Hi, I’m making my first 3D model which I’m planning on rigging.
She has this not round, not quite oval eye shape and i’m a bit stuck on how to make her eyes in a way they can later be posed/ animated.
Someone suggested I give her two giant spheres for eyeballs but in order to fill out her eye sockets they start clipping through her face.
Or they said if i wanted to make the eyeballs this not quit oval custom shape i could just have her iris and pupil rigged. But i wanted to give her ‘anatomically correct’ eyeballs with the iris caving inwards and a lens on top bulging outwards. Idk if that then would still be possible?..I know nothing about whats possible with shaders btw, I’m a noob at this.
I think i’d also like her pupil and maybe iris to be editable too.
First off, “anatomically correct” on a (highly) stylized 2D character may not be a practical requirement. Eg. for the movie Peanuts, all the characters’ noses were placed depending on a profile or front on shot.
Two approaches come to mind for the iris + pupils:
A single mesh (inside the cornea) and animate using shape keys/blendshapes
Iris and pupils are separate meshes shrink wrapped to the sclera (?) - the white part, scale/deform/rotate/move as you need.
Given you said this is your first 3D model, I would also add, don’t aim for “fully poseable for ANY shot”. Just have fun and make all the mistakes you need, it’s your first model, not your last
and the cornea would stay a bulge on top of the eyeball? Is there a tutorial or any more information you could direct me to?
I think I’d even be content with only the iris and pupil flat against the eyes for now, no cornea but I’d still like to know more.
From all my (hobby) projects, I’ve almost always overthought how much detail I needed. In your case, will you really get a shot close enough to notice a “bad iris deformation”?
But to answer the question, largely speaking, the Shrink Wrap modifier does a “best guess”, so, a few things may help:
matching topology between the iris and the sclera
denser meshes, but too dense and you’ll also get bumpiness, hence why I’ve sandwiched the Shrink Wrap between 2 Subdivision modifiers
shape keys on the Iris (or even the sclera) for any bad frames
My best guess even for animation falls into one of the following:
shots are too far away to notice
shots are close but the eye movements are too quick, ie most eye movements are snappy
shots are close and the eye movement is SLOOOW… this is the only case you’ll need to worry about, and shape keys should save you for those moments
In short, my approach (after making too many time-wasting catch-all methods) is, “add details when they matter”, along with its close cousin, “fix/patch/bandaid (only) when needed”.
If I wanted to animate these eyes, I would model a "realistic"ish model, and then lattice or mesh to deform the eyes into what I wanted. To animate the eyes, I would use armature deformation that worked like it did for a real, spherical eye, and then lattice/mesh deformation afterwards.
