I love building shaders is with RenderMan’s MaterialX Lama nodes from ILM. If you haven’t checked them out yet, take a look here: MaterialX Lama Wiki
You can break shaders down into bite-sized, modular pieces. It’s such a smooth and efficient way to create anything from simple surfaces to intricate, complex networks. At a glance, any artist can instantly tell what kind of material they’re looking at. It’s streamlined, intuitive.
Can chaos group break its shaders down into modular pieces like material LAMA?
We are indeed aware of the layered workflow provided with the MaterialX Lama nodes and will decide on a course of action once the dust has settled and the industry needs have become clear.
At the moment, we provide support for the MtlX Mix VOP in Surface Shader mode for the Standard Surface for blending multiple materials.