not believe it. I didn't even enter DCA yet.
I want to report that RENT-A-COP to his manager, he was totally out of line and basically harassed me. That is no way to treat Disney's guests that pay good money to go in there.
Every other guest I see in ElecTRONica that wears Tron inspired costumes, even coming in with their Tron discs never get harassed, we even asked them. This guard seems to have something out for me.
So the whole point of my story here is, it's up to you if you want to risk it. Unless Disney OKs everyone wearing Tron costumes on Tron Day, it is a total risk being harassed by security there.
thormungandr
Active Member
I wore my el taped jacket inside and they didnt care. During electronica I even walked past a security guard and he said nothing. You must have quite the reputation Annisse haha
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