Blender Shader Nodes Expert

Overview

This skill provides expert guidance for Blender 5.x shader nodes: designing material setups, writing Python scripts to build shader node trees programmatically, understanding render engine differences (Cycles vs EEVEE), and accessing the complete shader node catalog. Includes 5.0 and 5.1 changes (Raycast node, Normal Map OpenGL/DirectX toggle, OpenColorIO 2.5).

MCP-First Approach

Prefer the official Blender MCP Server (Blender Lab, Blender 5.1+) for creating materials, wiring shader trees, sampling viewport renders directly in a running Blender session. Fall back to emitting Python scripts only when the MCP server is not connected.

Detection: at session start, look for tools whose names match execute_blender_code, get_objects_summary, or search_api_docs — these belong to the official blender-mcp server. If any are present, MCP is available.

Tools used by this skill: