How to rig and animate cartoon eyes with Bones in Blender [2.9]

hello everyone it's jen from ulti guru studio in this tutorial we will be learning how to rig and animate cartoon eyes in blender 2.9 this tutorial is using blender 2.9 but you can also follow along with blender 2.83 so let's get on with the tutorial let's start by modeling the eye delete the default cube and add a uv sphere this will be our eye rotate the eye around the x-axis 90 degrees then rename the uv sphere to i in the outliner apply the rotation using control a this needs to be done for rigging torque properly add a new material that we'll call eye and then make the eye totally white tap into edit mode and select the center faces add a new material called pupil and assign a black color to the face [Music] now select the ring of faces around the pupil add a new material call this iris and assign a color to the faces tab into object mode right click on the eye and choose shade smooth add a second uv sphere and this will be turned into our eyelids rotate the eyelids around the x-axis 90 degrees apply the rotation with control a and this needs to be done for the rigging to work properly temporarily hide the eye and rename the sphere to eyelid tap into edit mode in wireframe mode select the top of the eyelids and then separate the selection using p tab in object mode and go back into solid mode rename the top half to eyelid top and rename the bottom half to eyelid bottom add a new material called eyelid and assign a color to the lid select the other eyelid and assign the same color using the drop down menu beside the materials name select an eyelid and add a solidify modifier change the offset value to 1 so the solidify modifier will add thickness to the outside of the lid and change the thickness to the desired value i'm going to use .05 then apply the modifier note that in 2.9 you apply the modifier via the drop down menu beside the render icon and repeat this process for the other eyelid select both eyelids right click and choose shade smooth now we're going to rig the eye for animation so temporarily hide the eyelids and unhide the eye add a single bone and move it in front of the eye and then rename it to i bone r since this will be the right eye select the eye [Music] under the constraints tab add a track to constraint and choose i bone r for the target now notice that the eye is now facing away from the bone we can fix this by using negative y for the track axis and up is z to test that everything is working select the bone and move it to make sure that the eye now follows the bone now unhide the eyelids add a single bone and move it in front of the eye rename it to eyelid bone r now rotate the bone around the x-axis 90 degrees using ctrl a apply the rotation select the top eyelid and add a copy rotation constraint set the target as eyelid bone r to test that this is now working choose the bone and rotate it around the x-axis select the bottom eyelid and add a copy rotation constraint select the target as eyelid bone r now when we rotate notice that both of the eyelids are rotating to solve this problem select the bottom lid and choose invert on the x-axis in the constrain options now select the bone and rotate it around the x-axis and both lids should now be properly rotating we only want the bone to be able to rotate around the x-axis select the bone and open the object data properties under the rotation section lock the y and z axes to prevent any rotation along these axes now test the rotation of the eyelids again and now you notice that rotation can only occur around the x-axis now make sure that you have nothing hidden in wireframe mode duplicate the eye eyelids and the bones and move the duplicates to the right and allow them to intersect for a cartoon look rename the duplicates with underscore l so we can easily tell them apart from the originals now go back into solid mode and test all the bones to make sure everything is still working properly [Music] now we will set up master bones for the eyes and the eyelids so we can control them at the same time add a single bone and place it between the two eye bones scale it up to distinguish it as the controller and rename the bone to eye controller select the two individual bones and shift select the eye controller using control p open the parent menu and choose object now open up the eyelids so you can actually see the eyes select the eye controller and move it around to make sure everything is working properly you can still select the individual eye bones and control the eyes separately [Music] add a single bone and place it between the two eyelid bones now scale it up to distinguish it as the controller and rename the bone to eyelid controller rotate it around the x-axis 90 degrees and apply the rotation select the two individual eyelid bones and shift select the eyelid controller using control p open the parent menu and choose object select the eyelid controller and under the object data properties lock the y and z rotation axes and then rotate the eyelet control around to make sure that everything is working properly and you can still select the individual eyelid bones control the eyelid separately [Music] select all of the bones using m on the keyboard choose new collection and move the bones to a separate collection let's now make a lattice for each eye for deformation purposes to use the lattice tool for animation you will need to have the animation anim all add-on activated in your preferences temporarily hide the bones and the character's left eye add a lattice and scale it to surround the eye and eyelids under the lattices object data properties tab change the interpolation to linear this will give us better control of the lattice when animating and change the resolution which are subdivisions for the lattice to your desired value i'm just changing all mine to five in order to use the lattice to deform the eye and eyelids we need to add a lattice modifier select the eye and add a lattice modifier with the object being lattice repeat this process for both eyelids hide the character's right eye and eyelids and the lattice and unhide the left eye and eyelids then repeat the process of adding a lattice and a lattice modifier for the character's left eye make sure you choose lattice.001 for the object when adding the modifiers [Music] now unhide everything select both of the lattices and tab into edit mode select vertices on both of the lattices and move them just to make sure everything is working into edit mode and unhide the bones and test your bones to make sure everything is working let's now make a very simple eye blink animation let's first animate the lattice we will give the eyes a bit of a quizzical looking animation make sure that you are on the first keyframe and temporarily hide the bones since we won't need them yet select both lattices and tab into edit mode [Music] open the properties inspector with n and open up the animate tab select both lattices and select points since this is what we will be animating now select insert under the animate tab to add keyframes move ahead to frame 30 select both lattices and scale them slightly along the z axis insert keyframes move to frame 45 copy the keyframes from frame 1 and paste them on frame 45 then change the ending frame to 45 let's now animate the eyes and eyelids with the hide the lattices and unhide the bones tab in object mode select the eyelid controller and open the eyelid so we can see the eyes make sure you're on frame one select all of the bones and add keyframes for location and rotation move to frame 25 using the eye controller move the eyes up and to the side add keyframes for location and rotation select the eyelid controller and add keyframes for location and rotation move to frame 35 close the eyelids add keyframes for location and rotation move to frame 45 open the eyelids at keyframes for location and rotation select the eye controller copy the keyframes from frame 1 and paste them on frame 45 [Music] and test your animation let's now render the animation select your default light and change it to an area light duplicate the light and move it to the front of the eyes [Music] and rotate it as desired change the power to 1500 duplicate the second light and move it to the other side along the x-axis rotate it as desired change the power to 2000 now render an image and then make any changes that you desire to the lighting open up the properties inspector and under view check camera to view using zero on the numpad you can look through the camera and make any changes that you desire under the output properties tab make sure that the frame start and end are correct and choose a folder where you want the animation to be saved choose a file format since this is such a short animation i'll be choosing the ffmpeg video with an encoding of mp4 save your file and under the render menu choose render animation if you have a request for a tutorial or question about blender feel free to leave a comment if you're interested in learning more about 3d art and animation don't forget to subscribe and turn on the notification bell thanks for watching

Channel: Jen Abbott Creates

Views: 23,913

Keywords: Blender 2.83, B3D, 3D, Animation, VFX, Game Art, Low-poly, Tutorial, Modeling, 3D Modeling, Animation in Blender, Learning Animation, Lattice, Cartoon, Eyes, Animating Cartoon Eyes, Rigging, Rigging Cartoon Eyes, Character, Rigging a Character

Id: y3Q3oD7A1kM

Length: 23min 29sec (1409 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020