Using 2026, is there a way to have Viewport “Look”, with unique LUTs/CDL/CCC files, per Shot/Batch Group?
I wondered the same thing and asked that question early on. Right now I believe the answer is no to the viewport but yes to batch. The only way to access the Context Variables is through the Colour Management node. I demonstrated the workflow in the Timeline in the video I made, but the same can be done using the Colour Management node in Batch.
I assume you would use Python in a similar way to how the video demonstrated to avoid having to manually type in the context variable, and you’d come up with a context variable that would be able to hook in to something like Batch Name to associate with the appropriate LUTs/CDL/CCC.
maybe… it is something we are trying to figure out. I think we have it sort of working in a Color Management node using @Jeff method, but we are trying to get it working as a Look in the Viewport pull down which is more powerful of a workflow.
@ALan, as in the documentation page that Phil linked to above, you may have a Look in an OCIO config driven by context variables. A Look may then be used in a View for a Display.
As Jeff wrote, you may then use Python to set the context variables based on shot-based information in Flame.
In OCIO parlance, the pull-down menu in the viewports are “Views”. If the view has an associated Look, you may toggle it on/off from the viewport.
The context variables used for all the viewports are set in the Colour Management Preferences. These may be edited via Python. That sets the “global” context, which you may override in individual Colour Mgmt nodes or timeline FX, as shown in Jeff’s video. There are Python examples on this page.
If you’re looking to have a list of views, each with a shot-based look, that you want to manually select from a viewport pull-down menu, it would be straight-forward to set up a config with those. But I suspect you want the viewport to switch automatically based on something the operator has done? It’s not currently possible to select the view for a viewport via Python, so you would probably have to have a single view with a context-variable-based look. If there’s a Python hook that could be called for the situation you’re thinking of, then it might be possible.
More detail about exactly what you’re trying to do would be helpful.
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thanks again for the spectacular effort on OCIO/ACES/color management for flame 2026 and beyond!
it’s absolutely seamless - it feels like nothing has changed, even though everything has changed and is better!
and thanks for the newly implemented pythonic implementations for colour mgmt - everything is coming together.
you and the flame team have pulled off several very clever magic tricks.
bravo!
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I’ll take a stab at clarifying what Alan might be envisioning. I think I understand his intent based on my own brief, fleeting stint in episodic longform.
Prior to Flame 2026, I could create a .cube containing both the Show LUT and the Shot-specific Look. This combined LUT was loaded into the View Transform for a Viewing Rule. In Batch, setting the viewport to that rule allowed me to see all of my work through the Show LUT, as well as the Shot Look which could be toggled on or off with the “Look” button in the viewport, in addition to being able to bypass both of those if I wanted to check the raw. It’s extra convenient to just have that on-demand bypassable in-context view for any node in Batch. This is great, but the setup is a bit manual as soon as you’re working on a large volume of shots, creating tons of LUTs and loading them in one by one, and then crowding your viewport dropdown for each shot / sequence.
Context variables + Python in 2026 clearly addresses that tedium in a really wonderful way. But in the context of the above workflow, I believe that’s where we were curious if Context Variables + Viewport functionality is in the cards. If not, the next best workflow that comes to mind is to attach a Colour Management node to the end of every Batch setup (as a separate branch from the render / write node so it doesn’t get baked in) via Python so as to initiate the context variables, and set that as our context for all of our work whenever we want to see the what we’re doing in context. If you’re using Python to automate the creation / first version organization of your batch groups, maybe it’s not much of a lift to also add in that Colour Management node / context?
And I can only hope I’m not speaking too out of turn here since I’m not nearly as proficient in this stuff as many others who might be reading. I think the excitement around the potential of context variables leads many of us to imagine this next level of seamless viewport integration. I’d love to hear your thoughts on such functionality in the future, or maybe Alan can correct me if I missed something or got it wrong.
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@philm, thank you! That’s what we were trying to do, so I’m glad that intent is visible to a discerning eye! All credit is due to the magicians on the Flame dev team!
@Jeff, I definitely think there is more that could be done with context variables and the viewports and it would be valuable to compile a list of concrete examples of things people would like to be able to do.
For example, if people are working on one shot at a time in Batch, it would already be easy to write a Python script that sets the appropriate context variables and applies a look in the viewports for that shot. But I’m guessing Alan wants something more automated, like if one were switching between shots?
To what extent would being able to assign different context variables to each viewport via Python help? What sort of tagging or metadata would be used to drive that and where do people think it should be sourced from?
Yes… Having to write and then run python scripts every time I load or switch Batch Groups is not a viable production workflow. This needs to be a generalized Tokenized configuration that you set it and forget it. Unfortunately we are finding to current OCIO implementation non-beneficial.
Hi all, I’ve been testing the provided python script to much success. I’ve been able to add colour management in the timeline, which is welcomed, so thank you.
A very nice thing to have in addition, would be having the ability to use the <shot name> token (as an example) for the context menu to be able to drive the Look automatically as it’s not uncommon for the .ccc files to be named in relation to the shot itself. Another thing (unless I’m not aware of this) that would be very helpful would be adding a regex match to the context as well, as some files may contain a prefix/suffix that does not pertain to the shot name or any token for that matter. It’s not lost on me that this could be a tall order, but if we could have tokens in the context to drive this, we could have an experience for toggling looks where the look and show lut are separated.
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