ESP32 Embedded Firmware – Smooth Sparkler LED Animation

I am developing a wearable LED headband with a continuous, sparkler-style moving light effect. The mechanical design (SolidWorks / STEP) is fully completed and locked. This project is strictly focused on electronics and embedded firmware — no mechanical design, web, or mobile work.

The goal is to implement a high-quality LED animation engine on a microcontroller (ESP32 or equivalent) that produces smooth, continuous motion around a 360° addressable LED ring (~72 LEDs). The animation must use fractional (sub-pixel) position tracking and brightness blending across adjacent LEDs — visible LED-to-LED stepping is not acceptable.

Scope of Work:
• Develop embedded C/C++ firmware for addressable LEDs (WS2812B / SK6812 or equivalent)
• Implement continuous 360° motion with one or more moving “sparks”
• Use floating-point or fixed-point math to blend brightness between adjacent LEDs
• Create smooth trailing glow and subtle flicker (sparkler-style behavior)
• Match motion speed and feel to provided reference visuals
• Ensure clean, efficient, well-commented firmware suitable for manufacturing

Deliverables:
• Firmware source code
• Short demo video showing slowed-down motion that clearly demonstrates sub-pixel interpolation
• Brief explanation of animation logic and LED indexing
• Optional: guidance on MCU/LED selection if needed

Out of Scope:
• Mechanical CAD
• PCB layout
• Mobile apps or cloud connectivity

This project requires experience with embedded systems, microcontroller programming, and addressable LED animation. Please do not apply if your background is primarily web or mobile development.