Traffic is a node-based editorial and project management tool that is designed to serve as a companion product to other XML-supported tools from the likes of Apple, Media 100 and Autodesk. The product was developed by XM|Edit founder Forrest Maready, who is a seasoned editor with several Hollywood film and television productions to his credit. Maready says Traffic was inspired by the workflow found in other high-end visual effects design tools. The OS X application employs a sophisticated visual node-based interface, which provides editors with comprehensive editorial and project management control of their projects and enables them to perform difficult, time-intensive editorial tasks quickly, unlike other timeline-based applications.
Maready says Traffic really shines on jobs where editors are managing a large number of pre-set effects, or where they might be creating and updating lower third graphics. The tool allows editors to change attributes of filters and text generators globally across multiple sequences or even multiple projects resulting in enormous time savings.
XM|Edit also has an integrated plug-in architecture, which will allow third-party developers to create "widget-like" plug-ins to extend the capabilities of the software. Pricing is $299 and release is scheduled for mid-October.