Hasta La Ideas

HBO’s “Watchmen” is a new show yet, but with such a strong cult following from the comic book, I’m guessing many of you have seen the two episodes they’ve released. And any of you with a passing interest in materials must’ve wondered, as Polygon’s Karen Han puts it, “What the hell is Looking Glass’ mask made out of?“

Meghan Kasperlik, the show’s costume designer, revealed that on set they rotate between “five different masks,” and most of them are non-reflective and rigged up for motion tracking, with CG reflections added in post. Just one mask is actually of a reflective material similar to what we see on-screen, and that one’s made of lamé.

The reasons are obvious–lamé isn’t see through, and the actor playing Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) needs to be able to see. I can’t imagine lamé is easy to breathe through, either.

So, those of you with soft goods skills and materials knowledge: If you had to make the mask to wear yourself to a costume party, how would you do it? Without being blind and oxygen-deprived?