Whew. I’ve been working on this for a while. I’ve been trying to make a high quality PIXAR-ish eye that is able to be recreated as easily as possible, and as low-poly as possible. Definitely the hardest part of the method is UV mapping (well actually, that’s the only hard part). Below is are two still renders. I’ll have an animation up soon.
Software:
Blender (duh)
GIMP 2 (for the iris texture; made from scratch)
Renderer: Blender Internal
Real Polygon Count: 92
Real Vertex Count: 99
Render time for close-up: approx. 15 sec.
Render time for wide shot: approx. 1 sec.
very nice eye!!!
poly and vertex count is up at the top in the info bar.
I wouldn’t call this finished, though it looks like a “pretty eye”
The iris is missing the dark ring around it when transitioning to the white and the pupil looks like a hole not like a black surface. Nice eye but definetly not the best I’ve seen around. 3*.
You don’t need to make UV mapping.
See here (on Russian< but it’s picture is undestandable)
http://www.is.svitonline.com/sailor/tutor/e_kar/pixarlookingeye_ru.html
Nice work, I had some trouble meself trynno do pixar eyes a while back
It’s a pretty average eye IMO. Very good for a beginner, so if you are I commend you! But as far as pixar-esque goes, well it’s not quite there yet. Perhaps add some very faint veins? And sharper spec-hard value so it’s not so smoothly shiny. You’re on your way, but this would do better in WIP forum.
2.5*
Maybe there are some more tips for you here (with material and all)
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Creating_Pixar-looking_eyes_in_Blender
Thanks for the coments everybody. I stared in the mirror long and hard and finally got the iris texture to look right (although I forgot to make it get darker around he edge, not brighter).
“Perhaps add some very faint veins? And sharper spec-hard value so it’s not so smoothly shiny.”
I’ve fixed the spec values a lot. The hardness value was actually all the way up, and since I didn’t want the glints any bigger, I used a spec color ramp, which I had so stupidly forgotten about. 
I don’t want to add any veins, as that sort of ruins the PIXAR-esque aspect.
“You don’t need to make UV mapping.”
That’s what I did originally, but that doesn’t allow the texture to squash and stretch with the iris.
"I wouldn’t call this finished, though it looks like a “pretty eye.”
That’s the point; one part of the PIXAR look is boiling the subject down to whatever makes it attractive to the eye. Therefore, no ugly veins or bump maps that don’t need to be there. 