# Scenario Maya Lookdev

Use when shading an asset in Maya with Arnold: OpenPBR or aiStandardSurface materials...

- Repository: https://github.com/scenario-labs/skills (1448 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill scenario-maya-lookdev -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill scenario-maya-lookdev -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill scenario-maya-lookdev -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add scenario-labs/skills --skill scenario-maya-lookdev -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add scenario-labs/skills`

## Description

Use when shading an asset in Maya with Arnold: OpenPBR or aiStandardSurface materials, hooking up Substance Painter or UDIM texture sets, color spaces (sRGB, Raw, ACEScg), a normal map that looks wrong, displacement with black holes or faceting, skin SSS, chrome and metals, glass or crystal, car paint, aiStandardHair, porting Standard Surface to OpenPBR, or a lookdev turntable with chrome and gray balls. Also when textures render washed out, too dark or plastic in Arnold.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Look development in Maya 2027 (Arnold)

Expert look dev is a material that holds under any light a lighter throws at it: correct data in
(every map in the right color space through the right plug), physically meaningful base values
(measured metal colors, glass tinted by depth, scattering at real scale), then deliberate
imperfection, judged on a neutral turntable with reference balls, one change per render. Nothing is
done before a render has been looked at. If a sibling skill named here is missing from your
available skills, load it with `skill_get` (Scenario MCP) or ask the user to install it
(https://github.com/scenario-labs/skills#install); unattended, proceed from tool schemas and flag
the gap.

**REQUIRED BACKGROUND:** scenario-maya-expert (execution channel, review loop, 2027 version traps).

**Status (2026-09-24):** [`scripts/mx_shade.py`](scripts/mx_shade.py) is **not yet run in Maya**:
122 offline checks passed; the Maya layer ran against a fake `maya.cmds` (logic only). Once Maya is
installed: `tests/code/maya-lookdev/run_all.sh`, then fix the attribute tables from
`probe_lookdev.json`.

## Stance (the expert delta)

The rest: https://github.com/scenario-labs/skills/blob/HEAD/skills/dcc/maya/scenario-maya-lookdev/SKILL.md