Transferring the eyeball rotation to the eyelids

This is a really simple trick that can add a lot of life to the facial expressions of an animated model, making the eyelids follow some of the movement of the eyeballs.

Getting ready

Following on from the previous recipes, open the Gidiosaurus_limits.blend file:

1. If not already selected, select the Armature and enter Pose Mode.
2. In the Object Data window, go to the Skeleton subpanel and enable the 30th bone layer, to show the deforming bones.
3. In the Display subpanel, switch the bones' drawing mode from Wire to Octahedral:
   

   The Skeleton subpanel with the bone layers

How to do it…

Now zoom to the character's head and continue with the following steps:

1. Select the eyelid_upper.L bone and go to the Bone Constraints window; assign a Copy Rotation constraint.
2. In the Target field, select the rig item, and in the Bone field, select the eye.L bone item. Set Space = Pose Space to Pose Space.
3. Set the Influence slider value to 0.300.
4. Select the eyelid_bottom.L bone and Shift-select the eyelid_upper.L bone, then press Ctrl + C | Copy Bone Constraint.
5. Select the eyelid_upper.R bone and repeat the procedure but with eye.R as the target bone; copy the constraint to the eyelid_bottom.R bone:
   

   The eyelids slightly following the eye movements

6. Save the file.