Batou's Eyes (Ghost in the Shell)

So, I watched Ghost in the Shell again and though I usually dislike anime, this movie is an exception and definitely one of my favorite movies.

I wanna do Batou's bionic eyes and I think they can be done very cheaply and effectively. I want to go with the first movie look as the eyes in the sequel movie and most noticeably in the TV show, are much smaller.

I went ahead and grabbed a 1" PVC coupling and went to down cutting it with a hacksaw. I'm going to add some plumbers epoxy to the PVC parts so I can make an eye shade bit that will cover my eyes from the sides.

I need some plexiglass or some clear plastic to make the lenses, as well as some one way mirror film. Does anyone know where I can get that (and in small quantities)?

I just painted these parts with primer:





I used Plumbing epoxy to make the eye shade shape and glazing putty to smooth out the shape and cover the ridge between the PVC and epoxy. About a half hour into the drying time for the epoxy I went ahead and shaved some of the epoxy with an X-ACTO knife and that helped a lot in getting the shape I wanted.

Anyone have any ideas for lens materials?

Here's pics of the primed pieces and me wearing them. They hold well on my face without any strings or spirit gum...I think it's because of the way I'm frowning that's holding them in, lol.





Again, any help or advice with the lens material would be appreciated.

To my memory they had a pattern on them like a honeycomb.

Think acrylic clear plastic would be a good idea. I know Hobby Lobby has some in multiple sizes (as thin as a CD and flexible) that is useful as replacements for a picture frame. I have a piece I picked up with the intention to do a EOLC Sector disc. Also, I don't know if its available, but mirrored window tinting (for automobiles) should also be useful to get the reflectiveness to where you can't see the eyes, but still be able to see out.

Now, I know you designed it to wear on the face, but if I recall the movie, one scene had Batou wearing a pair of glasses frames over them to look like they were a pair of sunglasses. I could be wrong on it and may have to rewatch the movie to be sure.

CB2001 said:

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Think acrylic clear plastic would be a good idea. I know Hobby Lobby has some in multiple sizes (as thin as a CD and flexible) that is useful as replacements for a picture frame. I have a piece I picked up with the intention to do a EOLC Sector disc. Also, I don't know if its available, but mirrored window tinting (for automobiles) should also be useful to get the reflectiveness to where you can't see the eyes, but still be able to see out.

Now, I know you designed it to wear on the face, but if I recall the movie, one scene had Batou wearing a pair of glasses frames over them to look like they were a pair of sunglasses. I could be wrong on it and may have to rewatch the movie to be sure.

I agree. I'll go stop by some Hobby stores after school tomorrow. I went to an auto store yesterday to get some reflective mirror tint, but couldn't find any.

I think that sunglasses frames thing is from the tv show when Batou was under cover or something...could be wrong. But I definitely want to emulate the eyes from the movie and not the tv shows and as far as I know Batou doesn't wear frames in the movie.

I haven't seen the show, I've only seen the first movie. I could have sworn that there was one scene in the film like that. I could have confused the glasses thing with the Section 6 Administrator. Or maybe I saw it in one of the trailers for the second film, but I can't be sure.

Terryr- The honeycomb thing must be from the show. Like I said, I've only seen the first film and there's no closeups of it to show such a pattern within the film.

I've never paid much attention to the movies as I like the show better but I never even thought of doing this for his eyes. It's such a simple thing too. I know in the TV show he got those when he was in the US as a Ranger because he runs into a squad of them and they all have those eye implants. The problem is getting them to say in place for long periods of time, actually it could be why no matter if its the movies, show, or comics Batou is always frowning lol.

CB2001 said:

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I haven't seen the show, I've only seen the first movie. I could have sworn that there was one scene in the film like that. I could have confused the glasses thing with the Section 6 Administrator. Or maybe I saw it in one of the trailers for the second film, but I can't be sure.

Terryr- The honeycomb thing must be from the show. Like I said, I've only seen the first film and there's no closeups of it to show such a pattern within the film.

Ahh, I see what you mean. Yeah, the Sector 6 Administrator definitely has sunglasses that look a lot like Batou's eyes. The only real problem about Batou's eyes is that, unlike the Sector 6 admin, they have no real reflectivity at all. That being said, I highly doubt it's possible to see through anything opaque like that, so the only real option is to use reflective tint.

You could use a grey fabric scrim if you wanted something that looked opaque. Cover with fabric stiffener and mold it over PVC pipe designed to fit in the coupler you used (you may have to sand it down a little to account for the fabric thickness) and then glue it into the eye pieces.

moviebuff5 said:

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You could use a grey fabric scrim if you wanted something that looked opaque. Cover with fabric stiffener and mold it over PVC pipe designed to fit in the coupler you used (you may have to sand it down a little to account for the fabric thickness) and then glue it into the eye pieces.

I'll look into that, thanks! I have a friend who's into theater, so maybe she can help me out.

I went to a specialty automotive window tinting place, and the guy couldn't help me but he told me that I should be on the look out for "dual-reflective" tint, which has a nice mirror look with a dark inside tint. But man, finding this material is a lot tougher that I thought.

Home Depot and Lowe's have mirrored window film for around $30 a roll (36" x 180"). It hardly qualifies as a small quantity though.

You may also want to look at Best Buy and ebay. There used to be mirrored covers for smart phone screens which must have basically been mirrored window film.

SWEET! Got some film! I called some local window tinting stores in Tampa and explaining to them that I just need about a square foot of the stuff for an "arts and crafts project", one guy was really nice and gave me a square foot of reflective film for free! I got the roll of film with me right now and it looks fantastic! I'm hoping to save enough for a see-through verison of Doc Brown's 2015 glasses.

Okie dokie...after wasting about 8 inches of material, before finally coming up with two lenses that will work, I'm almost done with the eyes. I noticed that there's one extra detail that I wanna add before I complete the eyes and that's this small tab that sticks out on the sides of the eyes. You can see what I'm talking about in these pics:



I'm gonna cut out a styrene piece, glue it and give the eye a silver paintjob and finally glue the lens into place!

After several attempts to get a really good looking lens, I finally finished the eyes. That film is very difficult to apply without getting bubbles. Took me about 5 tries to get it right. Anyways, here they are:





That little extra detail on the sides really helps give them a unique shape. I'm very happy with how these came out.

Those turned out great!

How is visibility in low light with the tint?

moviebuff5 said:

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Those turned out great!

How is visibility in low light with the tint?

Thanks! Glad you like 'em

The visibility in low light is okay; it's just like wearing sunglasses in the dark and I was expecting that.

Here's the final product!

Nice job. Glad that for a non anime fan that you liked GITS. It's a pinnacle movie for the genre. So well done, and one of my faves as well.

Love the eyes, they came out great.