Rusty85
Sr Member
A few years ago I had been searching to create the closest thing possible to the prop lenses Cyclops has in the 3 X-Men films. Most people probably know that there were different lenses released for the public than the ones used in the movie. Something to do with the red tint.
Basically as many people have seen sunglasses come with a variety of mirrors, but there isn't a single one that comes with an all red mirror the way they were made for the X-Men movies. I saw on a few sites that they gave him headaches and a slew of other reasons that make them unsafe to wear. The red mirror of today that's generally sold it gradient, and usually gets orange and yellow depending on which way you look at them. Here are a few pictures to illustrate my point. These are a pair of the X-Men like style called Ruby Iridium that was released at the time. While it looks similar, it suffers from the multi-colored mirror I'm talking about.
Here is a picture of the prop lenses that I was trying to duplicate. Just glancing at the pictures you should be able to tell how much different they really are from the commercially available glasses.
Well, after searching forever and speaking to different people I finally was able to find a formula of coatings to create the desired effect. Funny really, because it said it in an article I found online, although slightly vague. I went to my local optometrist and had a pair of lenses made for my Juliet's that are pictures below.
Basically what it is is a died red lens, with an Anti-reflective coating on BOTH sides, and a silver mirror on the INSIDE of the lenses. This has to be the correct way to do it, and seeing that the silver coating on the inside of the lenses is evident on the propstore's pictures, not to mention the creator himself told me how he made them, this has got to be how I made the lenses above.
Now the weird part. I went to have another pair made by the same optometrist, using the SAME formula. But this time, instead of being the red pictured above, they came out really maroon looking. The only way you could tell they were red is if you looked through them. It makes no sense that they didn't come out the same when I used the same method to make them.
The only thing I can think of is that the order of the AR Coating going over the solid mirror, or under it might have affected it that much. But my optometrist seems to think that wouldn't have mattered. We argued a little while about it when I brought them back today. I printed the pictures above and brought them to him so he could see the desired effect. He said what I need is died red lenses with a silver flash mirror on the front of the lenses, as opposed to the inside. The thing I was thinking though, is wouldn't a silver flash mirror on the front of the lenses completely cover up the red lense underneath? He's redoing them now, but I have a feeling one of the AR coats was overlooked at the factory when they were being applied....
Here's a pic of the Propstore's auctioned glasses, you can make out the mirror coating on the inside. My guess is the mirror on the inside relflects the inside lense color to the front, but the AR coats must be needed to produce the right effect.
Basically as many people have seen sunglasses come with a variety of mirrors, but there isn't a single one that comes with an all red mirror the way they were made for the X-Men movies. I saw on a few sites that they gave him headaches and a slew of other reasons that make them unsafe to wear. The red mirror of today that's generally sold it gradient, and usually gets orange and yellow depending on which way you look at them. Here are a few pictures to illustrate my point. These are a pair of the X-Men like style called Ruby Iridium that was released at the time. While it looks similar, it suffers from the multi-colored mirror I'm talking about.
Here is a picture of the prop lenses that I was trying to duplicate. Just glancing at the pictures you should be able to tell how much different they really are from the commercially available glasses.
Well, after searching forever and speaking to different people I finally was able to find a formula of coatings to create the desired effect. Funny really, because it said it in an article I found online, although slightly vague. I went to my local optometrist and had a pair of lenses made for my Juliet's that are pictures below.
Basically what it is is a died red lens, with an Anti-reflective coating on BOTH sides, and a silver mirror on the INSIDE of the lenses. This has to be the correct way to do it, and seeing that the silver coating on the inside of the lenses is evident on the propstore's pictures, not to mention the creator himself told me how he made them, this has got to be how I made the lenses above.
Now the weird part. I went to have another pair made by the same optometrist, using the SAME formula. But this time, instead of being the red pictured above, they came out really maroon looking. The only way you could tell they were red is if you looked through them. It makes no sense that they didn't come out the same when I used the same method to make them.
The only thing I can think of is that the order of the AR Coating going over the solid mirror, or under it might have affected it that much. But my optometrist seems to think that wouldn't have mattered. We argued a little while about it when I brought them back today. I printed the pictures above and brought them to him so he could see the desired effect. He said what I need is died red lenses with a silver flash mirror on the front of the lenses, as opposed to the inside. The thing I was thinking though, is wouldn't a silver flash mirror on the front of the lenses completely cover up the red lense underneath? He's redoing them now, but I have a feeling one of the AR coats was overlooked at the factory when they were being applied....
Here's a pic of the Propstore's auctioned glasses, you can make out the mirror coating on the inside. My guess is the mirror on the inside relflects the inside lense color to the front, but the AR coats must be needed to produce the right effect.
