Labyrinth’s Ludo might win the prize for being one of the cutest, most endearing characters in all of film. Heather Jones, a special effects makeup artist who’s also skilled at design and making costumes, made a full scale Ludo costume for C2E2. I would lose it if I ran into this character on the convention floor. The build started with a 1:10 scale maquette (pictured below). Heather says:
I created a human maquette from Monster clay to the proportions of both me and my hubby so that either of us could wear the suit. On top, using modeling clay, I created Ludo’s proportions for the purpose of making a pattern. A layer of latex and masking tape was added. Pattern pieces were marked, numbered, and cut out with an X-acto.
She drafted the patterns for all the body pieces on paper and used foam covered with fur for the suit. The eyes, face, and horns were more complicated. She especially took a lot of time with the eyes and rigged them with an Arduino Uno (also pictured below) for movement:
This is connected to an Arduino Uno which was used for the servo and button control (the button was for the mouth to open and close which was operated by a Spectrum Hi Torque servo) and to randomize the eye movements so that the actor can focus on other things and an RF control was not necessary for the animatronics.
Want more making of photos for this impressive costume? You can see them on Facebook.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.