O man! madart you are truely a savior, I’ve always wondered how to create the eye shader in photoshop. I’m going to really try to make this sometime this week. Thanks again for this tutorial, I’ll let you know how it goes. 
Realistic Eye in Photoshop
Darktwin
#6
bibiice
#7
thank u so much. i am working my character modeling, u just give me a very useful explanation to solve the eye texture problem.
MSB
#10
thx for the tut
I never like painting the eyes you way is really effecvtive and simple
thx again
madart
#12
Thanks for your comments! 
Yes, you could get better results I’m sure, from painting the eyes manually, but this way is quicker and more efficient, for texture work, I think.
system
#14
Yeah it looks really good and simple also !
I’m gonna try with a face i’m currently building… i’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for this !
madart
#15
HapZungLam and cipher, thanks for your comments!
It would be interesting to see/hear how it goes, for those of you who’d like to tell me!
lehthanis
#21
Very nice…one comment/suggestion though…I took a picture of my own iris and cleaned it up to remove extraneous whatchamacallits and reflections…and I noticed that the iris seems to be made up of strands instead of bigger shapes and blurs…
I know this may be a bit excessive of course, but I also noticed there’s a lighter ring about midway through the iris…other than those small things the tutorial is spot on…any ideas on how to emulate the strands? maybe a sharper radial blur layer with crystallize over it?
SockMonkey
#22
I think this is really helpful, and coincidentally it inadvertantly goes a long way towards answering a Photoshop question I just posted, and I thank you for the insight.
But, I have to disagree with the idea of adding the reflection/highlight to the texture itself, if this is to be used in a 3D program which has it’sown tools for specularity and reflection.
madart
#23
Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
EvilArcana, you’re right, some eyes do have a lighter ring in the middle, but far from all eyes. Most eyes have some variance in colour, some have different colour next to the pupil or different coloured patches or spots.
These changes in colour can easily be achieved by making several different layers of the iris and by using layer masks, mask out areas in the iris and change the colour, with one of the colour adjustment layers.
If you want to show the eye close-up or very hi-res, then I think actually painting in strands in the eye could be a good idea. And to do that on one or two layers. An alternative is naturally to use a photo.
You have to consider how realistic the eye actually have to be, how much detail will be seen. And how much or little time you can spend time working on it.
You can definately try the “crystallize” method and see how that would work out. I don’t have the opportunity to try it out myself at the moment.
SockMonkey, glad I could be of help! Adding the reflection to the texture is optional. It really depends on what you are using it for.
lehthanis
#24
Well, I definitely liked your methods…they’re very hands on as opposed to a frenzy of filters…Good job on that! 
I am now goign to go on a photo reference binge and start snapping pics of peoples eyeballs.
madart
#25
Thank you! For making textures I’m all for using some filters mixed with handpainted layers, as long as it’s used carefully. A texture is not a painting and often you have to work quite quick.
The photo you had taken of your eye and edited looked very good! Thanks for posting it! Good luck on your eye photography!