Question: Modelling: Cartoon Style Eyeballs

[miabe]

have a look in the manual on how to use aim constraints and deformers. forget the the bones, you should be fine with the lattice and aim constraints to locators for the eyes.
have fun :) mia

[miabe]

I forgot the animation part: make clusters of your lattice point and animat these or copy the deformed eyes as blendshape tagets. again, check for detailed description in the online manual. good luck :) mia

[Gelfling]

from the doc's

Setting constraint options

To set constraint options:

If you want to create an aim constraint now, select one or more objects. The last object selected will be the constrained object.
Select Constrain > Aim .
The Aim Constraint Options window is displayed.

Set the constraint options:
Weight

Specifies how much the orientation of the constrained object can be influenced by the target object(s). Use slider to select values from 0.0000 to 10.0000. Default is 1.0000.

Aim Vector

Specifies the direction of the aim vector relative to the constrained object's local space. The aim vector will point at the target point, forcing the constrained object to orient itself accordingly. The default specifies that the object's local rotation positive X-axis aligns with the aim vector to point at the target point (1.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000).

Up Vector

Specifies the direction of the up vector relative to the constrained object's local space. The default specifies that the object's local rotation positive Y-axis will align with the up vector. In turn, by default, the up vector will try to align with the world up vector. Further, by default, the world up vector will point in the direction of the world space's positive Y-axis (0.0000, 1.0000, 0.0000).

If you define the up vector to point in the same direction as the aim vector, the constrained object will be motion history dependent. For more information, see Motion history dependence effects.

World Up Vector

Specifies the direction of the world up vector relative to the scene's world space. Because Maya's world space is "Y-up" by default, the default world up vector points in the direction of the world space's positive Y-axis (0.0000, 1.0000, 0.0000).

Constraint Operation

Specifies whether to add or remove target objects. Click Add Targets to add targets, or Remove Targets to remove targets. Add Targets is the default because creating the constraint involves adding target objects.

Click Add/Remove to create an aim constraint (assuming Add Targets is on).
or

Click Save to save the constraint options.
or

Click Reset to reset to the default constraint options.
or

Click Close to close the Aim Constraint Options window.

__________

Setting creation options

To set creation options:

If you also want to create a lattice deformer now, select one or more deformable objects.
Select Deform > Create Lattice > .
The Lattice Options window is displayed.

Click the Basic and Advanced tabs to set the creation options:
Basic

Divisions

Specifies the structure of the lattice in the lattice's local STU space. (STU space provides a special coordinate system for specifying the structure of lattices.)

You can specify the lattice's structure in terms of S, T, and U divisions. When you specify the divisions, you also indirectly specify the number of lattice points in the lattice, because the lattice points are located where the divisions meet on the lattice's exterior. The greater the number of divisions, the greater the lattice point resolution.

Though your control over the deformation increases with the number of lattice points, the performance may be affected.

The default settings are S has 2 divisions, T has 5 divisions, and U has 2 divisions, which provides 20 lattice points.

Local Mode

Specifies whether each lattice point can influence only the deformable object's points that are nearby (local), or can influence all the deformable object's points. Check on or off (default is on). If on, you can specify Local Divisions.

Local Divisions

Specifies the extent of each lattice point's local influence in terms of the lattice's local STU space. (Only available if Local Mode is on.) The default settings are S has 2 divisions, T has 2 divisions, and U has 2 divisions. With the default setting, each lattice point can only influence the deformable object's points that are at most two divisions away (in S, T, or U) from the lattice point.

Positioning

Specifies whether the lattice is centered around the selected deformable object(s), or positioned at the workspace origin.

Typically you would want the lattice centered around the object(s) so that you can create deformation effects right after you create the deformer. However, you might want the object to be initially free of the lattice's influence, deforming only when it moves into the base lattice's space. For example, you might develop a ghost (the deformable object) that could squeeze through a keyhole-shaped influence lattice and then pop out on the other side, resuming its original shape.

Check on to center the lattice; check off to put the lattice at workspace origin. Default is on.

Grouping

Specifies whether to group the influence lattice and base lattice together. Grouping the influence lattice and base lattice enables you to transform (move, rotate, or scale) the two together. Check on or off. Default is off: the influence lattice and base lattice are not grouped by default.

Parenting

Specifies whether to parent the lattice to the selected deformable object(s) upon deformer creation. Parenting them enables you to transform (move, rotate, or scale) them together. Check on or off. Default is off.

Freeze Mode

Specifies whether to freeze the lattice deformation mapping. If frozen (checked on), components of objects being deformed that are inside the influence lattice remain fixed inside the lattice and affected only by the influence lattice, even if you transform (move, rotate, or scale) the object or the base lattice. For more information, see Freezing the lattice deformation mapping. Check on or off. Default is off.

[Grgeon]

Or maybe these will help...

http://www.digital-tutors.com/digital_tutors/maya/index_neex.htm

Click on Part 2, Building the eyes.

Or text tutorial

http://www.jawa9000.com/technical/eyes/eyes.htm

Hope these help,
George

[FordPrefect]

Thanks everybody! That is soo easy.

[MauiMallard]

Anybody know of a way to make a cartoony eye like the ones shown but so that the pupils wouldn't deform as you moved the eye around. As it is now if you use a locator to change where the character's looking the pupil deforms due to the eyes geometry. I'm trying to find a way I could have a uniform pupil move across an eggshapped eye.

[MosaFacku]

Anybody know of a way to make a cartoony eye like the ones shown but so that the pupils wouldn't deform as you moved the eye around. As it is now if you use a locator to change where the character's looking the pupil deforms due to the eyes geometry. I'm trying to find a way I could have a uniform pupil move across an eggshapped eye.

i've been wondering about this as well...

any ideas?

[MauiMallard]

I've been told 3DS and Lightwave have a real easy way to do it. I guess you can basically set an object as sticky, for instance an eye, then another object would be able to move across it without leaving the surface. So in other words I could model a pupil stick it to an eye and just move it around and it would float across the surface. Unfortunately I haven't found anyway to emulate that in maya.

[MosaFacku]

in maya, you can do that with a geometry constraint. the object will stick to another object without leaving the object's surface. if you also normal constrain the object, the object stuck to the surface will also rotate to face the direction of the normals of the surface its geo constrained to.

make sense?

i've been trying to do a concave pupil / iris as opposed to making the pupil another object on the eye, so i'm still outta luck. ah well, guess thats what the weekend is for ;)

[MauiMallard]

Wow thanks. That worked perfectly. Now only one more problem. I kind of forget, it's been a while since i've done this. But with the old sphere eye and ramp method you could make a locator for the eyes to follow. I'm having trouble getting this to work under this method. I think it's because the normal constrain makes a connection in the xyz rotate channels. But there has to be a way around it i'm guessing.

[MauiMallard]

never mind. I got it to work. I changed my puple to a poly sphere instead of nurbs and it worked. Not sure if that's what fixed it but it works. Thanks again.

[MosaFacku]

thats wierd. shoulda worked with the nurbs sphere...

for the old sphere eye and ramp method, you just do an aim constraint right? the normal constraint shouldn't mess with the rotation channels because its the pupil's rotation channels that get controlled, not the eye's channels. for example:

when you set up the pupil to the eye, you first click the eye, then the pupil, then click geo constraint. next, click the eye, then pupil, and normal constraint. for the eye to follow the locator, click the locator first, then the eye. and it should work...

if you do the aim constraint with the eye like that, the pupil won't follow the locator unless you make the pupil a child of the eye, so it follows the eye's rotations....but then, you don't need to do the geo or normal constraints....:surprised

hope that helps.

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