MLP - Mac OSX batch processing workflow (former cr2hdr-r)

[DeafEyeJedi]

Look_preset bank would be the real game changer here because not only it speeds up our workflow but this is also an excellent way of exporting dailies with ease and basically eliminate the need of an IT on set.

It's a friggin' Robot named MLP and Thanks, Danne!

[emoji319]

[Danne]

Your welcome Sean. I also included a MLP_look_base(app) in there. Does the same as the workflow but more like cr2hdr-r in that sense you choose a folder with files instead of right clicking.

[bwinter88]

I'm having trouble getting MLP to produce ProRes files. i have my clips in DNG folders through MLVFS. I right-click a folder and select MLP, then the PRORES folder shows up and after I add a LUT to the hold folder and right-click the DNG folder again, the automator wheel spins for a little and then goes away. But no MOV file ever shows up. Is there a setting I have to enable or something?

Sorry but I've poured through the user guide and page after page of this forum with no answer, it's really baffling me...

[Danne]

Did you follow the howto file in the download? FFmpeg has to be installed for prores to be created.
MLP is kind of new and a follow up to cr2hdr-r so info on MLP starts around here. Should put up something about this in the first post I guess.

[bwinter88]

Yea, I'm pretty sure it's converting because the fps_01, fps_02...files show up as it processes, but a movie file never actually appears.

I've tried this on two separate machines and the result is the same, clearly I'm doing something wrong. Can somebody give me some basic instructions to get to the point of converting to ProRes? The user guide never actually gives any step by step instructions.

Edit: Fixed it. Re-copied the binaries manually to ~/Library/Services/MLP/Contents/

However I still have another question! How do I convert to ProRes 422 instead? The text file specifies that ProRes 4444 is the default, and has an entry at the top, but it's pretty clearly not the command line to create ProRes 4444 files.

Shouldn't it be, for ProRes 422,

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-pix_fmt yuv422p10
or

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-profile hq
instead of for ProRes 4444:

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-pix_fmt yuv444p10

But the default (supposedly ProRes 4444) is

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-c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 10 -c:a copy -pix_fmt yuv420p
Which I have no clue, but it looks like some kind of h264 encoder, not ProRes 4444? I'm so confused now!

[Danne]

You can use the file called MLV_RAW_MOV_dng_FFmpeg_output.txt. Put it in A_lut_hold folder and change to whatever output you like. Change the top line of the document. You have to search the internet to explore more output settings. I included a few examples in there.

If you don,t use this document it defaults to prores4444.

[bwinter88]

Ah! I see now. The idea of moving files into folders in order to activate certain options is a novel concept that has taken me a while to fully recognize, but I get it now. Thanks for the help.

[Danne]

Cool. Hope you find it useful. Feel free to post any examples using it.
The txt documents is to give more manual control and since I don,t know how to build a gui this is the way for now. Or try the list in MLP_look_base.

[Piotr.23]

Danne, thanks for all of this, I really appreciate your work and the help of other ML gurus
It is very complicated though...

I am trying to "develop" a MLV movie with alternating low/high ISO HDR (image A/image B -> merged C).
In the "old" times, it was the HDR-workflow-051.zip script made by a1ex:
https://bitbucket.org/a1ex/magic-lantern/downloads
It worked on JPEGs

Now, it is yours, working on DNGs, though only for Mac

1. Is it correct that the only way to develop alternating low/high ISO HDR MLVs is to run folder_ProRes444_lut service twice, and create an additional HDR folder, as in this video 12:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nllfXNd-U58
I wasn't able to use "MLV" service instead of folder_ProRes444_lut  service... and I'm not sure which is more recent

2. This technique produced a resulting MOV file.
How to prohibit the script from deleting the "merged" C files? To use them in, e.g., DaVinci Resolve?

3. Could you provide the basic bash scripts that sort out the A and B images from the folder with DNGs and create the merged C images please? Having all the binaries for Windows, and rewriting the bash script, why not to use that technique also in Windows, instead of the old Alex's HDR-workflow-051 (which is still the greatest thing on Win ?

Thanks in advance and best wishes | P

[Danne]

Hi Piotr. folder_Prores is replaced by MLP first post. It,s the better way of working with HDR files. Please feel free to modify and share improvements.
The way enfuse works it enfuses tiff intemediates which are created int an output folder. These tiffs are the one you could use in DaVinci resolve.

You can start by erasing the

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rm –r output line all the way in the end of the three scripts that starts with process_enfuse_XX.txt files
Then you double click A_move_content_to_workflow.command
Check the pic.



Then you install MLP by double clicking it

All tiffs that,s created are in those output folders. A follow up would be to rename the folder so it will be suitable in DaVinci Resolve. Maybe move the folder out of the dng folder and so on...

You could try replacing

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rm –r output to

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mv output ../output
mv ../output ../"$file"

I did this in the process_enfuse_XX.txt file. You can do something similar in the other two scripts. Only change the "$file" accordingly.
Don,t forget to double click A_move_content_to_workflow.command two write changes before install.

[Piotr.23]

Thanks Danne. I did, but this is for MPL workflow, not the folder_ProRes444_lut workflow.
In the folder_ProRes444_lut workflow, one creates HDR folder and it works.
How to deal with the same (alternating low/high ISO) in MLV workflow?
Thanks | P

[Danne]

Not sure what you mean. Could you show what you mean is working with what? Maybe printscreen, example files? Screen recording or what part of what script?

[Piotr.23]

Danne please see my earlier post.

I am talking about the possibility to turn an alternating low/high ISO HDR MLV or MOV file -- into a HDR movie.
See this, minute:seconds 12:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nllfXNd-U58

It works with "folder_ProRes444_lut  service"
How to do the same with "MLV" service instead? | P

[Danne]

1 - read the first post
2 - read page 5-6 in the user guide
3 - download MLP and read the howto

*updated some additional info about HDR workflows on page 5 and 6 in the user guide

[Danne]

Some updates to MLP - download in first post.

- It is now possible to create icc profiles of .cube files. There is a script to help you out once opencolorio is installed. Use the icc profiles the same as with cube lut files.
Thanks Andy600 for hints.
Major thanks to Baldavenger for tests and feedback on MLP and sharing deeper insights about color management and for some upcoming stuff later.
- I put in dfort very thourough pixel map list for eos M in the dead pixel list. How to work with that is described inside the dead_pixel_list.txt file

[BatteriesNotIncluded]

I'm liking MLP, Danne. Having some trouble with getting it to take my DNG files to ProRes however. I have followed your HowTo and User Guide to the T. All the binaries are installed and moved via the workflow. Can anybody help? Many thanks

[Danne]

Cool. We should get MLP going I hope.
1 - did the script tell you all binaries are installed? Green text.
2 - what are you processing? Maybe put up a printscreen or a screen recorded video of what you are doing. Hard to draw any conclusions right now.

[BatteriesNotIncluded]

Here is what I'm trying to process, plus the file structure of the folder I'm calling "RAW Tests". You can see the folders MLP have created, as per the manual, and I'm trying to process DNGs into ProRes (from MLV originals)

http://i.imgur.com/GvSJ4Fi.jpg

Yes, it did show green text.

Here is the "Contents" folder inside the MLP workflow app inside /Library/services/

http://i.imgur.com/2QNeyRl.jpg

What's happening is, when I choose the MLP option under "Services" to process into ProRes, the cog in the status bar shows and a file quickly appears labeled "fps" and then disappears, quickly followed by the cog and process of MLP stopping altogether.

[Danne]

Are you uisng a recent version? I fixed a bug that wouldn,t start the workflow if the folder was named RAW before. Just tried over here and it works. Not sure what is going on.
When you install a new version you can run the install binary command and it will ask if you want to recopy the old binaries before installing.

[BatteriesNotIncluded]

Latest version. I have since reinstalled everything and still no luck.

I'm missing something or it's clashing and causing it to crash.

bwinter88 seemed to have had a similar problem a few days ago here: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13512.msg159022;topicseen#msg159022

He seemed to have cured it by manually re-installing the binaries. I've tried that to no avail.

Just to confirm, then:

0. I've installed MLP. I've done nothing else.
1. I just have a MLV file in a folder called "RAW Tests"
2. I choose MLP from the services menu. It creates the two LUT folders.
3. I choose MLP again, it creates the DNG folder from the one MLV file. It moves the file to a seperate originals folder.
4. I choose MLP again (to create ProRes) and this is where I'm having the issue.

Note: MLP has never created a ProRes folder for me?

[Danne]

Should work. Easiest if you take the time and create a screenrecording of the whole process. I can, t say what, s going on unfortunately. You can use quicktime for screenrecordings.
By the way, what camera are you using?

[dfort]

@BatteriesNotIncluded

Just wondering, what is in your A_lut_hold directory? You should have a file names MLV_RAW_dng_straight_to_prores444.txt in there and you shouldn't need to run MLP a third time in order to create the QuickTime files.

Have you tried renaming the "RAW Tests" directory to something else, preferably something without spaces?

Finally, how far from the root directory is "RAW Tests" located? I've had problems with various programs if the path is very long and/or contains spaces.

[Danne]

@BatteriesNotIncluded

Try giving ffmpeg chmod rights.
Goes like this:

1 - open terminal
write following:
chmod u=rwx [drag ffmpeg here]
enter

[BatteriesNotIncluded]

With continued support from @Danne, the riddle has been solved and I'm now able to process ProRes from DNG files. (with thanks to @dfort for the other suggestion)

For those who may encounter the same issue - and it pertained to dcraw - here is the fix:

First install "homebrew":

1. Open Terminal.app from inside Applications>Ultilities
2. Copy and paste the following:

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ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

3. Hit enter and let it download. An installer window may popup. Follow those steps too.
4. If Terminal is asking you to hit "return", make sure you do to finish the installation.

After homebrew is installed:

5. Copy and paste the following:

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brew install dcraw

6. Hit enter.

You're done. Try again and you will hopefully be processing ProRes files.

[Danne]

Thanks for sharing and good it is working. Tried to reproduce the issue by trying on a fresh macbook air without exiftool and dcraw installed except from inside MLP but it all worked as it supposed to. Dfort tried as well with the same result. Let,s see if we can narrow down the issue completely later on.