light up Wolf eyes?

I am looking for a good way to make the eyes in a wolf costume glow bright yellow. I am thinking the eyes could be a glass type material lit from the inside.

I might experiment with 3M Scotchlight or similar reflective material. If the rest of the costume (and set) are comparatively drab and non-reflective, it could be quite effective, I suspect, and pretty easy to accomplish. This is not based on actual experience of using Scotchlight in a theatrical setting, mind you.

A COB LED unit behind a diffuser (and maybe color filter), more or less what you suggested, could also be effective. You'd have to pay some attention to properly heat sinking the LED and it would take some experimentation. You probably don't want a glass sphere or lens that would focus the light; the idea is to have fairly wide and even dispersion, so that it's effective from whatever angle the audience might be looking from rather than being focused on a small area (and not really visible outside that area).

Thank you I will investigate

Michael Larsen said:

Thank you I will investigate

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@Michael Larsen and @DrewE
You may want to investigate UV sensitive colored paints and materials along with flooding your stage, or the portions where the wolf is blocked with UV; your UV source could bathe the entire stage if need be; this would be a more expensive option and could alter the appearance of your set, costumes, and the facial tones of other performers
OR
You could employ a serious (big boy's) follow spot with a U.V. filter inserted and a better than average operator to follow your wolf, or at least her / his head bearing in mind the operator is essentially employing an invisible beam to follow a likely extremely / actively blocked wolf. There are a variety of tricks and techniques to ease the spot op's task but we're likely sailing well past the capabilities of the spotlight you may or may not have along with your budget and the experience levels of your spot operators.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

I can certainly wash the area with UV. I wonder how the painted eyes would glow in the scenes where I have brighter stage lighting at the same time. Ill test it.

Yellow epoxy in an egg shaped cup and drop in a black olive in the middle and add an led in the middle of it let it set and whala yellow light up eye.

polish it after it sets and paint it if you want extra detail for the close up shows.

Whala?

Backlighting with LEDs is eminently possible. Plenty of colour choices. I used some 10mm clear cased white LEDs on a set last year and you could see the beams hitting the back of the auditorium - they were surprisingly bright driven at about 25-30 mA

Amiers said:

Yellow epoxy in an egg shaped cup and drop in a black olive in the middle and add an led in the middle of it let it set and whala yellow light up eye.

polish it after it sets and paint it if you want extra detail for the close up shows.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea. Regarding the black olive, I suppose a fake one is best for this costume piece to live of forever.

With all the led suggestions I'd recommend you look at adafruit.com. They have TONS of solutions for wearable LEDs, battery packs etc, etc. They also have a LOT of instructional videos and and support forums full of people who do this kind of things on a professional level for Cosplayers and re-enactors.

Amiers said:

Yellow epoxy in an egg shaped cup and drop in a black olive in the middle and add an led in the middle of it let it set and whala yellow light up eye.

polish it after it sets and paint it if you want extra detail for the close up shows.

Click to expand...

@Amiers and @Michael Larsen IF this is literally over the eyeballs of a performer portraying a wolf, how would you deal with heat dissipation that close to their eyes plus dealing with the associated wiring leading to batteries stashed in their pockets or the rear of their costume.
IF this in a prop wolf's head worn on top of the actor's costume with the actor's own eyes safely out of the way below the fake head;
NO PROBLEM. Love your idea.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

here is a video on making glowing eyes for a starlord cosplay mask. might be useful

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DrewE said:

I might experiment with 3M Scotchlight or similar reflective material. If the rest of the costume (and set) are comparatively drab and non-reflective, it could be quite effective, I suspect, and pretty easy to accomplish. This is not based on actual experience of using Scotchlight in a theatrical setting, mind you.

A COB LED unit behind a diffuser (and maybe color filter), more or less what you suggested, could also be effective. You'd have to pay some attention to properly heat sinking the LED and it would take some experimentation. You probably don't want a glass sphere or lens that would focus the light; the idea is to have fairly wide and even dispersion, so that it's effective from whatever angle the audience might be looking from rather than being focused on a small area (and not really visible outside that area).

Click to expand...

I used a ping pong ball cut in half with a red grain of wheat bulb inside you can get them from train hobby places

Michael Larsen said:

This is a great idea. Regarding the black olive, I suppose a fake one is best for this costume piece to live of forever.

Click to expand...

Actually green with pimento has some attraction, too...

1st test is curing. I need to make 12 eyes. I chose to use a 12V COB LED I will run with a NiCAD rechargable pack and a switch. Although I might also use my RC4 dimmer to run it on our stage but when we rent the costumes out i will use the switch. Ill have to see how the COB likes the dimmer since LEDs can be tempermental.