How Are Eyes Made in Animated Movies? | Blender Tutorial

[@Cosmic-books]

Unfortunately you move around so much it makes it impossible to figure out what the node set up is.

[@hayleytheron]

I have the same problem

[@Willyu]

you're a great sculptor and modeler, but I can't say the same for a teacher. You were the most complicated teacher I've ever been through, but your work is excellent

[@homspau]

I love to teach, tho, so I'm trying to be better! Writing lessons is one of the things I enjoy most. If you have some specific input on how I could improve I'd really appreciate it.

[@Willyu]

@@homspau I hope I didn't discourage or disrespect you. I would love to learn more from you.

[@wad-cv1yu]

​@homspau my suggestion would be to remake this including the short you made but break it down and explain everything you did step by step. At the end make a slow showing of the node map so that the viewers can see what nodes connect where and their values. Teaching is about helping the student understand how things work. You just show what you did and expect the student to copy it and understand.

[@ThePsycoNinja]

This is great work but hard to follow because you jump around too much. There's nodes added before we've figured out the last part and the pacing is just too off. I find myself rewinding your video several times. Even the short. There are parts I can use the sliders to adjust on my own to get a desired to similar result but most parts it would be much better if you did step by step

[@thatcasual8]

I come at this video like it's a breakdown rather than a step-by-step tutorial. Would a detailed tutorial be helpful? Absolutely. But this gave a very good explanation of how the eye is made to look the way they do in Disney animations. And there's enough that you could probably figure it out if you're somewhat familiar with shader nodes.

[@arseniysemin1361]

Hey Paul, normally for eye specs you don't want to use the approach you showed due to some headaches it introduces (difficulty to art direct in comp being the main one). You have 2 ways to do that: first is to create a gizmo in comp that'll use UV map to project the spec onto eyes, second create aov where one channel going to be spec on left side of the eye and another channel on right side of the eye, then in comp you can use erode to control the size and position left or right. I prefer first method because that it gives way more control, and you can reposition the spec if it gets covered by eyelid, but it's important to have eye uvs sharing the same space and one side to be mirrored.

[@virgilhawkins3390]

Great demonstration of your work, and I did learn some things about eyes and lighting, but not exactly a great *tutorial* of how you got to those points. For instance, I don't know what shaders are getting mixed at 5:08 or what shaders are going into each of those AddShaders. If you were zoomed out a little that might help, or if you panned from the shader you're saying you're mixing to the mix node that might do some good in conveying the information. EDIT: 1) For the Iris reflection setup, you want the (X) from the [Seperate XYZ] to go into the [Add]-[Add]-[Fraction] setup. That goes into value (A) of a [Multiply]. 2) Then the [Color Ramp] that comes off the (Y) of that [Seperate XYZ] goes into another [Color Ramp] which then goes to the value (B) of the above mentioned [Multiply]. 3) [Multiply] goes into value (A) of another [Multiply] and (B) can be used to control intensity. 4) That [Multiply] goes into the (Factor) of a [Mix Shader], where (A) is the [Emission] shader used for the pupil, and (B) is the [Principled BSDF] used for the iris. 5) Add an [Add Shader] node; the [Mix Shader] that mixes the pupil [Emission] and the iris and sclera [Principled BSDF]'s goes into slot (A) slot of the [Add Shader]. The [Mix Shader] we made in the previous step goes into slot (B). 6) Add another [Add Shader] node. The [Mix Shader] from step 4 goes into (A) and the [Add Shader] from the previous step goes into (B). 7) Connect that [Add Shader] to the [Material Output]. This tutorial is also using Cycles. For glass in Eevee, under the render settings turn on Screen Space Reflections, then in that dropdown check Refraction. Then in the material settings scroll to the bottom, set Shadows to None and check Screen Space Refraction. It won't look quite as good as Cycles, but that's at least how to make the glass material work at all in Eevee.

[@homspau]

Thanks for your comment. I see what you say! I try to push more of "teaching art" rather than "teaching tools" because I find it's more relevant. One can't be understood without the other tho. Still finding a balance. This helps! Thanks!

[@virgilhawkins3390]

@@homspau Know what? That's a great outlook - i love that. I had just edited and added in some quick technical details of how to get to where you are at, but I don't want that to come across as criticizing your excellent work or undermining the lesson you're trying to get done here. I can absolutely remove that if you want to keep the focus on the art vs the tool.

[@homspau]

Not at all! I love constructive feedback as yours. Feel free to keep it coming!

[@michelrigaud9552]

Good tutorial ! Clear and easy to follow

[@davidgeuens5236]

I never realized so much work went into eye shading, until now I just assumed they where just lit by the same lights as the rest of the character, thanks for making this video !

[@durururururururu]

your tutorials makes me really want to take learning blender seriously. i love it!

[@homspau]

Thanks for such nice words!

[@annuartv]

AMAZING!! would love a step by step tutorial of this even if it’s 2 hours long haha I always look at eyes in animated movies every minute of it trying to figure out the formula you just went through 😅

[@InLightVFX]

Superb video, Pau! So clear, concise and interesting!

[@homspau]

Thanks Jacob! It means a lot coming from you!!

[@retroeshop1681]

Wow, that last part when you add the window to the eyes specs, really blew my mind, I never saw anyone doing that in Blender, I will definitely use your advices from here on out. Thanks!

[@homspau]

Thank you for your comment!

[@nandinichauhan5165]

Always love to see your content ☺️

[@homspau]

I'm so glad!

[@mustanggox]

YAY i was looking forward to this

[@SerchBarna]

Awesome Pau! ❤

[@homspau]

AIII SERGI! Quina ilu qué estiguis per aquí. Una abraçada!!

[@SerchBarna]

@@homspau L'alegria és saber de tú! Ets un grande Pau!

[@oshit2874]

this is so specific! great video man! subbed

[@homspau]

Thank you! Welcome!

[@JohnMervinChocolateThunder]

This gonna be good

[@homspau]

I sure hope so! It's made with love :)

[@legacylee]

Love this, love when folks like you break down a lot of the ideas, makes it so much easier to grasp, thank you for a fantastic video, eye see you bruh hehe

[@homspau]

Hahaha thanks!

[@happilyeveralien]

Thank you SO much for this! Exactly what I needed! Great video! ^^

[@homspau]

Thank you for the comment! :D

[@thatcasual8]

Dude! Your breakdown videos are amazing. They give awesome insights into the animation process. Idk how you don't have a larger viewer base. Keep it up man!

[@homspau]

Thank you! It means a lot!

[@smepable]

Wow, that was mind blowing

[@homspau]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Fooy.]

I am so lucky to find this video! Great video absolute useful info!

[@homspau]

Good to hear that! :) thanks!

[@ZDB3D]

so useful, been struggling with eyes for a while

[@homspau]

Great to hear that!

[@post_mod]

Great tutorial. There is so much passion here.

[@homspau]

Thank you!

[@emmakniven]

Wow! I really appreciate the great work you put into this extensive tutorial on cartoon eyes! Fantastic!

[@homspau]

Thank you! It means a lot :)

[@felixanr]

Really loved that I found you, I love lighting in art and your videos gonna help me a lot 😊

[@homspau]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@kevineleven131]

Thank you for this information! Such a great tutorial!

[@homspau]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Losjo4093]

The entusiasm and passion in your videos are amazing. You are thr best blender teacher i have ever seen in my 4 years of using blender :D

[@MeinCouch123]

Really great stuff! Definitely going to use the setup you have- so much simpler and looks excellent!

[@homspau]

That's great to hear! Thank you!

[@krissosful]

Clear explanation, thanks a lot👏👏

[@homspau]

Thank you for your comment!,

[@krissosful]

@@homspau My pleasure, you are always welcome to my channel:)

[@zmajacqu1144]

good video but I feel like it would've been a lot easier to understand if you organized your nodes a little and took more time to explain them

[@danilocondori1552]

YOU´RE THE BEST

[@homspau]

Thank you for your comment!

[@MacheteMykeGaming]

It seems I have everything in the right place from what I could gather, and everything is showing up except for the pupil. Is there any reason this maybe happening?

[@homspau]

Maybe you did something different when modeling. Check if the UVs have info on the pupil faces :)

[@thomasbarber1808]

Same problem.

[@fadepanther6224]

A year late to this but it is still a great tutorial... guide... thing? Firstly, using the UVs to make one texture instead of the three that others like to use allows you to save a lot of space digitally. This is an awesome way to build an eye for a human character. Non humans, however, will have a harder time with things as their pupils are not always round. While that node trick with the area light is useful, you can also go into the data info part of the light, (Where you adjust the size and power of the light) and change the shape from a square to a disk. You have a different type of control at this point so, it might not work for what you'll end up going for, but having another option can't really hurt. Gobos. What you built is called a Gobo. Not a correction, just cluing you into something that has been in the filming industry for YEARS. They are not only used in eye tricks but also casting shadows of things that aren't actually there.

[@homspau]

Thanks for the comment! Agree on everything! Appreciate it!

[@McCoyD6]

good job!!

[@P9_STUDIO]

Genial Pau! M'encanta com ho expliques

[@homspau]

Gràcies, crack!

[@jemskid7]

Hello! Nice video, but I would not call it a tutorial. Something to add for the future, whenever you talk about using the shader nodes, is to take a screen shot of the completed shader node map and to try to organize it as best you can so that others can have an easier time replicating what you did. In the video, it's difficult to see what node connects to another and why they work the way they do. So this is just something to look out for in the future. Otherwise, I recommend you build the node map in the video so that others can follow along. In this video, all you did was just sort of show us your completed shader node map and sort of explain what you did. So not really a tutorial. Either way, the eye you made looks cool! Good luck to you and your channel!

[@homspau]

Yeah, still struggling with the format. Thanks for the suggestions, hope it helped a bit :)

[@jemskid7]

@homspau Your video still did help me! My bad for not mentioning it. I just had to pause it several times to get a good idea of what node connected where. 👍

[@solidasstone]

Thank you! can you do a tutorial on how to make eyebrows and hair, and also how to render like you did in the thumbnail render?

[@shupa999]

btw you can just make a circle area light instead of doing it all with shaders

[@homspau]

Yes I know! Elipse area lights have a constant intensity and hard edges too, that's why I always recommend to use this more natural setup. It's very niche, tho! Thanks for mentioning it.

[@poochyboi]

can you show a video on how you make your skin shaders? your characters are the closest to a disney/pixar like character made using blender

[@Aniceghost]

Real.

[@daveSoupy]

why didnt you link the short to model the eye in the card or in the description?

[@homspau]

My mistake! Just forgot. It's added now! Thanks

[@fritzoy]

Nice video and tutorial! Learned a lot, thank you! and I hate math lol 🤣

[@homspau]

Math rocks! Thank you for your comment!

[@h.singular9613]

Pau, I don't know if you are still reading comments here, but after 4 hours of using various masks and ramps attempting to make it work, I am at the edge of my rope, so I will just ask here and hope that you still read the comments: I am trying to do exactly what you did, because I LOVE the way the pupil material looks at the edge of the iris, the caustics, the reflection, the noise ALL OF IT is honestly BEAUTIFUL, the only problem is: I am working with an eye that has a slightly vertical slit, not exactly a line, more of an oval shape, and that is wrecking havoc in my workflow. Simply using the UVs to define where the pupil, iris and sclera begin and end is impossible, since the circular coordinates of the UV do not correspond at all to the Oval-shaped pupil and iris. Do you have a way around this? Is there an obvious solution that I am missing here? I have managed to mask out the pupil area alone, and the iris area alone (thanks to normal vector splits, and generated vectors), but the moment I try to play between em, say like when you added that black ring around the iris, it completely breaks down, I don't know how to approach this problem. Even if you don't respond, thanks for this wonderful tutorial, and I hope to keep seeing more from you.

[@homspau]

Hey! Thanks for the comment! I think I know what you mean. I have done that before and what I found worked was: - Starting with a UV sphere with it's default UVs - Streching the edge rings that will define the iris and pupil to fit the shape that you want - Create a second sphere ans shrink wrap the stretched one to the new one to give it back a sphere shape And then go from there. I hope it helps!

[@h.singular9613]

@@homspau Whoa! Thanks so much for replying! I'll give that a try! I'm guessing you apply the material (and by extension the shaders too) to the second sphere? Because I cannot follow your tutorial with the sphere that has a non-circular iris. Thanks again!

[@harrisonlane9664]

So I'm on the Math node portion and I'm not seeing subsurface color on my BSDF, do you use some add-on or do you have a specific setup? and if so, how would I go about setting it up like yours?

[@coindrop]

Hey, thanks for a great tutorial! Only thing I could not follow is how you isolate the different nodes in the shader view, all I see is the final output of my shader I cant seem to isolate for example the noise or the colorramps to better adjust them isolated..

[@homspau]

Hey! Thanks! This is a feature of the "node wrangler" Addon, included with Blender. I recommend you take a look at it, it's hard to do anything without it!

[@elknight3D]

This was really helpful, I came here from your short on reddit. How would you animate the size of the pupil/iris on this model? like in puss in boots?

[@homspau]

The best way is to do a shape key in the interior model and animate that

[@jamesbourbon5129]

is there any chance we can get a project file ? 🥺🥺

[@homspau]

I'm sorry, I don't have the time to clean the files and replace all the assets that I don't have the rights to share. I'll answer any questions on how it's made, though!

[@mattdub9524]

I AM SO LOST ON THIS NODE SET UP... Can anyone help me? I am confused as to what node connects where, but i am determined lol

[@vincentdesmond1926]

Muy buen video, se le ve esmero. Quizás echo en falta un poco más de duración, porque lo merece con la calidad que has puesto en el video y sabe a poco, pero muy bien de todas maneras. Supongo que puedes haber contemplado un contenido más exhaustivo creando un grupo o Patreon. Aún así el enlace al a Chris Brejon complementa muy bien. Moltes gràcies, Pau!

[@homspau]

Moltes gràcies, Kano!! Vamos intentando mejorar. Tu feedback ayuda!! Ahora por ahora le dedico el tiempo que puedo a YT, que es poco. Igual en un futuro me puedo extender más en Patreon o similares pero ahora no tengo el espacio para ese compromiso. Espero poder ir sacando cosillas interesantes, por eso!

[@vincentdesmond1926]

@@homspau Comprensible. Este tipo de contenido bien explayado bien merece que le saques rédito si te decides a ello. Ánims!

[@anomalyraven]

Just gave this tutorial a try. These tips really brought my character from okay to great - it looks so much more alive now 😄 However, I was struggling a little with making the interior white part of the eye pop more. It looked a little dim despite having shadows turned off for the exterior part. But I found out my caustics reflective and refractive were unchecked in Cycles (using 3.5) and that brought the white value back, so much that I had to turn the value down a little so it didn't look as over exposed.

[@Alvaroken]

My biggest doubt is how to applicate the eyes in the head

[@aimyc]

How does something like this work in a game engine? Im working in ue5 atm

[@nguyenlingforwork]

I was hoping for A->Z tut, not break down. Wish you make it T_T

[@blenderblender792]

So why is your eye rendering so fast? I have an RTX 3070 and I'm always waiting for ever for caustic to render the pupil.

[@homspau]

Two possible explanations: I'm on a 3090 on one side and I'm not using the new caustics algorithm on the other. It's too expensive for the porpuse of this video. Thanks!

[@blenderblender792]

@@homspau Could you please clarify the difference with new and old caustics?

[@homspau]

@@blenderblender792 Sorry, I get how it can get confusing. Caustics is how we refer to shadows from transmissive objects as a natural effect. In CG, there are multiple approximations for calculating them. Blender has two: the imprecise cheap one that's enabled by default (very bad at detailed caustics) and the more precise yet quite expensive new algorithm for shadow caustics we got last year (seen here kzbin.info/www/bejne/pHeWqamidqhrgsk). I mean, in summary, that I'm not calculating the caustics in the exhausting precise manner.

[@shnayil]

how would you go about oval shaped eyes?

[@binyaminbass]

there's probably very little of this that can be baked in order to render in unreal, i bet. am i right?

[@homspau]

Not at all! Baking this into textures should be quite straight forward, specially since you have the UVs already

[@binyaminbass]

@@homspau Yeah, I guess I meant having the ability to adjust the angle of the caustics and the separate reflection and refractions so you can adjust per shot, that won't be available...unless I remake those procedural features in unreal...which is possible...

[@serenaszarmach5488]

I can’t follow along with making the eye on the short, the instruction is way too fast. I was hoping you went over it on this longer video, not to be redirected back to the short, that was the whole issue for me 😭

[@homspau]

Sorry Serena! I was focused on showing only the things you can't find elsewhere, but thanks for the feedback!

[@heromine6124]

Nice result, but it's complicated as it's process, maybe you should slow down a little bit, amd take ot step by step, that way, it would be completely understandable

[@TheConarai]

more of a flex than a tutorial, but thanks

[@tanteemo]

ahh cmon man, i was so excited. ill look elsewhere for now

[@homspau]

Sorry! ;)

[@EvartrF]

BRO JUST SHOW THE NODES

[@mhollis1989]

While you have helped me in modeling the eyeball, your shading tutorial, if it can be called that, is so scattershot and lacking of an actual step by step breakdown, that I cannot find any use for it. If you were to make a step by step breakdown, I would gladly follow it. As it is now, I feel better served elsewhere.

[@Oranggee]

get good with explaining things

[@Dr.Raptor-o8k]

eyes are the weakest visual part in all animated movies unfortunately

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

amazing

[@Pistachio_networks]

Hi.. just subbed to you. Can we get the source file please??🥹

[@homspau]

Sorry, I don't have it set up at the moment. Having extra material is extra work the I don't have the time to do or maintain. But thanks for being here!