Wednesday, January 15th, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

These simple free tools convert Maya shaders to Blender


VFX artist Robert Rioux has released a pair of open-source add-ons for converting a key Maya shader for use in Blender.

When exporting assets from Maya to Blender, the tools automatically convert the aiStandardSurface shader to Blender’s Principled BSDF shader.

Convert one of Maya’s key shaders to its closest Blender equivalent
The tools resolve an issue that Rioux – previously CG supervisor at VFX facility Real by Fake, who also runs the Blender Bob YouTube channel – says has been “bothering me for a long time”.

They convert one of Maya’s key shaders – the aiStandardSurface shader in the Arnold renderer, included with a default installation of Maya – to its closest Blender equivalent, reducing manual work when adapting assets developed in Maya for use in the open-source 3D software.

When exporting an asset that uses the aiStandardSurface shader from Maya, the first tool, a Python script, exports a shader definition alongside the FBX file.

The second tool converts to the Principled BSDF shader on importing the asset into Blender.

A quick automatic solution that may need manual refinement on complex shader setups
The tools were written using ChatGPT, with some further work by Blender tools developer TinkerBoi, and are designed for “basic shader trees”.

While direct file inputs in the Maya shader are converted automatically, the process does not convert other input types, like mix or ramp shaders.

In addition, displacement values will need to be adjusted manually on the imported model.

System requirements
Robert Rioux’s free shader conversion tools are available under a GPL v3 license.

Download Robert Rioux’s free Maya-to-Blender shader converters from GitHub


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