Does anybody actually knows the average size of a human eyeball?
The internet seems to give very consistent answers of about 25 mm horizontal diameter (scientific looking opthamologist reports and so...), for instance:
and:
, but that cannot be, it doesn't even get close, as we can see here:
I also checked my own eyes in front of the mirror with a 25 mm wide piece of paper and they are definitely larger.
(I have been trying to fit 24.7 mm spheres into my (correctly scaled) sculpts and struggled to understand how that should work.)
Other, less official comments you hear is that it's about the size of a golfball, which is about 42 mm in average, or a pingpong ball, which is about 40mm. Now, that looks a lot better, and I am willing to use that, but it would be nice to know if that is accurate.
You got me wondering about this @spikey,
My conclusion is the eyeball isn't as wide as it first appears, because of the shape of the surrounding area and the Lacrimal Caruncle, it is perceived to be much wider.
On closer inspection, I theorise that the eyeball is in fact approximately 24mm.
Looking at the image above of the right eye, with a sphere of 25mm and the image scaled using the ruler and sphere as a guide, the eyeball does indeed appear to be within the maximum size according to the chart.
Keep in mind also the ruler is closer to the camera than the actual eyeball point of measurement.
Now onto dissection of the eyeball. 👀
Thanks @adrian2301I was hoping it would be something like this, but I'm afraid it ain't that simple;
When the eyeball in the photo were about 24mm, then that would mean, that we'd be looking at about half the eyeball and the eyelids would be something like this:
And the fact that the ruler is closer to the camera works against you:
I just noticed that the ruler I drew is actually 2 m, but that is not important, you get the idea...
This thread definitely interests many 3D portraitists. Well over 100 years ago, in pencil sketching, most old-schooled portraitists were taught to always start from the nose as the most central feature of their sitter's face and quickly work their way outwards. Believe it or not, that way is FASTER than starting from the eyes.
Thanks to this thread, I just measured my eye from caruncle till corner. It is around 23mm and I am also far sighted if anyone interested 🤣
Thanks melinmotion the far sightedness has to do with the depth (front to back) of the eyeball if I'm not mistaken, not the width.
If you measure from edge to caruncle, you don't get the whole eyeball, otherwise your eyelid ould cover a half circle (180°) and the tangents of the extremes of the eyelids would be paralel...
Still, I can't imagine all those reports being wrong (unless the eyes have shrunk before they could measure them and they hadn't considered that, but modern methods measure them without first taking them out, with CT for instance, so that can't be it either)), but I find it really hard to wrap eyelids around such small eyeballs....I hink I'll just cheat and make them around 30 mm...that way I can make the eyelids look all right (Anatomic Lex also has Eyeball around that size, so I feel comfortable to do that).