Best practices in After Effects for applying CDLs

[Premiopolis]

We've got VFX turnovers (EXR files sequences) that come with CDLs (SAT/SOP)

Mostly the VFX Vendors take care of all this on their end, but occasionally our AEs have to do it.

What are various & best practices for applying CDLs in After Effects.

Ideally we're looking at fast, reliable, and ultimately automateable using ExtendScript / Custom HTML Panel Extension

[Mylenium]

AE has no way of dealing with CDLs directly. It always relied on third-party tools like older versions of Colorista and MB Looks to handle that. If you know the values, you can of course re-create it with stock effects and that can be canned into an animation preset. Otherwise you'd ideally bake everything into a LUT for use with footage interpretation and the color profile converter effect.

Mylenium

[Premiopolis]

Thanks @Mylenium 

Mylenium wrote:

AE has no way of dealing with CDLs directly.

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After scouring menus and docs that was increasingly my impression.  Thanks for confirming.

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Mylenium wrote:

If you know the values, you can of course re-create it with stock effects and that can be canned into an animation preset. Otherwise you'd ideally bake everything into a LUT for use with footage interpretation and the color profile converter effect.

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In this case we've got an overall show LUT and a separate CDL for each take.

(This is a TV series w/ a lot VFX where we send EXR sequences to various vendors, who apply the LUT and CDLs (not in After Effects) resulting in a offline & online media that perfectly matches the colors in dailies.  Trying to achieve the same in AE)

I started testing with Prolost CDL, and automated it to apply .cc / .cdl files with a simple drag-n-drop.

That's cool but after applying the show LUT and and CDL values the shots aren't anywhere in the ballpark of matching our dailies.  Perhaps Prolost isn't part of the solution, but more likely this has become an question of understanding why the show LUT -- which works fine for our vendors -- isn't working in AE.

[Premiopolis · Accepted solution]

@Mylenium UPDATE -- so it turns out After Effects does have the ability to handle CDLs natively -- or at least using native plugins that come with the Adobe Cloud.  It's a little hidden:

To test, add a Lumetri color effect to a Comp

Then Basic Correction  >  Input LUT  >  pulldown for "Browse" or "Custom"

and instead of choosing a LUT, choose a CDL.

[fnordware]

Hey guys, I've got a free CDL plug-in available at fnord.com. This one exposes the CDL values as sliders so you can set them yourself or using scripting. It includes AE scripts for reading values from a CDL file or writing out a new one from your settings.

[ckuehne]

Hi! I love the idea of this, but I keep getting the error "TypeError: null is not an object" after selecting a CDL file.

I have the CDL plug-in selected when I do that, so not sure what else to do!

Thank you!

Hey guys, I've got a free CDL plug-in available at fnord.com. This one exposes the CDL values as sliders so you can set them yourself or using scripting. It includes AE scripts for reading values from a CDL file or writing out a new one from your settings.

By @fnordware

[fnordware]

Hmmm, must be a bug in the script. Can you post the CDL file?

You shouldn't need an instance of the effect selected, just a layer and it'll apply a new one itself. Shouldn't cause an error though.

[ckuehne]

I had to change the extension to xml, as this site won't let me load any zip files or anything with a cdl extension... If you rename the extension to cdl - that's what I was working with!

Thank you!

[fnordware]

Thanks for the file. Seems simple enough, working for me in AE 2023. Which version are you using? Mac or Win?

And you get this error when you:

1. Launch After Effects
2. Import footage
3. Make a new comp from footage
4. Select the layer
5. Run the Load_CDL.jsx script.

You need "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network" turned on under Preferences > Scripting & Expressions, but think you'd get a different error if you didn't.

[ckuehne]

Even when doing those steps, it gives me that error. Although I have to apply it to an adjustment layer for my current project.  I'm running the latest After Effects version (2025) on a Mac.

[fnordware]

Huh. Tested in After Effects 25.1.0 on Mac OS 13.6.1 and everything worked as expected. Might have to remote in to your computer to see this bug.

[ckuehne]

All you would see are the simplest of steps that you outlined, and then I get that error. I am running macOS 15.3.1 - so maybe that has something to do with it? I have not seen this issue with any other scripts.

[ckuehne]

I do want to point out that the Save CDL script works without any issues!