Eyeball Theory

Traditionally, eyes are rendered with the iris concave(inset). This allows for the jewel effect you get when light is shined in one direction you see more light on the opposite side of the iris. Giving a sense of depth.


And any casual close observation of the eye viewed from the side shows that the Cornea bends the view of the iris out, giving a unique effect that adds depth realism and identification to the rendered eye.



I wanted to see if I could trick a 3D model of an eye into the same effect without any dynamic lighting.



I was able to using a simple raytrace object for the cornea to bend the view of the iris to give that interesting effect. For the reflection I tried my best to give a sense of the seneray and of course the tell tale all important highlight. Which interestingly is just a texture and not dynamic. It took a while to get that to work properly but I think it adds something unique that most people wouldn't go to and a feel that hearkens to video game nostaligia without explicitly duplicating the video game rendering methods.

Hope you think it looks cool!