Script UsageΒΆ

Most likely you’ll use cdl_convert as a script, instead of a python package itself. Indeed, even the name is formatted more like a script (with an underscore) than the more common all lowercase of python modules.

If you just want to convert to a .cc XML file, the only required argument is an input file, like so:

$ cdl_convert ./di_v001.flex

You can override the default .cc output, or provide multiple outputs with the -o flag.

$ cdl_convert ./di_v001.flex -o cc,cdl

Sometimes it might be necessary to disable cdl_convert’s auto-detection of the input file format. This can be done with the -i flag.

$ cdl_convert ./ca102_x34.cdl -i rcdl

Note

You should not normally need to do this, but it is possible especially since there are multiple formats sharing the same file extension. In this case, .cdl could have indicated either a space separated cdl (an rcdl), or an XML cdl. cdl_convert does it’s best to try and guess which one the file is, but if you’re running into trouble, it might help to indicate to cdl_convert what the input file type is.

By default, converted files will be written to the ‘./converted’ directory, but a custom destination directory can easily be specified with the -d flag.

$ cdl_convert ./hk416_210.ccc -d /hello_kitty/luts/cdls/

Warning

It’s possible to pass a ‘.’ to the -d flag, causing converted files to be written to the same directory as the directory you’re calling cdl_convert from, and often that ends up being the same directory as the file you’re converting from. If one isn’t careful, there’s a possibility you could overwrite the original files.

When converting large batches of color corrections, it can be helpful to know if there’s anything odd about any of them. Using the --check flag will cause any potentially invalid numbers to be flagged and printed to the shell.

For Slope, Power and Saturation, any values below 0.1 or above 3.0 will flag. For Offset, any values below -1.0 or above 1.0 will flag.

$ cdl_convert ./di_v001.flex
The ColorCorrection "a347.x700" was given a Slope value of "0.978", which
might be incorrect.
The ColorCorrection "a400.x050" was given a Saturation value of "3.1",
which might be incorrect.

This is especially useful when combined with the --no-output flag, which will enable a dry run mode and allow you to spot odd values before running.

Full help is available using the standard --help command:

$ cdl_convert --help
usage: cdl_convert [-h] [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [-d DESTINATION] [--halt]
                   [--no-output] [--check] [--single]
                   input_file

positional arguments:
  input_file            the file to be converted

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        specify the filetype to convert from. Use when
                        CDLConvert cannot determine the filetype
                        automatically. Supported input formats are: ['flex',
                        'cc', 'ale', 'cdl', 'rcdl', 'ccc']
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        specify the filetype to convert to, comma separated
                        lists are accepted. Defaults to a .cc XML. Supported
                        output formats are: ['cc', 'cdl', 'ccc', 'rcdl']
  -d DESTINATION, --destination DESTINATION
                        specify an output directory to save converted files
                        to. If not provided will default to ./converted/
  --halt                turns off exception handling default behavior. Turn
                        this on if you want the conversion process to fail and
                        not continue,rather than relying on default behavior
                        for bad values. Examples are clipping negative values
                        to 0.0 for Slope, Power and Saturation, and
                        automatically generating a new id for a ColorCorrect
                        if no or a bad id is given.
  --no-output           parses all incoming files but no files will be
                        written. Use this in conjunction with '--halt' and '--
                        check' to try and track down any oddities observed in
                        the CDLs.
  --check               checks all ColorCorrects that were parsed for odd
                        values. Odd values are any values over 3 or under 0.1
                        for Slope, Power and Saturation. For offset, any value
                        over 1 and under -1 is flagged. Note that depending on
                        the look, these still might be correct values.
  --single              only write a single color decision per file when given
                        collection formats. This means that a single input CDL
                        will export multipleCDL files, one per color decision.