The eyes have it: comprehensive eye control for animated characters

Abstract

Eyes are often the most important feature in a character's performance, conveying emotion, timing and intention as well as hints about what comes next in the story. Stories are driven by characters and audience investment comes from their empathy for those characters. Unless the viewer is making a concerted effort to look elsewhere on screen, they usually concentrate on the eyes of the main character. Therefore, a great amount of effort and time is spent making the eyes of our characters look as expressive as possible. When done improperly, the eyes will make a character look dead and unappealing. Our technology utilized to create our characters' eyes gives artists the flexibility to push the boundaries of their craft; it helps them portray characters that communicate the emotions that a story requires. In order to achieve this we designed a set of techniques that compose our eye pipeline. It has been refined over many years in a continued effort and collaboration among several departments at our studio, from modeling to lighting passing through animation and rigging. It allows animators to follow their expressive style while also providing materials artists and lighters with the necessary input to achieve a realistic look.