NEWBIE CHALLENGE RETURNS ! #3 Eyes

[Moochie]

NEWBIE CHALLENGE #3 EYES

Time to resurrect the Newbie Challenge, methinks. Thanks go to aminuts and Adreseloy for all their previous work, and their on-going help and support. Cheers guys.

There will be a fresh challenge every couple of weeks or so. But it won’t be an aimless meander through the tool palette. Oh no. We, my fellow newbs, are going to teach ourselves the techniques and skills required to create a realistic human head. Or fail miserably. Probably the latter but hey .. I’m prepared to let you die trying!

The Eye
Eyes are pretty easy, quick to make and any good ones can be usefully stored away for future projects. I’ve attached a zip file with a three-part set of eye tutorials. Unzip the txt file into your ZScripts folder and load it from within ZBrush 2. The Play buttons will appear at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes ZScripts don’t show all the actions clearly, so I’ll put a few notes below.

The Challenge
Make one (or more) human eyes. Post renders in this thread. Tell us how you did it, if you use a different technique. Feel free to post Zscripts or the finished tool, if you like. No pressure. In the next challenge, we’ll be placing eyes into heads, whilst keeping everything editable!
Tutorial 1. We’ll just colour in some of the polygons using the ‘Colorize Mesh’ option. It’s a handy technique to learn, though pretty rough. The ending isn’t very clear .. after painting the mesh, I select the pupil (hiding the rest of the mesh) and mask it (Mask All .. this just masks visible parts). I then make everything visible again (Ctrl+Shift+Click away from the model). Then I apply a small Noise deformation (which doesn’t affect the masked pupil). Finally I remove the mask from the pupil (Masking > Clear).

Tutorial 2. I use Projection Master and one of the default textures applied with the roller brush. The script doesn’t make it clear when I’m in Projection Master (PM) .. but whenever I’m applying a texture to the eye, I am in PM. Trust me.

You’ll notice the texture gets darker rather than lighter, when I use the Highlighter brush. To do this, hold down the Alt key whilst using the highlighter. Notice, in this script and the third one, how painting over the edge of the eyeball results in streaks and marks.

Tutorial 3. We make our own iris texture first. This is a brilliant opportunity to experiment with the 2D and 2.5D tools. Projection Master isn’t used for this. The texture is made seamless by moving it. On most keyboards, just hold down the tilde (~/#) key and drag. I have a UK keyboard .. on mine it’s the ‘at’ (@/’) key. Use the GrabDoc button in the Texture palette to add it to your texture list.

I made all the pupils and irises over large, so things are easier to see. In human eyes, the iris diameter is between 33%-50% of the eyeball diameter.

Good luck! No prizes, just kudos and learnin’.

[Blaine91555]

Perfect timing. I'm about as newbie as you can get. I'm working on my first head and I'm ready for eyes. Thanks for the tut's.

[Moochie]

Since I'm a relative newb myself, I'm going to participate in the challenges. If that's ok with you. I found the original Newb challenges really helpful when aminuts and Andreseloy were posting them.

Anyway, here's a go at eyes, taking rather more care than in the tutorials. I made the iris texture with some really weird combinations of tools and materials, plus some extra work in PM. Spending a bit of extra time on the blood vessels is definitely worth it (used a pen rather than a mouse for that part).
eyeblueZBC.jpg

[THRAWN]

Colors look good... however... the texture should 'radiate,' for lack of a better word... from the pupil into the iris. Take a look at your own eyes, and pay close attention. Try to accomplish what you see...

[Mahlikus The Black]

Oh my I haven't done this is years!
Though I would show you all how I do it though this is more of me trying to remember then anything else.

eyeball.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('17446','eyeball.jpg',1,0))

[Moochie]

Oh cool .. hey everyone .. meet MtB. This guy creates the most amazing art work, so pay very special attention. Yay!

Thanks to Thrawn and Blaine91555 for feedback.

And since it's always a good idea to have some photographic resources (Thrawn made a good point .. we all know what eyes look like, but it's a revelation when you actually really look at them .. I mean really look) : I done a bit of net hoovering for us.
eye_examples.jpg

[THRAWN]

Be sure to include some 'impurities.'

Everything will look great! And far more realistic too!

[volk23]

perfect, wanted to learn this, thanks

[saltapiedras]

Excelentes tutoriales. Gracias Moochie.:tu:

[mathieu77]

Guys You Are Just Mak***304;ng My Day. Thanks

[Mentat7]

I love making eyes. Recently I created some custom eye alphas. I used them in this image utilizing Projection Master. A little tweaking and rotating and it's easy enough to get a nice amount of variation. Two materials are used here. One for the eyeball and one for the cornea/retina/pupil area. I'll will see if I can't get my eye alphas to a manageable file size that will still hold the detail and then I will post them.
Eyes.jpg

OK Let's try these. I converted the alphas to JPG files and the detail retention seems to be ok.

Pupil.jpg Iris.jpg Cornea.jpg Outer-Shadow.jpg

[Mahlikus The Black]

Very cool Lonnie!
Me likes alot. Especially the double material usage!

Made another script. Tried to apply the variants.
Pupil is too tny but stuff like that can be fixed easy enough.

eyeball2.jpg (javascript:zb_insimg('17469','eyeball2.jpg',1,0))

[aminuts]

cool Mentat7,

am wondering if you have tried an environmental render and how well reflections show up. am gonna have to play with it but was just wondering.

cool challenge Moochie....rock on!

[dzip]

tut.jpg iris3.jpg

The iris I'm posting below is a small file - not much rez - but it still gives an idea.

[MattHHH]

Beatiful eyes!!!

See you soon.HHH:cool:

[Moochie]

Way to go, everyone! Some fantastic resources being posted here. Thank you!

[lemonnado]

I'm still working on that one. I plan to animate it 8-)
eye.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:zb_insimg%28%2717477%27,%27eye.jpg%27,1,0%29)
LemonNado

[andreseloy]

Thanks Moochie
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8500/moochie7zw.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Andreseloy

[Suzana]

Excellent idea lemonado.
I am curious about the animation.
Best luck.

[Ping's Fine Art]

Here's a memorial render to one of my lost iris maps.
I spent hours to paint, and this render is all I have as a prove.
eye.jpg

[lemonnado]

Thanks Suzana! I plan a mechanical iris 'blinking' and the eye randomly searching around while emiting typical bzzz bzzzz sounds :D. Relatively simple. Just have to start on it again. Also more electronic parts on the circuit board would make it look a little bit more interesting. And maybe a tad more structure instead of a plain green surface. A weekend project....
Maybe I redo the whole eye with the fantastic alpha's provided here.
There we go.... a new project.... hahaha

LemonNado


PS:Sad thing to loose an iris ;-).

[Moochie]

That's real nice, Ping's Fine Art. Can I call you Ping? In fact, it looks fabulous.

I've got stuff hidden all over my hard drives too. My folder structure always seems totally logical right up to the moment I try to find something. Always a surprise lurking round every corner.
I heaped praise on Lemonnado's ID card first time I saw it in an earlier challenge. So this time it gets a nod and an appreciatory "Yup .. still looking good". :lol:

[dzip]

I love your render Ping. Excellent.Too bad the original is AWOL.
Lemonato - maybe you could call it "Eye-Contact" !!

When do we start a similar thread with other organs? (just kidding)

[Sebcesoir]

How did u obtained this rectangular specular?

Is it painted?
Nice rendering...

[cosmic*f00l*]

ahhhh logical folder structures if they are anything like mine moochie mensa would have a job finding stuff cuz i sure as hell can't :rolleyes:

[Moochie]

When do we start a similar thread with other organs? (just kidding)Soon, actually. We're going to do 'adding eyes to a head and creating nice fitting eyelids' in the next challenge, followed by (not nec in this order) low poly heads, nose and lips, ears, teeth and tongue, neck and shoulder 'landmarks' (muscles and bones), pores and skin imperfections, skin textures and shaders, and hair. And anything else we need to create a final bust. Eeeek .. what have I let myself in for?

Heh heh .. cool animation, Andreseloy! Thank YOU, and sorry for ruining your ZScript interface.

[dzip]

Excellent Moochie! Any way you can get the other threads running alongside this one? I'm eager to learn. And this is turning out gems.

[Blaine91555]

Hi all,

First off, Moochie, my wife wants me to let you know you are evil:) I spent the entire afternoon and evening at work on this instead of working. Your veins are great! I have not tackled that yet.

I started out with with Pixolators "Quick Eyez" and found it was just not enough detail or realism for me. Then I did a crop and fill of the texture and pulled out the Wacom. With some experiments I found a series of strokes that gave fairly good results. Then I painted out the seam in Projection Master with the clone brush. All in all a great exercise. Forced me to learn how to use many of the painting tools and how to work with textures. I'm including a desaturated version as it shows the strokes better I think. I think with a little practice the iris's could be quite quick to produce. What I need now is to figure out how to make the eye in multiple parts and add a lens etc..
first eye color.jpg
first eye bw.jpg

[aminuts]

Some really great eyes being created here....very cool!



Hey MTB ...what size doc were you using when you created your scripts? They aren't working too well for me whether I initialize or not. Most of your work appears to be being done "off camera" so its kinda hard to follow. Any heads up will be great.

I'd like to make a suggestion for anyone who is thinking about creating a script to share in a newbie thread......and that would be to create it in the default Zbrush canvas mode. That way folks with various computer set ups as some may not be able to work with docs above 1600 or something and if we all do things the same way we know they will work for everyone. Or maybe mention what your doc size is so we can match it or know in advance....either way .....just a thought.

[LeeJay]

Well, I got ZBrush a few days ago and have done little else but play with it obsessively. It's an outstanding program and I am loving it totally. I've spent an inordinate amount of time browsing ZBC and I am amazed at the wealth of info available here. I've been playing at eyes since yesterday so this challenge couldn't have come at a better time. So I might as well jump in and start participating, although I am a little intimidated by the collective amount of talent on display around here. ;) Thanks. Moochie, for the challenge and the script. My green eyes (Sure hope I'm posting this right!):

GEyeF.jpg
GEyeS.jpg

[Rachael]

hey hey, Good tuit. Pretty quick tho, kind of hard to follow. would have been a bit lost without the forum writeup. Here is my 'evil' red eye. EYE.JPG

mmm, I haven't got the hang of rendering yet. Can anyone give me any tips on that?

[Moochie]

Blaine91555 .. your wife is correct. I am evil wicked dude. Your eyes rock .. blood vessels are easy, but take a bit of patience. You made a great start.

Rachael .. in the ZScript palette you can click on 'Show Actions' before you load the script, as well as 'Repeat Delay' and increase the delay setting in the slider below that. That slows everything down a touch. You could also click '& Notes', but you'll get sick of hitting Enter to clear the notes after a while!

Rendering is a big ol' subject in itself, but the following settings give predictably good results: default settings plus Blur 15% (in Antialiasing sub palette), SoftZ, SoftRGB and Shadows all on, make sure you're in AAHalf mode (rather than full screen) and render Best. You did good .. the eye is very nice. Good to see a new face taking part.

aminuts .. yeh .. good points about zscripts. Thanks.

[el-d]

nice eyes.

Was thinking, painting eyes can take a bit of time and all in all look pretty similar bar the colour variation and a few marks.

So, is it possible to record a script creating the eye, but at appropriate times in the process allow for colour selection? This way I can find the process I'm happy with, record it and then create colour variations rapidly. A few extra paint strokes at the end for added variation and , voila!

Just a thought .... and should possibly be posted in the script bit where the zsc guru's live ;-)

El-d

[Moochie]

You can always export your texture to PS, change it, and import it back. Or even change it in ZB itself (Texture > Fill Layer). You may get some odd things happening, though .. I sometimes find white toyplastic can turn grey when the texture is spread out. I'm probably missing a setting somewhere.

Not sure you can interrupt a ZScript to make alterations on the fly, only for it to recommence. The script dudes are certainly the ones to ask.

[Blaine91555]

Moochie,
I was having the same problem with the white. Everytime I did a crop and fill everything, not just the white turned darker (greyer). I realized it was the diffuse setting. Set it to 100% diffuse and that seems to solve the problem for me.

[Frenchy Pilou]

...make your script on 640/480 canvas for the poor Demo users ;)
Pilou

[Moochie]

That would be a 2.0 demo user would it, Frenchy?! Heh heh .. do you like your new toy? Good point, though. I hear and will obey.

Well spotted Blaine (insert numbers here). I'll go give that a try. Cheers!

[Moochie]

Ooo .. I didn't spot LeeJay's post on the previous page. That's a great green eye! Cool. And your first post too. Welcome to the madness! :p

[cosmic*f00l*]

lil addition to the peepers page :)http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/7461/replacment3ms.jpg

[Moochie]

Heh heh .. Love it, Cosmic! :tu:

[Blaine91555]

More eyeseye2.jpg

[Blaine91555]

I'm trying to make a 2 part eye with a transparent cornea for more realism. I can't seem to work it out. How can I get a transparent part as part of multimarker tool?

[aminuts]

hey blaine

try a search on KenB.....he did a tutorial somewhere on a two part eye but I don't have the link on this computer. Cant remember exactly how he did it so am not postive it will answer your question here or not but might give you some ideas anyway.

[Moochie]

Great looking eyes! Good stuff.

There's a good thread here http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=10263

Check out posts 3 and 6 in particular.

[Blaine91555]

Thanks aminuts and Moochie

[Blaine91555]

I seem to be the only one left. Oh well. I thought I'd try a real iris to see how it looked. Since the eyes are so important, I think the effort to put together a set of realistic eyes is worth it.
real eye post1.jpg
Thanks for the tutorial links about the multiple part eyes. I cant seem to get the steps to work for me though. The MM tool is quite hard to figure out when using it between layers. The tut's I found seem to assume more knowledge than I have and are not of much help. I wish more of the tut's were all inclusive and step by step.

[Moochie]

Beautiful eye! Don't worry, these threads soon run out of steam. That's not because folk aren't interested, but because ZB is right on the cutting edge and most of the regulars here are driven to invent and create (you've probably noticed!). And many are involved in loads of different projects (I'm up to my neck in stuff at the moment). Sometimes ZB Central can seem really quiet .. in reality it's anything but. You're making fantastic progress because you're doing what's right for you. Just keep going .. I'll join you once I've cleared my personal decks somewhat. Next challenge (adding eyes to a head and making tight fitting eyelids) is probably going to appear this weekend. I'll have to think of a more snappy title though!

[Blaine91555]

Moochie,
Thanks for the reply. Not to worry, I was not complaining. I tend to take everything to the extreme. When I start out to create something, I never think what I've done is good enough.
About the name for the new challenge, how about - "You have the perfect eyes, now what?"

[aminuts]

ummm Blaine....can I have my eye back?

thought i was looking at my eye in a mirror there for a second. but mine isn't quite that bloodshot hahaha well in a few hours it will be i reckon.


keep going!

[pete330]

finally got a chance to crack open the zb2 demo. figured this was a good place to start. zb is so cool!

if anyone cares... i did this in projection master. basically flat color on the iris then hand draw white strokes. added some (darker) color around the edge then used the highlight and shade enhancer brushes.

thanks for the script moochie - helped me figure out grouping and selecting and such really fast...

and oops forgot to say great work to all the participants - they all look cool!

peteseye.jpg

[pete330]

ok so i'm addicted! just another attempt using the same technique but this time using several layers of colors instead of just white. i'm posting the iris too. have at it as you will or not...

peteseye2.jpg
iris.jpg

[Blaine91555]

Looks great Pete330. Especialy the second one. A lot of great eyes and techniques on this thread.:tu:

[pete330]

thanks blaine! these are fun. zb is so cool...

[Moochie]

Very cool eyes, pete330! And thanks for sharing the iris .. it looks very realistic!

[pete330]

thanks moochie! this was fun and for an ultra noob like me, a great way to start learning. thanks for posting the challenge and the tuts...

[Blaine91555]

Hi everyone,
One final eye and a couple of textures.
eyeblue1.jpg
eyeblue1tex.jpg
eyebrown1tex.jpg
Just right click and save. Best quality I could do at this file size. Use 3d sphere tool. Set Tool>Initialize>HDivide to at least 256 and VDivide to at least 128 and import the texture. Then use the ToyPlastic material.

[Moochie]

Most excellent! Hope to see you in the next challenge. Pun intended.

[pete330]

lol moochie! great job blaine!

[cosmic*f00l*]

mooch that was awful :lol:

[bpmufx]

Blaine is right about the Ken Brilliant tut, regarding the mutipart Eye. Even Ken can't remember how he did it now. So if someone can crack the code between materials and layers it would be helpful.
Two thing that's missing from all the techniques where the iris is painted on ball surface is the way light hits the iris-its lighter on bottom hemispher than upper. The second is regarding a cornial bulge-this lends to realism by deforming the upper lid slightly.
Just some thoughts that have made a difference when making eyes in the world of Animatronics.

[bpmufx]

OK so I got to thinking that the light on the bottom half of iris can be cheated within the texture map. In Photoshop a layer of faded black set to multiply or hard light, running down the middle of the image, but only over the iris art, is used.
Although it isn't obvious, the eye has a cornial bulge, and what is shown is the way the light hits the eye, tending to be oblong toward center of pupil.
When posing the eye, this will help with realism.

Picture 2.jpg Picture 1.jpg

[Moochie]

Hey bmpufx .. cool experiment! Looks damn fine too. I think you could be on to something there. :tu: