Export paths from Illustrator and convert them to Apple Motion paths with Motionize!

Motionize is great for importing Illustrator paths into Apple Motion paths.
Installation is easy, but the workflow is a bit convoluted, so I will list the steps below.

1. Trace your paths in Illustrator, SAVE AS Illustrator CS. Motionize won't work with newer versions. (Actually it does not work with CC in my experience, and I haven't tried other versions of CS.)

2. Select the paths or groups you want to export (Motionize supports Illustrator groups.)

3. Select File/Script/Motionize and save the ".motn" file to a folder of your choice.

4. MOVE this Motion file INTO: BootHD/Users/your user/Library/Application Support/Motion/Library/Favorites (...Make a shortcut.)

Do not forget step 4!!! If you try to open the ".motn" file directly from Motion (File/Open) it will be EMPTY. And you will think Motionize does not work. IT DOES!

5. Access your file inside Motion (works with 5.3.2 no prob') through the Library / Favorites.

BINGO!

Thank you Scott Ash another human for a great script! 

Apple Motion: Smooth Motion Path + Grow/Shrink settings

A combination of Motion Path + Grow/Shrink is an animation I often use. The default setting for the Grow/Shrink behavior is "Natural Scale" which is great. But the default setting for the Motion Path behavior is "Constant". Combined as-is, the results are often completely off.
In combination with Grow/Shrink "Natural Scale", I find that the better setting for Motion Path is "Decelerate".

Apple Motion Wobbling Text in PDF

I animated a PDF page of Text created in Adobe Illustrator, exported as PDF into Apple Motion, and even though I unchecked "Fixed Resolution" for the Media, it animated badly. The text was all wobbling and unstable as I scaled up/down and moved around.

I was cursing Motion again, until I read the chapter on PDF (p.240) in the Motion User Guide:

Mixed Content Within PDF Files
Although PDF files can simultaneously contain PostScript-based art, PostScript text, and bitmapped graphics, all of these types of image data do not scale the same. PostScript-based art and text scale smoothly, but bitmapped graphics that are embedded in a PDF file are subject to the same scaling issues as any other bitmapped graphics format. As a result, they may soften if scaled larger than their original size.

Ah, ah! Spot on! I was using an Adobe TypeKit font. As soon as I changed it to an OpenType font... Perfect!

User beware!

Gmail crapped on me!

Was writing a long email with a bunch of specific notes that relate to a cut I was ready to send a client.

I lost connection somehow, couldn't get Gmail to respond for a long while. I had to restart the computer and my draft email was EMPTY! Except for a couple of lines, all GONE.

This is the old ghost creeping in, what's not on your computer... Can you really trust it? Does it really save your work all the time?  Answer: NO! IT DOES NOT!

We are offered a convenience with no guarantee in exchange for our personal data. No guarantee.

Lesson learned, I will type my emails in TextEdit before I Copy n'Paste and send at once.

Emojis on macOS Sierra

Call on emojis on Mac by punching: Control + Command + Spacebar. Boom, the emoji/symbols window pops-up.

[Control, ⌘, Spacebar]

As demonstrated by Ben Mercer and Jan Willem den Bok among others, it's a great way to quickly visualize information in FCPX. For example I like to add a ❌ to my "do not use" cuts, and a ✅ to my current cuts.

This way I see immediately that FCPX has opened the proper cut or an old cut in the Timeline without deciphering the names themselves.

I'm still experimenting, and I suppose if you use too many emojis, things start to get blurry again, so it's a balance.

Adobe Illustrator CC 2018 Export Bug Fixed in 11-2-17 Update

Today Adobe offers an upgrade to Illustrator CC to fix an export bug:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/troubleshoot-export-issues.html

New stuff in Illustrator CC 2018 (It's called October 2017 Release - Am I the only one to find this confusing?):
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/whats-new.html

Da main Illustrator User Guide page:
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html?topic=/illustrator/morehelp/introduction.ug.js