Semi Realistic Eyes (Non 3D)

[toxicdj]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

I saw @Ash's tutorial on making realistic eyes (find it Here) that inspired me to write this tutorial on Semi Realistic eyes. These are great for things like IMVU/Second Life, Blender, Poser, The Sims 2 and any other game/program that calls for a flat image over a 3D one. I pre wrote this so I could get some advice from friends, so, without further ado... My Semi Realistic Eye tutorial...

You will need the following Effects for this tutorial:

 

 

Random Lines

Inside Out

Zoom Blur

Object Align or Align Object

Fragment

Average Blur

 

Here is a finished version of the eye:

 

 

Of course this is only the basic eye. I have no idea how to do shading etc.

Anyway on with the tutorial...

 

Start of with a blank square image. Size doesn't matter, but for this tutorial, I will be using 256px²

 

Choose your first two colors. Keep in mind these are the darkest colors for your iris. I'm going to use #00AE11 and #87AD1F (Copy and paste the HEX codes for these, you will need them later)

 

Go to Effects/Render/Random Lines and set it up like this:

 

Now lighten the colors you are using. I'm going to use #56AD5D and #94AA55

 

Go back to Effects/Render/Random Lines and set it up like this:

 

 

Lighten the colors again. I'm using #80AA82 and #9DA87E

 

Again go to Effects/Render/Random Lines and set it up like this:

 

 

Go back to your original colors and keeping the settings the same this time... do random lines again.

 

Now go to Effects/Distort/Insideout.

 

Your image should now look similar to this:

 

 

Click the magic wand and set it to global. Click the background of your image and then pres Ctrl + I to invert the selection.

 

Go to Effects/Blur/Zoom Blur and set it up like this.

 

 

Create a new layer. This is your pupil.

 

With the circle tool, create the pupil. Make sure that it doesnt dominate the eye, but not too small that it underestimates the eye either.\

 

Go to Effects/Object Align/Align Both to make sure it is centered.

 

It should look something like this now:

 

 

Now go to Effects/Blurs/Fragment and set it up like this:

 

 

Create a new layer. This will be the shine on the eye. You can do shine many ways, but I prefer to use dots. The shine is what adds the realism and life to the eye.

So using a white brush, add some shine around the pupil maybe overlapping onto the iris. Its really up to you.

 

Now go to Effects/Blurs/Average Blur and set it to a radius of 4.

Flatten your image and save.

 

There you go a finished, semi realistic eye.

 

 

From here on in, you can do what you want with it. My eye is a bit dull, so I messed around with curves a bit and am finishing on this:

 

 

Well I hope this tutorial has helped in some way. I remember I used to struggle making eyes like this, and as I fail at painting (Both in real life and digitally) I used to make it with lots of jitter, Polar Inversion and came up with half rate eyes. Now I do this and it is not only easier, but faster once you get the hang of it.

 

You can see other versions of my eyes using the same technique here in my gallery under "Eyes".

Please post your creations underneath in the replies... I would love to see what you have all come up with.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Ego Eram Reputo
Added plugin links. Added PDF link

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I'm impressed! A very nice tutorial.

Thank you.

(your first 'rep' point is well deserved )

[toxicdj]

I'm impressed! A very nice tutorial.

Thank you.

(your first 'rep' point is well deserved )

Thanks Very Much.

I really hope this comes in handy for someone as it will for me

[barbieq25]

I'm impressed! A very nice tutorial.

Thank you.

(your first 'rep' point is well deserved )

I agree! Second 'rep' point given.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Oh and I added some links to the plugins used.

[toxicdj]

Thank you both so much I'm glad you both like it. And thanks for the links... I couldn't remember which came default with PDN or not...

[Aislin]

awesome! This would help me with my SL avi's!

[toxicdj]

awesome! This would help me with my SL avi's!

I'm not too sure how the store on SL works, but you could even make some up and sell them. Thats my plan for IMVU haha...

[toxicdj]

Very clever. Nice touch using Inside Out

... a bit of tweaking and playing and it's potentially totally realistic (But don't quote me on that - I'm not one of the portrait makers )

I'm sure with some tweaking and some patience that you could make it a realistic eye. With eyes realism is all in the shine I think. I'm working on a way to make a more realistic shine to the eye so when I do I'll add it to the tut...

[toxicdj]

A radial gradient helps get a more spherical shape

I enjoyed this tut. I'd never used Random Lines before. Could be wicked for abstracts But for now, I'll keep playing with this tut before entering Aislin's competition

Well I must say yours looks a hell of a lot better than mine, and fixes my shading problem. I didnt even think of using a radial gradient-facepalm. Which steps did you do it on so I can update the tut. I'll credit you with the idea of course xD

[nitenurse79]

This is awesome, great tutorial, and another one to try for myself. I do hope to post some gallery soon, this will inspire me.

[jim100361]

Pretty cool tutorial.

I used the Shape 3D plugin though on the blue:

EDIT:

Tried adding the Shape 3D to the white background as well:

Edited December 5, 2011 by jim100361

[pdnnoob]

EDIT: awww...jim beat me to the shape 3D addition xD

Great tutorial! I revised it to work with shape 3D and used welshie's suggestion Keep up the good work!

Edited December 5, 2011 by pdnnoob

[pdnnoob]

@ 'Noob ... that is fricking awesome my friend. I honestly thought it was real

Well, if you combine great ideas from great artists, things just might work out great too

I actually set my gradient to multiply (white>black radial gradient). That way, I killed two birds with one stone and made some nice shading on the white (ok, I admit it was unintentional...) The colors used in the gradient makes a big difference, and I don't know what colors welshie used, so I didn't get good results from overlay D:

[jim100361]

EDIT: awww...jim beat me to the shape 3D addition xD

Great tutorial! I revised it to work with shape 3D and used welshie's suggestion Keep up the good work!

I may have beat you to posting about using the Shape 3D, but you've nailed it much better than I did!

Great piece.

Also, I think maybe the title of the thread should be changed - delete "(Non 3D)" - lol

Edited December 5, 2011 by jim100361

[toxicdj]

EDIT: awww...jim beat me to the shape 3D addition xD

Great tutorial! I revised it to work with shape 3D and used welshie's suggestion Keep up the good work!

OMG Thats amazing xD

[pdnnoob]

I may have beat you to posting about using the Shape 3D, but you've nailed it much better than I did!

Great piece.

Thanks! All I really did was combine Ash's tutorial with this one and welshie's suggestion, so...great ideas and creditz to all the real brains behind the picture!

OMG Thats amazing xD

only great results from an amazing tutorial

[Ego Eram Reputo]

We had fun with this one Preciousss. It's one of Saurons' eyes!

Tip: You can use Ed Harvey's Vignette to darken the edges of the eye body (if radial blur is tricksy....,)

[iwilleatyou]

One thing you can do to make it 3d is use Bevel Selection at 150. Great tut.

[butterfly8000]

It needs work, but it is my first try!

[AndrewDavid]

Thank you @Pixey for the link.

Here's my run at it.

A few more effects added to make it unique  

Thanks as well to  @toxicdj for the tutorial.

Edited April 27, 2017 by AndrewDavid

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Added PDF link

[Labuurii]

Created an account here only because I wanted an eye tutorial

and this definetly delivered!

[iwasToxicDJ]

Hi guys! So I'm the original poster of this from way way way back when, and firstly, I cant believe that even just a few years ago people were still using this tut! That's kind of amazing!
I honestly just randomly stumbled across this because I saw someone in an art group im in talking about PDN, and I remembered I used to use it. Thought I might have a scroll through the tutorials, and saw this and had memories flash back!
Figured I'd redownload PDN and try out the old tutorial to see if it's stood the test of time, and as you can see from the above pics, and much to my surprise, it really did!
The first one I followed the tutorial exactly to a tee, up to and including the same colours.
Second one I played with some of the settings and did on a 1024x1024 canvas, played around with the colors and curves a bit more and as mentioned on one of the comments from back in the day added a radial gradient to it.
I'm so pleased that this was able to help people out, and that even now it is still being enjoyed.
Have fun everyone, stay safe, and keep creating!