How do you sculpt eyes?

[Deleted User]

I feel immensely stupid for asking this. I think I'm learning in reverse and knowing less about 3d every day.

But I'm trying to sculpt realistic human eyes and it's just not working. I don't get it. I don't know what goes on in that area or something. Is there a proportional or structural rule to follow to build them correctly? I tried putting spheres in for the eyes and trying to sculpt the lids around that, but I keep ending up with either horrendous bug eyes or featureless smoothness, and I can't figure out how to fix it. Sometimes I think it looks okay, but then the eyeballs themselves are off-center.

How big is the eyeball itself supposed to be in relation to the rest of the face and how far back does it sit inside the eye cavity? How far across the orb do the lids/openings go? Where does the inner corner fall in relation to the outer corner, depthwise? Is it supposed to be level or does it go in or out from the other one? And for that matter, where's the other one supposed to be in relation to the sides of the face?

I'm pretty much clueless about that whole region and I can't find anything that explains it in 3d, only guides for drawing it from the front or the side. I don't get what's happening in between.

Eric Chadwick

Have you been studying anatomy?

Maybe this will help, it's in 3D...
http://www.visiblebody.com/

Jaco

Have you taken a look at Digital David? It's a 3d scan of Michelangelo's David, very useful.

To answer some of your questions, the sides of the eyeball roughly line up with the corners of the eye, should give you an idea of size.
The tearduct corner sits deeper than the outer corner, depth varies from person to person.

I'd recommend getting some good artistic anatomy books too, I've got [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Human-Anatomy-Artist-Galaxy/dp/0195030958"]Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist[/ame], which has some illustrations showing how the eyeball relates to the eye.

Also look at your own eye (hehe), and poke it with your finger to get an idea of where the eyeball sits. Notice how the eyeball isn't just a sphere, but has a noticeable bulge where the cornea is. You should also be able to get an idea of how deep the eye sits within the eye socket doing this.

pior

Also, dont try to get it perfect the first time. It seems like you have much practice in front of you (in 2D mostly. This problem really isnt about 3D or modeling at all). It will take time, so just get started now and stick to it!

Mark Dygert

Dave King has some speed modeling tutorials that start with the eye, some good techniques that set you up for pretty good edge/loop flow as well as making sure skin around the eye meets up with the eyeball.

But mostly like pior said it just takes time and practice.

[Deleted User]

Cool, thanks guys.