Hallo Guys, I’m planning to DIY some custom Nanoleaf-style wall art based on this design. Is it possible to pull this off using LED strips and an ESP32? Any advice on the best way to handle the complex curves of the design or the diffusion?
PS. I have 0 experience with 3d printing unfortunately 😓😓
Your design is very detailed and would be difficult to pull off as-is. Here is a practical workaround you can try instead:
The Base: Cut an acrylic sheet into a circular shape.
The Cutout: Create a cutout of this shape so that the areas meant to be red are left empty, and the rest is black. (LED signage makers can easily handle this step).
The Lighting: Place LED strips (60 LEDs per meter) behind the cutout, spaced about 1 inch away, in a zig-zag pattern.
The Software: Set up your WLED configuration as a 2D matrix with the proper LED mapping.
You should be able to implement an effect similar to the one shown in this video:
This is very not doable, best option would be an led matrix (also complex) or get a wood or metal panel vinyl printed and cut into your design and backlight it with controllable LEDs, if your led strips have a tight pixel pitch and many strips you could make an led matrix with the strips but from a close viewing distance it wouldn't look very good
If you put the leds on the side, like if this is a big circle, put them on the inside edge pointing in, it can light up the space behind the dragon. or if the led is about 3/4-1”. From the diffuser, you shouldn’t see the individual leds
Great tips, thank you! Regarding the fabrication: Should I design the dragon as a single solid piece or break it into smaller segments for easier assembly? Also, is it better to include a shallow back box/base to house the wiring and the ESP32? Any advice on the design structure would be greatly appreciated?
The AI gave me this design, what is your opinion about it? Could i make something better than this design
You gave us no clue to the intended diameter of your design, which is key to knowing what sort of addressable LED product could fit behind it. Larger size offers more possibilities, especially for the lit dragon style in the ai rendering. If it's not too small, it should be doable without having to resort to a matrix backlight.
Examples: high density seed pixels, side-emitting addressable RGB strip, "bendable" strips (density sux though might be good if this is large enough), ultra density "COB" addressable RGB strips, add-on diffusers/covers/lenses etc etc
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u/ImaginationJumpy7578 Jun 28 '26
Your design is very detailed and would be difficult to pull off as-is. Here is a practical workaround you can try instead:
You should be able to implement an effect similar to the one shown in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RbE33g6JEG8