I don't understand how this works!

Support Modeling
#1

Hey everyone!

I’ve been trying to solve this problem so such a long time! Here is goes. I want to make a model of a face with eyes and all. The thing is, when I make eyelids/sockets, how do I get it to form around the eyeball. It’s confusing. The thing is, is when I put the eyeballs inside of the head, you can still see the emptiness from corner of the eye socket because the eyeball does not fit perfectly with the eye socket. Is there a trick to this? If you don’t understand, please ask for clarification.

Thanks!

#2

One trick is to use the Shrinkwrap modifier to dynamically conform the inside of the eye socket to the eyeball mesh. Though a bit complex it works well if set up properly.

My Othello Face Rig uses this trick – download the blend and check out the modifiers on the figure mesh. In this case the 4 Shrinkwrap modifiers do two things – conform the eyesockets, and maintain the thickness of the eyelids during blinking and other closed deformations. The vertex groups that modulate the Shrinkwrap are very carefully weight painted in this example.

Whether or not this will work for you depends somewhat on what your model is like.

#3

The way that I solved this problem is just by using the proportional editing tool to fit the sockets around the eye a little better. Just put the eyeball roughly where it should be in the head, and then grab a vertex on the head around where the eye does not fit, and use proportional editing to fit it around the eye the way you want it.