Carl - Part II - Eyes

The next obvious stage to go from the mouth is the other feature(s) located on the main body - The eyes.

To begin with, I worked in a simple brow to help facilitate the emotions (Seen as Carl lacks eyebrows, which are amazing helpers when it comes to showing emotion). I quite simply pulled out a band of vertices above where the eyes were going to go, and pulled them down slightly so they folded over his forehead. Next step was to push a few grooves in slightly to ready the mesh for the eye sockets.

Then, much in the same fashion as the mouth, I punched a few holes into the mesh. Due to the size of the eyes, I didn't have enough polygons to work with to cut diagonals in (Like I did with the mouth) - so simply cut out the squares and moved the vertices around to create a circular shape. Also, I did not cap the final hole after adding in the inner edges (As I obviously need the eyelids to have a gap for the eyes!)

This was the state of the eye sockets when smoothed. There isn't much in the way of pnching, so a good result.

Whoa! What happened there!? This part of the mesh was needed for the eyelids, so they obviously had to be pulled out. The next step was to start re-shaping the holes in the centre to create a realistic home for the eyeballs (In their present state, they were far too small for a pair of cartoony eyes!)

That looks a lot better, if somewhat sinister. But the eyelids were taking stronger form at this point.

At this point, it was helpful to get a guide for the fine-tuning of the eyelids. The eyes were simply a pair of perfect spheres, and set into place. The finishing touches of the eyelids were then moulded around the eyeballs, so as not to leave any gaps.

After adding the pupils, I couldn't help but notice that the eyes were too narrow for Carl. They lacked the wide-cartoony charm. So the final step was the pull the eyelids back up, leaving the eyes open as wide as possible. As I just finished opening one eye and about to start on the other, I caught this wonderful picture. One way or another, I am determined to work this expression into the final video!

With both eyes now fully open, I was left with a somewhat shocked-looking Carl. Brilliant! As I upped the iterations on the turboSmooth, I couldn't help but notice a few bumps and notches, so before moving on, it seemed a good idea to clean up a few of the edges (The most notable one, visible here, is the inner corner of the right eye)

And this is the finished (and much smoother) set of eyes for Carl. I also had a quick play around with the 'Morpher' tool before moving on... and found that I was able to make the eyelids open and close cleanly, thus clearing one of the potential problems nice and early.