XMiL Placer is for people who work on visual effects-heavy shows, who have to put a lot of iterations of visual effects shots into the cut on an ongoing basis. Placer takes the tedium out of cutting in the new effects shots manually. It analyzes an XML file of the sequence exported from Final Cut Pro, and places the new clips in the sequence, lined up with their base clips.

Take a look at how Placer works in this 6 minute 35 second video:

The VFXINFO filter is shared with another great software package, VFXTracker 2008, which is a simple solution to tracking visual effects across multiple versions within Final Cut Pro. Check it out at vfxtracker.net. XMiL Placer and VFX Tracker 2008 complement each-other in workflows involving Final Cut Pro and visual effects.

Part of the workflow is a video filter called VFXINFO that marks cuts in the sequence as future visual effects shots. This filter is automatically installed together with XMiL Placer; and it holds the Shot ID that will be used to search for matching new effect shots. It can also burn the shot name into the video.

The VFXINFO filter on a shot in Final Cut. It holds the Shot ID which is used to match to the name of an incoming new shot that needs to be placed into the sequence. The video burn-in is optional. Click for a bigger image.

The new shots are placed on new video tracks, the original sequence's tracks always remain unchanged. The user can then proceed to check and fine-tune the shots, as well as shift them to the appropriate existing video track in the sequence.

The original sequence before processing in XMiL Placer...

... and the re-imported sequence after processing. Click for bigger images.

Reports of the actions performed by XMiL Placer are available as plain text files, as well as in a separate window:

The Placement Report gives a concise overview of what XMiL Placer did and didn't do. It's also available as plain text in TextEdit.

XMiL Placer has been tested with Final Cut Pro version 6.0.4 under Mac OS 10.4.11 and 10.5.4. It will not work under any version of OS 10.3 or earlier, and it is Mac-only.

XMIiL Placer can be downloaded on the Download page. With out a purchased license it will will run in Limited Mode without any time restriction. However, processing is limited to one sequence, to every third flagged clip, up to a total of 10 clips, per use.

To run XMiL Placer without limitations you will need a license. That license will be tied to one specific computer, and will not work on any other computer. One license will be good for all users of the computer. You can purchase the license via PayPal on the Download page.

For a detailed description of the application go to the XMiL Placer Features page.