Xscripts

There was no standard way to create plugins and custom tools in the software. When the APIs evolved, their scripts broke.

I led the strategy and design for a plugin management system that turned personal scripts into supported, shareable tools artists could build without deep technical expertise and use across departments and studios.

The first step was giving these tools a home: one searchable library, organized by department and author, so artists can see what already exists before building something new.

Then came shareability. Turning a script into a published one should not take more than seconds: name it, describe what it does, tag it, and choose where it lives in the library.

Publishing a script meant managing it for them automatically if the software updates. Scripts move through clear states (local, checked out, modified, published) so artists can experiment freely without overwriting something the studio depends on.

The next step was discovery: a fast, filterable search built around how artists actually think with smart suggestions surfacing the most relevant scripts first.

Xscripts also plugs into Xpad, letting artists bind any script to a custom UI so their most used tools are one click away instead of buried in a menu.

I also explored how AI could help artists author scripts themselves, from prompting a script into existence to a full in-tool code editor for refining it.

Organic adoption became the clearest signal of success. Usage grew steadily across lighting, animation, layout, and simulation, with 300+ scripts created in the first week alone.

Building a tool artists trust to extend their own pipeline taught me how much clarity and safety matter when you hand people the power to automate their own work. The best version of Xscripts got out of the way and let their creativity scale.