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.