Abstract: A software application that allows users to create shader definitions using an intuitive graphical user interface. The invention is characterized by an intuitive user interface with a streamlined workflow that non-technical users (artists) are able to understand and utilize without the need to become technically proficient in computer software expression. This interface allows the user to create a shader graphically without writing code, by wiring predefined filter, assembly and property primitives together into a dynamic, directed wire graph. A high level code definer writes an XML (for example) script for the defined wire graph. The output produced by the system is translated into a shader program implemented in a format that is recognized by some other rendering system. Typically this means a shader program represented as a text file containing code in some specific shader language.