How to combat "dead eyes" syndrome?

[LilithServil]

So, I just recently got an avatar with much tinier irises and pupils (by design) than what I'm used to and I've noticed a bit of an issue... The eyes have such a hollow, soulless look. They barely move, and when they do, it definitely isn't more than the occasional twitch up or down. I don't really notice this with any of my other avatars which all have big, expressive eyes and no need for a ton of movement, but... oof.

 

Does anyone have suggestions to combat the "dead eye" look? I've tried looking for huds in the marketplace that could maybe give a bit of random eye movement akin to the hand animators that were all over the place upon bento becoming a thing, but all I've found are eye posers which aren't quite what I'm looking for. 

 

Speaking of bento, the eyes are rigged I believe, so they don't really respond to the typical random linden eye movement or mouse-follow stuff which... I never realized what a huge difference that'd make as far as liveliness goes until now. xwx

[Lucia Nightfire]

Stephen Miller needs help with this too.

[Maitimo]

We really need to know which head you are using, so we can assist with whatever animation hud is included with it.

[Cinos Field]

I made a custom script to have my eyes move around naturally. The idea is a simple thing that sets a random timer and then rotates the eyes a little, setting a new random timer, while also syncing each motion for both eyes.

Granted that won't work for rigged eyes, but maybe unrigged is an option?

Edited July 12, 2020 by Cinos Field

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I do not have that issue.

[Paul Hexem]

Blink. 

[LilithServil]

On 7/12/2020 at 2:32 AM, Maitimo said:

We really need to know which head you are using, so we can assist with whatever animation hud is included with it.

I don't think this is going to help... It's not a hud issue. There are no animations in the hud for the eyes. It's not a human body, nor is it common. It's also brand new.

It's the new bento Crux from Cerberus. Comparing it to the old outdated sculpty one, ironically the sculpted avatar looks more alive as far as its eye movements despite a lot of other parts lacking.

I decided to upload comparison gifs showing exactly what I mean.

 

The new bento avatar:

https://i.gyazo.com/147bb435f4225d6a0a07ada6e7182bc5.mp4

https://i.gyazo.com/4b8a6153c88398525e1cffca262fb17c.mp4

 

Just staring blankly ahead with very little eye movement. The eyes don't react at all to SL's mouse movements-- they'll react to the free Anypose Expression Hud, which is why I have a feeling an eye animator hud would work, but as Anypose is just a static poser it's not going to be a solution outside of making it look less dead inside for pictures.

 

Here's the super old sculpty for comparison.

https://i.gyazo.com/cbb4c0455335371fb9ab098c4bd19e87.mp4

https://i.gyazo.com/73a99b53a6dc7cba189c1f4765578dab.mp4

 

Note the huge difference-- they don't stare blankly ahead and are scripted to randomly dart around. They don't react to SL's mouse movement either, but make up for it with being animated with scripts (that, afaik, I can't just yoink from them and slip into the new mesh eyes as they're made in totally different ways even if I COULD transplant them). The old iris/pupils are a curved overlay compared to the fully rounded mesh eyes the new bento version has.

 

 

23 hours ago, Cinos Field said:

I made a custom script to have my eyes move around naturally. The idea is a simple thing that sets a random timer and then rotates the eyes a little, setting a new random timer, while also syncing each motion for both eyes.

Granted that won't work for rigged eyes, but maybe unrigged is an option?

The head doesn't come with unrigged eyes, unfortunately, and I'm not sure how easily I'd be able to fit unrigged eyes to it due to the overall weird head and eye socket/eyelid shape. :s I already tried to just hide the irises and slap on the old sculpt ones to no avail as they're shaped differently enough that they don't fit no matter how much I tweak.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, LilithServil said:

It's the new bento Crux from Cerberus. Comparing it to the old outdated sculpty one, ironically the sculpted avatar looks more alive as far as its eye movements despite a lot of other parts lacking.

Did you try contacting a support group for the head, to see how others solved the same problem?

[LilithServil]

9 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Did you try contacting a support group for the head, to see how others solved the same problem?

I don't think it's a problem moreso an oversight regarding the eyes not getting a wider range of animations-- at least to the extent of the old version. x_x  I've sent a notecard and such but decided to post here too for possible solutions if that fails. :s

Edited July 13, 2020 by LilithServil

[Maitimo]

1 hour ago, LilithServil said:

I don't think this is going to help... It's not a hud issue. There are no animations in the hud for the eyes. It's not a human body, nor is it common. It's also brand new.

It's the new bento Crux from Cerberus. Comparing it to the old outdated sculpty one, ironically the sculpted avatar looks more alive as far as its eye movements despite a lot of other parts lacking.

 

It maybe that the head creator has not scripted any eye movement into the product, either deliberately or due to an oversight. You would need to contact the creator themselves to find out if any third-party animations for eye movement would be compatible. As it's not a regular human head, animations made for human eyes may or may nor work at all, or they may work in unexpected ways.

[Lucia Nightfire]

Here's an animesh Crux I asembled last week and added Hellhund eye animations to:

https://gyazo.com/40015a598aa554399e5c3e0ddff7d723

[LilithServil]

9 hours ago, Maitimo said:

It maybe that the head creator has not scripted any eye movement into the product, either deliberately or due to an oversight. You would need to contact the creator themselves to find out if any third-party animations for eye movement would be compatible. As it's not a regular human head, animations made for human eyes may or may nor work at all, or they may work in unexpected ways.

If a free poser hud works fine on the eyes though I'm sure third-party eye animations would work fine? I just haven't seen a single thing like that on the market. If I knew how to script huds I'd just get QAvimator and do it myself at this point lol

 

4 hours ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

Here's an animesh Crux I asembled last week and added Hellhund eye animations to:

https://gyazo.com/40015a598aa554399e5c3e0ddff7d723

Hmmm, that definitely makes it look less dead. Were you just able to rip out the eye script/anims and put them into the eyes/head, or was it a lot more complex than that? I might try something like that later and see if I can edit the eyes to look less wall-eyed as well, because that's been my only gripe with the product.

[Lucia Nightfire]

5 hours ago, LilithServil said:

Were you just able to rip out the eye script/anims and put them into the eyes/head, or was it a lot more complex than that?

I suggest scripting something to cycle whatever eye animations you use.

I don't leave scripts created by other users in my dolls.

[Sukubia Scarmon]

I'd suggest adding a highlight somehow. That'd certainly make them seem a little more alive.