Getting eyes right in Studio means two different things: pointing them where you want, and making sure the shader they use actually renders correctly. This guide covers both, from aiming and animating a gaze to fixing black or lifeless-looking eyes with the Deep Dive shader.
1. Point the gaze with the Line of Sight guide object
Every character in Studio has a Line of Sight guide object, a small draggable marker that sits in front of the face and defines where the eyes aim. Select the character, open the guide object list, and find the Line of Sight guide alongside the usual head and neck guides.
Drag it left, right, up, or down to redirect the gaze. Because it’s a normal guide object, you can also nudge it with the standard move handles once selected, which is more precise than dragging by eye.
- The guide moves independently of head rotation, so a character can look sideways with just the eyes while the head stays forward, or you can combine both for a natural glance.
- If the eyes seem to ignore the guide, double check you have the correct character selected. Guide objects are per-character and easy to grab the wrong one in a crowded scene.
2. Animate the gaze over time
To make a character’s eyes shift focus during a shot instead of sitting fixed, select the Line of Sight guide object and add it to Timeline like any other object. Keyframe its position (the Guide Object Position interpolable) at the points where the gaze should change, and Timeline interpolates the movement between them.
This is the simplest way to animate a look away, a glance toward the camera, or a slow idle drift. It uses only the standard guide object, no extra gimmick items required.
3. Track a moving target with Hijack Look
A keyframed gaze covers a fixed path, but if you want a character’s eyes to follow another character or an object that is itself moving, use the Hijack Look gimmick instead.
- Select the actor in the workspace, then open its Item+ tab, the extra options tab marked with a blue orb icon.
- Add the Hijack Look gimmick from that panel.
- Parent the gimmick to the target you want the character to track, whether that’s another character’s head or a prop moving along its own path.
Once parented, the eyes update every frame to face the target, so there’s no need to hand-keyframe the gaze at all.
Fixing broken-looking eyes
Modern eye textures, especially anything built for Hanmen’s Next-Gen or Deep Dive shaders, render wrong if the eye material is still set to an older or mismatched shader. Common symptoms:
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Eyes render solid black | Usually the eyeshadow material’s shader, change that in Material Editor (or the eye shader if the iris texture itself looks broken) |
| Dark veil or shadow over the eyes | Switch the eyeshadow shader specifically, separate from the eye shader |
| Iris has no glow, looks flat | Deep Dive shader, then raise EmissionPupil (see below) |
| Reflections missing or washed out | Deep Dive shader, then check reflection probe intensity |
Open Material Editor, go to the character’s head, and find the eye entries. Set the eye material to one of the Deep Dive shader options, Deep Dive Advanced, Vanilla Compat, or EyeDeepDive, depending on which matches the texture the eyes were built for. If eyes still render black after that, check the eyeshadow material separately. It uses its own shader slot and is a common cause of black-looking eyes even when the eye shader itself is set correctly.
Fine-tune Deep Dive eyes
Once the eye material is on a Deep Dive shader, a few sliders shape the final look:
- ScleraVeins Color: controls the visible veins in the white of the eye. Lighten it for subtler, less bloodshot veins.
- EmissionPupil: drives the glow at the center of the eye. Raise it for a brighter, more alive-looking pupil.
- Iris color and shine: set separately from the sclera, these control the coloured ring and its highlight.
Adjust these gradually and preview in the Studio viewport rather than the Material Editor thumbnail, since eye shaders read very differently under scene lighting. If skin tone and eye color both look off after loading a card, the same install and lighting causes often overlap with the steps in fixing skin tone shader issues.
Add a tear or crying effect
The tear toggle lives in the same tab you use to switch a character’s clothing between on, half, and off. Open that tab and scroll down until you reach the tear option, then enable it to add a crying effect to the eyes.
Eye overlays not showing
If you apply a custom iris or eye overlay and nothing changes, the character’s head type may be the cause. Some head types block eye overlays from rendering entirely, no matter how the overlay itself is set up. Switch the character to a different facial or head type to confirm; if the overlay appears there, that points to an incompatible head type rather than a broken texture.
Aiming an eye direction correctly and keeping the shader clean go hand in hand: a well-placed Line of Sight guide means nothing if the eyes render black, and a perfect Deep Dive setup means nothing if the gaze points the wrong way. Once both are dialed in, see Material Editor essentials for the rest of a character’s shader setup.