I'm planning out some animated characters that will use toon-style eyes, something new for me. I was looking at numerous pics of the M&M characters as a study and can't figure out if the eyes are kept simple as an almost flat eye or, if they have intricate eye sockets. I'm used to creating stylized characters with eye sockets and multi-part eyeballs, but my new characters have a flat face and don't necessarily need all that work, especially topology surrounding the eye for the eyelids and sockets. Characters like the M&M ones look like they just have the eyes and lids sitting on the surface, or slightly buried in it. That would be a lot quicker to create and rig. Is just planting those parts onto the surface a common method for simple characters. or am I looking at problems down the road when animating?
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$\begingroup$ for the eye orbits it looks like flatten spheres simply put on the surface of the head. As for the eyelid I guess it would be good to see a video sequence where he closes his eyes $\endgroup$– moonbootsCommented Mar 25 at 9:50
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$\begingroup$ That's where it gets fuzzy. The one above is the "newer" characters. You can see the eyelid looks very defined all the way around. When I watch clips, some make you say "definitely a separate item planted on", then you see a different character where the demarcation between the lid and skull is smoother, makes you think they went through the trouble of modeling the topology of the eyelid in with the head but, for most examples, they seem to be a separate item that is placed on, actually set in just a little, to give that sharper line around the eyelid. $\endgroup$– Path11 MediaCommented Mar 25 at 13:00
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1 Answer
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In Cycles you could use an Input > Bevel node that you plug into the Normal input of the Principled BSDF. It creates a visual welding between the head and the eyelid (that are actually 2 different meshes within the same object):
Wireframe:
Rigged:
With shapekeys:
Screenshot from this ad:
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$\begingroup$ That looks a lot like what they are doing. I was just looking to keep it simple like that rather than do all the facial topology loops when they weren't really that important. The mouth I of course, had to work the topology loops because it gets so much work for expression but the eyes can really be a lot more simplified in the toon style. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 14:30
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$\begingroup$ See my edit, you can probably do it with 2 half spheres and 2 bones $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 14:50
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$\begingroup$ Yah, as simple as they are either a couple bones or just shape keys would work. The mouth would be more complicated, but I think characters like this draw their expression from the face moving at the mouth, a toons eyes are always pretty simple. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 15:13
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$\begingroup$ Yah, as simple as they are either a couple bones or just shape keys would work. The mouth would be more complicated, but I think characters like this draw their expression from the face moving at the mouth, a toons eyes are always pretty simple. The characters I am creating are kitchen cabinets so I need to keep the eyes flatter because I want the doors to occasionally be opened, just swing out then swing back. Blender's character eyes from "Fright Night" have the flat toon look but are actually large orbs flattened by a lattice yet are still too big so I was studying options. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 15:22
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$\begingroup$ yes you could use Lattice but I think you can probably do it with a simpler solution $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 25 at 15:33