I’m getting the pieces together and noticed in one of the articles, that I should use 470uF capacitors on both sides of the ESP32. 1. Is this necessary and 2. would a 1000uF work (that’s what I have). Is there a diagram somewhere that shows the IO layout for the ESP32. I have a buck converter to drop the 12vdc to 5vdc. The wiring that is show here Wiring Guides - WLED Project is more elaborate than I had planned … I also have 470ohm resistors on hand, but they are quite a bit larger than what is shown. Anything wrong with going from the IO to the signal wire on the LEDs and 12vdc to the LEDs … forget the capacitors and resistors? Sorry if I am overlooking some basic electronics, I do not have a EE. 
The 470uF does not need to be exactly 470uF (larger is ok) and is not necessarily required. It depends on the quality of the power supply and the individual ESP32 you are using (some have very poor quality regulators that benefit from extra capacitance).
The resistor value is very important if your wires are more than a few meters long, so either keep your wires very short or get the correct size for your wiring (~33-50 for 3 wire LED cable, 50-100 for most other 2 wire cables, larger for individual loose wires).
Thanks! I have a 100 light strig for a starter project, so it looks like the resistor is a non-negotiable. 
FYI … here are the LEDs that I’m using.
The plan is to have these on a 1” pattern, 10” x 10”
Once I get this figured out, I’m planning a much larger board. 
Length of the wires going to the LEDs, not number of LEDs.
Gotcha … thanks for clarifying that.
My wire length will be quite short … <1M