Before we begin this week's topic there are a few things I want to point out. One is that I think that it is important to try and do these without t-planes or image planes. That way you can train your eyes to make visual measurements. Also I think that when we crit other people's work, it's important, no matter how corny it feels, to address the parts by name. that way you will learn the names very quickly.

I did this very fast because I'm a bit overwhelmed this week and I didn't get a chance to double check my facts, so if you see something wrong, please don't be afraid to say so. At some point before we get into the body, I will go over naming conventions for those of you who are interested in that.

The eye socket, eye, and it's surrounding muscles are called the orbital process.

Bones around the eye.
The skull is made up of several bones that fit together. They are fitted together with immovable joints called soutures. The eye socket also called the orbital cavity is made up of seven bones. Three of them, the frontal bone, the maxilla, and the zygomatic are going to be our main focus since they are very prominent and have a huge amount of influence on how we look. The fourth bone we will look at is actually a set of 2 bones (the nasal bones), and they are connected to the maxilla and the frontal bone.





The anatomy of the Orbital Process
1. Maxilla – The maxilla is like a frontal face plate. It starts at the inner bottom of the orbital cavity and goes down to the teeth. The Maxilla is an important landmark. Where the maxilla ends and the soft tissue begins, there is a very definite plane change. This is very important to the definition of the face.

2. Zygomatic bone- The zygomatic bone along with the *temporal fossa define the lower temples and the cheekbones. On the inside it defines the lower outside corner of the eye socket.. *We'll cover the temporal fossa when we do the scull.

3. Frontal bone- this defines the forehead.

4.Superciliary arches- these are arched curves in the frontal bone where the brow is. They are much more prominent in men then woman and are exaggerated in prehistoric man. There is a small valley or shallow groove on top of them as the frontal bone becomes the forehead. They become more prominent toward the center of the brow and are joined in the middle by the glabella.

5. Supraorbital foramen- A little notch the upper medial (center) corner of the orbital socket. (not well indicated in this picture)

6.Glabella-Glabella is the elevated area between the eyebrows and above the nasal bones. It joines the superciliary arches.

7. Nasal bones- These bones join with the maxilla with the frontal bones. The bridge of the nose is where the frontal and nasal bones meet. We'll talk more about it when we talk about the nose.

8.The orbital cavity is the eyesocket.


Muscles and tendons-
Though the muscles of the orbital process are mostly flat and not immeditely obvious, their effect is obvious. So we will be talking about that. Muscles connect to the bones via tendons which don't stretch. When the muscles of the face contract, the skin develops wrinkles or folds perpendicular to the action of the muscles.


Pay attention to where the muscles attach and to what. We'll talk more about this when we talk about the body, but it's good to know because then you know which way the physical bulk of the muscles move when they contract and it also helps when you are trying to give your figures a sense of muscles being affected by gravity.




1.Orbicularis oculi-Wide flat muscle that encircles the eye. Circular muscles are called sphincter muscles. The orbiculus oculi sort of provides a cap over the orbital cavity starts at the eyelids and extends just beyond the mouth of the orbital cavity. It's action is to close the eyes and to make squinting type gestures. On the outside of the eyes, the orbiculus oculi sort of weaves into itself and forms a raphe.

1a. Raphe- The orbicularis oculi weaves into itself here and usually creates a level change that looks like the upper lid is ove the lower on the sides. On top it weaves into the frontalis muscles.

2. Palpebral ligament- interupts the fibers of the orbiculus oculi and anchors the inside corner of the eye to the bone.



3. Frontalis- This is the muscle of the forehead. It doesn't attach to bone, it just weaves into the orbiclus oculi. It is responsible for pulling your brow up. this cause the wrinkles in your forehead.



4. Procerus - Procerus attaches where the nasal bones and the cartilage of the nose meet, and weaves up into the frontalis. It's job is to pull the brow down. When it does this it causes wrinkles on the top of your nose.

5.Corrugator- Corrugator is a small cone shaped muscle. It connects to the frontal bone just above the glabella on the imedial end (inside endl), and it weaves through the frontalis on the lateral end (outside end) and connects to the skin. This muscle is responsible for pulling your eyebrows together when you frown are angry. when in action you get vertical wrinkles atop your nose.

6. Levator labii alaeque nasi - it blends into the orbiculus oculi on the nose side and runs down the side of the nose. We'll talk more about this one when we get to the nose. It's action is up.



continued_>

>_continued

Now we're going to talk about the actual eye itself. At some pointt be getting into the actual construction of the eyeball and the way it's affected by light. Meanwhile there are tons of resources on that do a great job of that. Alex Alvarez from Gnomon has a great eye tutorial that covers this really well. http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials.html


1. Eyeball- the eyeball is roughly about an inch in diameter and lines up pretty evenly with the opening of the eyelids. The eye grows most in the first month of life and then gradually slows down until puberty. After puberty, the eyeball stays about that size for the rest of one's life. There is a cushion of fat around the eyeball for protection. That is why the eyes seem to sink in when someone has extremely low body fat.

1a. Sclera- The whites of the eye

1b. Cornea- the cornea is raised and projects from the eyeball like a little dome. It affects the shape of the eyelids. And the shape can be seen moving when the eye moves and it is especially pronounced when the eye is closed. Many artists don't take the cornea into consideration when they are sculpting the eye. The angle of the orbital cavity is slightly down and slightly facing out. This is to allow humans to see down and to aid periferal vision to the side.

1c. Iris- The flat disc behind the cornea

1d. Pupil- the black hole.

2. Orbital cavity- The eys stick out just a little over the mouth of the orbital cavity. The orbital cavity starts out roundish and gets squarer as you grow older. it's rounder in a woman than in a man and rounder in asian people then in white. And rounder in white than in Black peopls, generally speaking.

3. Eyelids- It's important to remember that the eyelids have thickness to them and that they pretty much take the shape of the eyeball and the cornea. The upper eye lid is thicker than the lower, sometimes twice as thick. They are similar on the inside.The edges of the eyelids are flat except for about one-sixth of them on the inside corner. See picture. Usually, but not always the inside corner (called the medial canthus), is lower than the lateral canthus (outside corner). This is so that the tears can drain into the tear ducts.

4. Caruncle- it's a small nodule in the medial chanthus (inside corner)

5. Plica semilunaris - this is a half moon shaped piece of membrane. Prehistorically, it was a third eyelid that closed sideways for protection. (that's for you animorphers

6. Eyelashes- They usually come out in rows of 2 and 3. (Please let me know if you need me to clarify this)

7. Eye fold Follows the line of the top rim of the orbital cavity.






(here is one for you guys into creatures and animorphers) The plica semilunaris in a human and same thing in a chicken!








That's it for now. Keep an eye out on for some updates to this thread. The eyes are arguably the most important part of the body and there are still a few things I would like to discuss when I get the time to put some examples together.

Meanwhile, happy sculpting and/ or drawing, can't wait to see what you guys do on this one
*photos are from http://www.3d.sk

Great to see this running, very cool idea. Everyone can use the practice.

Will repost the eye that I posted on the other forum, and I think I'll do an ear soon too.

Another quick one. Instead modeling only the orbital process I made a whole head:




OMG. This one looks a lot like my mother. I just realized it

whoo hoo---nice place ya got here mookie! think i'll be posting some eyeballs pretty soon---ears too. did a couple in zbrush with the help of your references. makes life much easier...

I've moved the coloseups from Mudbox.com (You wanted to point out a mistake which a lot of artists do, Ricky)

Allright, here's my go at it.

Hi I think I got the auto reply working now.

Please let me know if you are having problems getting the notifications to your posts

Ricky

You guys are awesome! great work.

I have a few crits. I apologize this week, I really wanted to pull out some real world examples and make some notes on your sculpts but I have ton of deadlines ahead of me so I couldn't do that this week. If there is anything I'm not clear on in the crits below, please let me know and I will try to clarify it

maph- beautiful job for a quick sculpt.
It's very important to do as many quick sculpts like this as you can. Don't worry about perfection just do them.

I love the way you can feel the bones underneath the skin. especially the way you handled the outer edge of orbital socket where the frontal bone is. That is absolutely lovely.
You have also done a very nice handling of the maxilla edge of the orbital socket as well.

the palpebral ligament is nicely delineated as well. In fact you've done a very good job on the medial canthus (inside corner of the eye), I would just slightly indicate or bring out the plica semilunaris. because it seems that it would be very visible in these eyes.

I like the way you've depicted the raphe in the skin of the lateral canthus (outer corner of the eye) Just remember that this doesn't always happen. Many artist love to put this in though myself included and that's fine. but look at the reference and you'll see how often it doesn't happen.

Also looks like the eyeballs are too far out making the rim of the eyelids too uneven. I would look at that.

Don't be afraid to turn off asymmetry at some point. Other than that this is a very nice study.


slovo-
This is a very expressive sculpt! I love it and I like your painterly style. It's very expressive.

It's beautiful the way you have the corrugator muscles working and you can really feel the tension. Remember that the corrugator pulls your eyebrows in towards each other (medially, toward the center). This gives the vertical folds that you have depicted very nicely. But, they don't bring the brow down, this is done by the procerus which connects at the bottom of the nasal bones and goes up to weave into the frontalis muscle. The procerus pulls your brow down into the position you have it. This would create a little more of a furrowing at the bridge of the nose (horizontal wrinkles). Especially on a person this old.

I like the way you've attempt to show the bones of the eye socket, but I think the shape is a little wrong. take a look at your reference again.

I'm glad you came in close on this screen grab. There is a pet peeve that I have with many 3d sculpts I see. I thought you had done it too, but I'm happy to see in the close-up that you haven't done it. But I'll talk about it anyway. The peeve I have is that many artist make the eyelids rounded. They aren't round, the edge of the eyelids are flat. Many times when you look at photographs that aren't close-ups, edge of the eyelids seem to be rounded but this is an illusion caused by subsurface scattering. When you come in on the eye you will see that the rim of the eyelids are flat as you have done. Bravo.

Can't wait to see the next one.

twebb
Another beautiful and expressive sculpt. I love the way that you have exagerated the palpebral ligament. It really brings out the emotion.

My only crit at the moment is the with the upper rim of the eye socket. I believe you are confusing (I mean this artistically), the muscles of the frontalis with the socket of the frontal bone at the supercilliary arch. Remember that the muscle moves when you grimace but the bone remains in it's postion. So even though the eyebrows are coming down in the middle, the under lying bone of the of the upper rim of the eye socket is still angled slightly upward.

Also remember that the over hanging skin is being pulled down by gravity so it would be hanging and would probably not be so fitted to the eye. I have seen this happen, but never so much. It more usually hangs down a little more. Look at the references.


vlad_-This is absolutely beautiful The sculpt is gorgeous. I love your style and your handling of form is wonderful.

Since this is the orbital process thread I only will only crit that. I realize that this is a quick sculpt so I won't address the slight lumpiness of the eyelids. I know that it is only because you did this quickly. But I do want to make a very important point that many people miss when they do the eyes. And that is that the upper eyelid is always thicker than the lower eyelid. The reason for this is because the lower eyelid is stationery. It has very little movement while the upper eyelid muscles (orbicularis oculi) is constantly opening and closing the eye. As a result it gets built up. This is something that is very hard to notice because of the angle of the upper eyelids and the eyelashes, but it is very important. I've seen the upper eyelid be sometimes more than twice as thick as the bottom. Take a look at a friend's eye (or go bother your wife ) from up close and you will see this. I mention this because in the position of the eyes in your sculpt, you can clearly see that you've made the upper eyelids thinner.

Also, you've done a fantastic job on the lower opening of the orbital process. I really feel the maxilla and the zygomatic bones underneath the skin. Bravo on that. But I don't feel the rim of the frontal bone on the top of the eye socket.

Actually I sort of do, but the form is not clear. I can see that you've tried to indicate this, but imho, i think that you should revisit this area and give this some clarity. I think that 15 minutes of work will bring you great results. I think that in your case it's more obvious to me because your handling of form is usually very clear.

Congratulations on all your sculpts, can't wait to see what you guys do next week when we do the nose.

Thanks for the crit! - i'll do one today hopefully if I get some free time at work

Thanks mookiemu, I sometimes had to go back a page to see what on earth you were talking about, but hey; that's how you learn.

Anyway, appreciate the crits. I will adress them as soon as I can, since I'm kinda busy this week, and I seriously would love to do some more quick sculpts.

Thanks for your comments and crits Ricky. Great points I will take them in consideration when doing the next one. Promisse.

edit. Actually I am gonna fix this one before moving to the next one.

I think this one is so good, that it would be worth fixing it

sorry about that, in the future I will mark them out

imho, a series of quick sculpts is just as beneficial as sitting down and working one out. I can't wait to see your quick sculpts

No need to mark them out. It makes me do some research, which is good.

Making a batch of quick sculpts is indeed a good idea, but I generally feel bad about leaving something like that unfinished in terms of anatomy.
Anyway, did a few pencil sketches of the eye during lunch break. Might post these later though.

I do have a question concerning the palpebral ligament though. I'm not sure about this, but does the palpebral ligament tend to stand perfectly horizontal in relation to the eyeball when connecting the nasal area. Or does this tend to create a bit of a ledge towards the nasal bones?

Palpebral ligament-
One thing I wanna do is explain the difference between a ligament and a tendon (I'll go into more detail later in the conventions and terminology section), basically, a tendon attaches muscle to bone and a ligament serves to hold things together kind of like a string tied around a bunch of sticks.

So with that knowledge I can better explain the palpebral ligament as it concerns us. First of all there are two palpebral ligaments for each eye. The medial palpebral ligament which connects behind the top of the maxilla as I've shown in the picture.
There is the lateral palpebral ligament that connects on the outside to the zygomatic bone. We won't concern ourselves with the lateral palpebral ligament because it is buried under the raphe caused by the interweaving muscles of the orbicularis oculi and we don't see it.

Being that these are ligaments, their function is to hold things together. In this case they provide an anchor for the eyeball to keep it in place, and from falling out. The medial palpebral ligament
connects on one side as shown, just behind the top of the maxilla, and on the other side it splits into two and connects to the tarsal plates which is a very dense plate of tissue in the eyelids.This makes a band that also helps to hold your eyeball in place.

So to answer your question, depending the individual, the palpebral ligament is sometimes horizontal and sometimes points slightly downward from the canthus (corner of the eye) to the nose.

see pictures.



I hope this helps

A lot, thanks.

Great info and good crits for me. I'll do another one I think very soon. This forum is already a great resource, keep it up.

some more progress :

Very cool, the nose seems too narrow and square-sided though in the bottom half, but I won't say that because this is an eye thread. So, I can't say much about the eyes they look good to me. It looks like you have highlights on the eyelid conveying the shape of the eye asymmetrically due to her looking right (like this http://www.rickymujica.com/post/anatomy ... OfEyes.jpg ) but its hard to tell since its so small a part. Nice work either way.