On Project Imp we had these awesome looking wizards that we affectionately call tall boys. They are goofy weirdos that fling spells. You can get a sense of this from their animations but it's the eyes that really sell them. Not to mention when looking at the concept art it's one of the first things people notice along with their tall hats.
I like the eye tool not for what it does but for how it was made. Going into it I wanted to get my hands dirty making some procedural eyes in UE4 that we could plaster everywhere and anywhere! However, I didn't have a clear understanding of what the team wanted and decided on earlier. I came on to Project Imp late after my first capstone team cut itself. The task itself was a good exercise in communication and I hope it's an experience I can take with me to other projects.
It took some leg work but I eventually found out what the eye tool needed to do (the problem I needed to solve). Animation wanted something they could modify in engine using anim notifies. The art lead wanted to bring the same magic from the concept art into the game. Finally the character artist really wanted to see his little tall boys with eyes after so much time had passed. Considering all the factors I'm glad I took the time to talk to everyone!
The solution was simpler than I originally expected and worked for the animator and the art lead so I think it was a job well done! What I did was have a black box the animator interacts with that drives a material attached to two planes on the tall boys. The animator selects the right enum for what they want. The material for the eye is taking a sprite sheet of every eye the lead artist drew and displays the one the animator wants. This is all kicked off with a custom anim notify so the eyes can be modified for each animation.