WS2812 ESP32 Flickering math issue
After working with the NeoPixel library quite a bit I confirmed that it's a timing error related to the ESP32. 
To clarify, it is NOT any of the following if you are experiencing the same error (random pixel flashes that have a mathematical pattern to them) and have double checked all of these things.


Resistor on the data line
Capacitor on the power line
"Your voltage/logic levels are wrong"


What worked for me was using multi-threading to host an entire core (0) to running pixels.show(); 

Here is a code example using fastLED (I eventually just rewrote the whole program because the math effects are SO nice)

//Multi-threading synchronous show operations! Kinda slick honestly
static TaskHandle_t FastLEDshowTaskHandle = 0;
static TaskHandle_t userTaskHandle = 0;

void FastLEDshowESP32()
{
if (userTaskHandle == 0) {
    userTaskHandle = xTaskGetCurrentTaskHandle();
    xTaskNotifyGive(FastLEDshowTaskHandle);
    const TickType_t xMaxBlockTime = pdMS_TO_TICKS( 200 );
    ulTaskNotifyTake(pdTRUE, xMaxBlockTime);
    userTaskHandle = 0;
}
}
void FastLEDshowTask(void *pvParameters)
{
// -- Run forever...
for(;;) {
    // -- Wait for the trigger
    ulTaskNotifyTake(pdTRUE, portMAX_DELAY);
    // -- Do the show (synchronously)        
    FastLED.show();
    // -- Notify the calling task
    xTaskNotifyGive(userTaskHandle);
}
}

void setup() {  
delay(3000); // 3 second delay for recovery
Serial.begin(115200);    
ser.begin(DEVICE_NAME);
Serial.println("Dare you enter my magical realm?");

FastLED.addLeds&lt;LED_TYPE,RING_1_PIN,COLOR_ORDER&gt;(Ring1, RING_1_LEDS).setCorrection(TypicalLEDStrip);
FastLED.addLeds&lt;LED_TYPE,RING_2_PIN,COLOR_ORDER&gt;(Ring2, RING_2_LEDS).setCorrection(TypicalLEDStrip);

FastLED.setBrightness(brightness);
//Set up multi-threaded execution of LED show on core 0
xTaskCreatePinnedToCore(FastLEDshowTask, "FastLEDshowTask", 2048, NULL, 2, &amp;FastLEDshowTaskHandle, 0);
}