Or two. Or as many a you like. The only rules for this challenge is that it includes at least one blinking eye. And since I learned so much from you guys explaining what you did, please do the same again (how many key frames, what special tools were used, etc).

OK, here's what I came up with. Turns out I was off on the hierarchy I posted before; if you child the eyelid to the eye, then you can't rotating the eye without rotating the eyelid. What worked better was a variation on Geek's "Pac Man" technique, I parented the eye and top lid to another EyeLid object that functions as the back of the eye. I also ended up using more than 3 keyframes, but I think if I understand how the tweener controls worked better, I would have done it with fewer keyframes. Anyway, these are me experiementing with slow and fast blinks, with different pupil sizes. According to the book I'm reading, fast blinks are supposed to make a character look more intelligent and alert. Slow blinks make a charcter look dumber or sleepier. The book also suggested that slow blinks work better if the pupil moves down with the eyelid. Also according to the book, the larger the pupil the more friendly and open a character looks, while smaller pupils make the character seem more detatched. Dunno. What do you think?

I think you did excellent work getting your eyes to blink. The comments you made concerning getting characters to look more simple or smarter with the speed is probably correct but I don't know if you should move the pupils down so much (half as much might be better). Also, how did you make the pupils? Did you apply a texture or did you put a black disk on the eyes? I'm going to have to see if I can actually try this challenge and get something that doesn't look completely stupid. Yours looks great!

Ok, I tried it. I did this animation sort of slowly so you can see the bottom lid closing a little bitand see the pupil move a little bit. Does this represent some of what your book talks about?

Attached Link: http://www.tonywhite.net

Kixum, nice eye! Though I'm starting to feel like I'm being watched. To answer your questions. I'm still learning about textures, so the pupil is a separate object; it's a sphere that's been squished (a lot) in the y-direction. A disk would probably work, too. I just made sure the hotpoint/center was at the radius of the eyeball. I made the pupil a separate object, in case I wanted to animate separately, like make animate a size change that doesn't affect the rest of the eye. The book (The Animator's Workbook, by Tony White; turns out he has a web page, see above link) only uses the top lid for blinks, although both lids for squinting. Of course, this book is about drawn animation, so I'm still trying to figure out which "rules" apply to 3D. But, testing on my own eye, it does seem like the bottom lid does not move much, if at all, for a blink (I need to start keeping a mirror on my desk; I'm getting tired of sticking my finger in my eye to see what it's doing). --Terri

Here's mine. I rarely get online during the weekends, so I'm a bit late turning my homework in.... This is a character I've been working on learning IK -- I'd built him with movable eyelids, so this wasn't too hard to do.... Three key frames for the upper and lower lids; one open, one closed, then one open again. The iris is a shader, by the way; used Eric Winemiller's slope function to create the change between white and blue. Change the slope, the iris gets bigger or smaller. Terri -- I think the smaller the pupils on your little eyes, the more worried he looks. Very cute....

He's cute! The bow tie cracked me up! You even did a head turn, which is gonna be the next challenge. So I guess now you are ahead, instead of late, you sneaky devil! Just curious... have you experimented at all with animating the iris? You might be able to create a funny cartoonish effect where your creature sees something that worries him, and his iris constricts. I'd be curious to see what that would look like, hint hint (subtle, ain't I?). Hmm... just had another thought, does the technique work with 3 colors? And does the pattern have to be circular (is there a way to offset it)? I'm thinking of cats eyes, being adjustable from vertical slits to round pupils that almost fill the iris. I think what the book said about drawing 2D pupils applies to 3D; yours and Kixum's eyes seem friendlier looking than the ones I did. By the way: Fair warning, guys. I checked out a bunch of books about cartooning from the library this weekend, so now I'll be really dangerous. More questions, more challenges, more demands for you guys to partake in my fiendish experiments, heh heh heh. --Terri