New to modding, need assistance

[Blowfish64]

So basically I'm totally new to modding, but I want to start with a laptop. I have the back plate of an LCD off and sanded down, but instead of just painting it, I wanted to have a design raised off it, by at most maybe 3-4mm. How do I go about doing this? Metal stamping perhaps? And where would I go to get this done?

Also, I got an RGB LED that I would like to put in the plate and have it slowly fade in and out, cycling through different colors. What microcontroller would you recommend for this, and how would I hook the whole thing up to the power supply or battery or whatever? Also, ideally I'd like it to just stay on at one color when the computer is running and then do the fade/cycling thing when I put the comp in standby mod. Any idea how to do that? Hope you all can help me out.

[Crimson Sky]

For the raised design on the laptop LCD cover, use styrene plastic sheets--you can draw on it, cut it with an X-Acto blade (clean with hand files and sandpaper after) and glue it on with Zap-A-Gap adhesive.

For great ready-made lighting effects modules try Blue Point Engineering

[Aero]

whoa, I never thought of using Styrene on a laptop...don't know why, idea never poped to mind...ohhhh I have SOO many cool ideas now. And it would be pretty easy to get some interesting effects.

[Malatory]

And it would be pretty easy to get some interesting effects.

Sorry Dell Logo has been done

you can also get teh moders mesh from www.mnpctech.com & other places for small lighting kits can be found at.
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/complete.htm

[Blowfish64]

So anyone got any help on the microcontroller? And how to do the whole active/standby thing?