Creating oversized eyes

[dersutton]

I've been playing around with a new style of character design (manga) but I'm running into some technical challenges when it comes to oversized eyes.   I've attached two examples to illustrate the matter.

The front facing image shows very large and full eyes.  The profile image shows that the eyeball is rather flat and not protruding out of the eye socket.  

I have used various sized spheres but they don't fit well and they always stick too far out of the socket.  I would like to ask those with this form of modeling experience what is the best way to create this style of eye as seen in these illustrations so that they also be animated to rotate.  I think I may be overlooking something obvious so rather than wasting more time with tests I thought I'd post this question here for creative input.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

  

 

 

[JabbaTheNut]

@dersutton 

Using a regular sphere to illustrate the method, you could use the following approach:

1.  Create a sphere

2.  Add a Lattice deformer to the sphere (image Step2)

3.  Select the Lattice.  In Lattice Point mode, select all lattice points and scale the Lattice until the sphere is your desired flatness (image Step3)

4.  Go to object mode.  Select your sphere and rotate it like you would rotate a normal round eye (image Step4)

What you will notice is that the eye rotates as though it were round.  However, it maintains the flat shape you need for the manga face.

Hope this helps.

[hamsterHamster]

Even simpler.. Assuming your character is facing +Z direction, place the eye to the origin, parent it under a locator, position+rotate the locator to socket, scale it down Z-axis. You can parent the locator to the head joint, and aimConstrain the eyeball to another locator and - boom! - the eye is rigged.

[dersutton]

Hi Jabba

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'll play with the setup today and see what happens for me. 

[dersutton]

Hi Hamster.

Thanks for commenting.    The rigging of the eyes has never been a problem.  My issue is dealing with the oversized eyes and placement inside the geometry so they look.... normal and not bug eyes.  🙂

Thanks again. 

[JabbaTheNut]

@dersutton 

Here is another, very simple method using groups instead of a lattice deformer.  The tutorial was done by JL Mussi.  He has a lot of very useful Maya tutorials.

Maya Character Modeling Tutorial: Stylized Eyes 

In a nutshell, the eye is placed inside a group.  The group is then scaled to the appropriate flatness.  Inside the group, you can rotate the eye as though it were round.

I believe this is the method @hamsterHamster was describing, but with a locator instead of a group.  In that example @hamsterHamster scales the main locator to the appropriate flatness and uses an aim constraint on the eye inside the main locator.  The aim constraint rotates the eye inside the main locator as though it were round.

Any of the above three methods (i.e., lattice deformer, locator or group) should work well for you.

[dersutton]

Sorry for the late reply.  I didn't know if I already sent you a message.

Yes, I'm familiar with this video.  Personally I don't like it because I want my eyes to be a part of the actual head geometry.

Thanks again.

[JabbaTheNut]

Hi @dersutton ,

For clarification...

The key part of that tutorial to which I wanted to draw your attention was the use of a group around your eye sphere.  Here is the process:

1.  Create your eye sphere

2.  Enclose it in a group

3.  Select the group and scale accordingly (i.e., flatten the scale)

4.  Select your eye sphere and rotate as needed

What you will find is that the scale flattening occurs on the group containing your eye sphere.  The eye sphere will rotate as though it were round.

The other stuff in the tutorial really doesn't apply to your situation.  This method is simply an alternative to the lattice approach I outlined in my first post.

[dersutton]

Yes, I noticed that. I received replies from others with suggestions that apply to my technical issue and I believe I have found the solution I'm looking for. I suppose much of this is based on trial and error.

Thanks again for your input and video reference. Nothing is wasted.