How to Build a Fleshy Eyelid Setup in Maya Using MEL Expressions

One of the simpliest rigging feature to implement for facial animation is to have a fleshy eyelid set-up. Normally, you will have a separate control for eyelid and eyes. This means you can have specific area of effect.

But you can also stack on it. Have a separate controls and also a have a small influence as the eyes move the eyelid also moves.

This gives a more lifelike result at little to no cost.

You can do it through the node set-up or also through expressions. You can see a sample below.

// Fleshy Eye Automation
// Adjust multipliers to tune the tracking strength (e.g., 0.2 = 20% tracking)

// Upper Eyelid Tracking
eyelid_upper_main_C0_ik_cns.rotateX = eye_C0_eye_jnt.rotateX * 0.2;
eyelid_upper_main_C0_ik_cns.rotateY = eye_C0_eye_jnt.rotateY * 0.1;

// Lower Eyelid Tracking
eyelid_lower_main_C0_ik_cns.rotateX = eye_C0_eye_jnt.rotateX * 0.1;
eyelid_lower_main_C0_ik_cns.rotateY = eye_C0_eye_jnt.rotateY * 0.05;