Declan Russell shows how to use and edit OSL shaders live in Arnold for Maya.

Arnold Renderer offers people the ability to write or use OSL shaders. Working with OSL in Maya is as simple as copy/pasting the shader code. Check out this short example from Declan Russell, a Senior Software Engineer at Solid Angle, who shows how you can work with OSL shaders, live in Maya using Arnold.

Open Shading Language is a C-like language that lets you write custom materials, shaders, and textures. OSL originated with Sony Pictures Imageworks for use in its (at the time) Arnold Renderer, although many renderers will support OSL today.

Download OSL Shaders.

There is a repository of a bunch of OSL shaders you can download. They’re listed as 3ds MAX OSL shaders, but being an open format, you can use them with anything that supports the shading language. Check out the myriad of OSL shaders here.