Another Very Newbie Question

[Distress]

I'm sorry if there's already a helpful link or something that I've missed, but I've been studying eye anatomy to make realistic looking eyes, and I've noticed other 3d projects with usually simple irises but they're illuminated.....light fades around the edges. An example would be the character Tak. I just want to know how other people are doing it, maybe it'll save me a missed shortcut. I like the look of those eyes.

[rusty]

Might want to post an example.

 

Rusty

[Distress]

I already mentioned Tak as an example, but okay.

 

 

Most of the best examples are here:

 

http://www.animationmentor.com/quicktime/winterShowcase/

 

 

Here's a pic from it:

 

[Dhar]

MAN! My sides hurt from laughing. Thanks for the link. That was hilarious! Oh my God...my eyes are tearing up...that was so funny

[phatso]

That's just a truncated cone - or a bowl with a hole in the bottom, depending on how you look at it - with the surface properties tweaked to give a hint of metal-like reflectivity. You'd probably add a transparent cornea over it to give lights something to reflect off of. There are lots of eyes in the A:M Extras CD, and you don't even have to get the CD; you can just download the stuff. ('sfree!) The complete project for every model is there - wireframe, rigging and all - so you can select the eyes and study how they're made.

[Distress]

That's just a truncated cone - or a bowl with a hole in the bottom, depending on how you look at it - with the surface properties tweaked to give a hint of metal-like reflectivity. You'd probably add a transparent cornea over it to give lights something to reflect off of.

 

 

Ahhh, but of course!

 

There are lots of eyes in the A:M Extras CD, and you don't even have to get the CD; you can just download the stuff. ('sfree!) The complete project for every model is there - wireframe, rigging and all - so you can select the eyes and study how they're made.

 

Really? Download where?

 

 

And you're welcome, Dhar. I've watched it at least a dozen times now. Every time I told myself this would be the last time watching a particular segment, my compulsive hand would click play again, over and over and over again.

[phatso]

http://www.hash.com/freemodels/

[AJS007]

I've read an article somewhere where the describe making an eye by ...

 

1. Create a sphere

2. Copy and paste an identical sphere

3. And now paste a third sphere.

4. Scale sphere 2 so that it just fits inside sphere 1

5. Scale sphere 3 so that it fits inside sphere 2 (a bit like Russian Dolls)

6. One sphere 1, colour it white except for the front facing section that will be transparent with high reflectivity - this gives the light reflection.

7. Sphere 3 is completely black for the Iris.

8. Sphere 2 (the middle sphere) is coloured to match the eye colour i.e. Blue (although this could be a decal) and has the very centre removed to expose the inner Iris.

 

From what I can remember, you can constraint all the spheres for movement and fit a bone / slider to dilate the Iris to provide emotion.

 

I've read so much that I cannot remember where the explanaition came from but I think it was 'Animation:Master 2002: A Complete Guide' (http://www.amazon.com/Animation-Master-Complete-Guide-Graphics/dp/1584502363/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5/104-2582226-2461509?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176292358&sr=8-5)

 

You could 'borrow' an eye from another model, but by creating your own you will be able to add it to all your models knowing how to modify it for each application.

 

Hope this helped.

A.

[AJS007]

From what I can remember, you can constraint all the spheres for movement and fit a bone / slider to dilate the Iris to provide emotion.

I think this bit was confusing ... all the spheres can be attached to a single bone for aiming and the dilate can be managed by scaling the aperture of the middle sphere.

[phatso]

I think you may be getting the concentric spheres thing confused - "A:M, A Complete Guide" features a character called Washer, where an outer sphere is cut in half to form an eyelid. Using an inner sphere for an iris is not nearly as good as a bottomless bowl.

[Dhar]

Here's Colin's tutorial that I think works pretty good.

 

http://www.colins-loft.net/CoopEye.html