If you were blown away by a recent cosplay outfit, chances are it had electronics woven into the design. You’ve seen them, the costumes that pulse to highlight a plasma gun or glow in red to imitate flames. What about huge wings that open on their own?

Powering these costumes are electronics of all sizes that make use of microcontrollers such as those from Arduino or Adafruit. These projects are versatile enough to be used in any number of costumes and can be easily reused in future creations. But don’t take our word for it, check out these impressive projects for yourself.

1. Glowing Gems

As part of a costume or as a prop, you can make your own glowing gems straight out of a fantasy world.

In this beginner-friendly project, the gems being created are used for a Druid Tier 9 costume from World of Warcraft, adding just a touch of magic to the cosplay.

You will cast the gem out of resin and use nail polish and aluminum foil to make it look believable. On the electronic side, you will need one LED light, a 9V battery, plus a switch to turn your light on and off.

It is one of the simplest circuits that you can create, but, from this basic template, you can start to build more complex programmable LED arrangements by connecting LED light strips to a microcontroller.

This project really showcases the standout result of combining physical effects with electronics.

2. LED Crafting

Take a look at the incredible number of wicked cosplay outfits that use LED lights in this project by costume designer Svetlana, or Kamui as she is also known.

In this project, you will create one basic electronic circuit powered by an Adafruit Trinket Pro 5V. You can then use this circuit again and again in future costumes by changing the LED color and animation to suit each new cosplay. This is a great step up from the previous project, and will suit a beginner to intermediate maker.

In one YouTube video, Svetlana uses this circuit to power over 550 LEDs! The result: one epic Diablo shield powered by a small but mighty electronic setup.

Alongside the Adafruit Trinket Pro 5V, you will need the Adafruit LiPo backpack, three slide switches, five servo extension cables, and a 4400 mAh 3.7V LiPo (two-cell) battery. You will also need to upload some code to your microcontroller through the Arduino software (IDE); this will give you four different animations to play with for your costume.

Connecting LED light strips to Arduino is definitely a skill you will want to learn.

3. Light Halo

Here is a project that is simple to construct and looks stunning.

This illuminated halo is made from plexiglass with edge lighting made of LEDs. It’s connected to a simple headband made of steel that sits on the ears and wraps around the back of the head. The placement of the band and wires at the back of the head makes the halo look like it’s hovering in mid-air.

You can take the circuit designs from the previous two projects and apply them here. Of course, you can keep it simple with an on-off switch, but with an Arduino, you can program animated light sequences to really make it shine.

If you experiment with different materials, you can create something that is lighter and easier to construct as well. Options include using thick aluminum wire instead of steel for a lighter headband and swapping the plexiglass for plastic tubing, or foam.

The key point here is working on how to diffuse your LED lights to give a soft, omnidirectional light source. You can do this by scratching the plexiglass with sandpaper, or covering the LEDs in synthetic white fabric, as an example.

4. Motorized Wings

Now to get into something really impressive.

Jonas Zibartas created this design to cosplay the Overwatch character, Mercy. To recreate the character's large, mechanized, angel-like wings, this project uses a combination of 25kg servos, linear actuators, and an Arduino.

Servos have a limited range of motion but can supply a really high level of torque. To run them you will need to send the servos some information such as how far to rotate, and at what speed; this is why you will need an Arduino. From there, connect the servos to the actuators to convert the rotational motion into linear motion.

In this video, Zibratas talks about the design process in order to help you prototype your own costume. He also covers the basics of what servos and actuators do in mechanics. However, if you plan to take this project on, you will need some prior experience.

A seriously amazing build, but best suited to advanced makers.

5. Sound Reactive LED Mask

In this cosplay project, you will learn how to make the sound reactive LED mask worn by Lady Gaga at the 2020 MTV Visual Music Awards (VMAs).

Natasha, a self-described tech-crafter and maker, will guide you through how to make the LED matrix, alongside how to program Arduino for the visuals. For this project, you will need nine Adafruit DotStar 8 x 8 LED matrices, a microphone, and the Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4 Express.

Soldering the matrix together will take some patience, but the detailed guide on Instructables will make it achievable for a beginner to the intermediate maker. Once completed, the whole circuit can simply be connected to a USB power bank.

It’s not hard to imagine this circuit being useful in other cosplay costumes and its relatively compact size definitely makes it great for inserting into wearable outfits and props.

Pairing Electronics and Cosplay

With these projects under your belt, you will have a solid foundation to start building electronics into your cosplay.

As you can see, getting started doesn’t have to involve complex electronics. Some of the simplest LED circuits, when integrated into your design, can make your costume look incredible.

Start with the easier designs that incorporate LED lights, then add some code to create different animations. From there, you can begin working your way up to larger builds like the motorized wings if you want to seriously level up your costume design.