Making Eyes

I followed a few different eyeball tutorials in order to create this texture. The eyes I have created are relatively realistic. If I wanted to improve this at all, I would look at rendering some eyelashes along the eyelid as well as perhaps the single hairs along the eyebrows, but since I am keeping this model simple, the painted textures will suffice.

The iris plane is pulled back from the sphere and I have used a ramp to create a gradient of pink to pale yellow to orange. The texture / bump map used is a noise effect. By mapping different sections of the iris I was able to get a harsh ring around the eye. This was created by extruding and pulling back once more. 

As of now, I am very pleased with my model and find that the eyes give far more depth to the character than any of the other elements. I did experiment with a painted texture but found that I struggled to keep the eyeball texture from stretching across the surface of the sphere. Perhaps this is poor UV mapping? The glossy surface of a phong made transparent over the top of the eye has given it a real glassy effect.