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

FCPX 1.4 announced at FCPX World - Also link to macOS Sierra installer (via fcp.co)

FCPX 1.4 announced at FCPX World:
http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/2011-final-cut-pro-x-10-4-announced-with-new-wheels-and-curves-colour-controls-and-360-tools-built-in

Geez, so much about 360º stuff.

Remarkably, Michael Hancock gives us a link to macOS Sierra installer from Apple. For the ones of you who forgot to download it from App Store before the update to High Sierra. Thanks MH!

Michael Hancock · 

Works at CROP Creative Media

Here's how to get Sierra from the app store, since Apple unlisted it. Scroll down an click on "Get Mac OS Sierra" and it will open the App store and you can download it and upgrade from El Capitan.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

No more Dolby AC3 in Adobe Media Encoder 2018

I can confirm that AME 2018 lacks Dolby AC3 settings.

AME 2018 - No more Dolby AC3. Only Mpeg and PCM

I installed the new version and forgot to uncheck "Remove Old Versions", so I re-installed AME 2017 from CC App Manager.

If you need AC3, go get AME 2017 now while it's still available, and remember DO NOT REMOVE OLD VERSIONS next time you update.

AME 2017 - With Dolby AC3

Interestingly, after two installs of AME 2018 and 2017, I cannot install another older version. Only option now is to Uninstall.

Are we limited to installing two versions of the same App?

TIFF 2017 Robert Guediguian & Ariane Ascaride discussion

Great discussion with Robert Guediguian & Ariane Ascaride at TIFF last September.
(It's in French. Google Auto-Translate to English is pretty terrible.)

Excerpts:

- We do not do cinema for nothing. Films must serve justice, ask questions, try to understand the world, denounce and fight injustice and offer alternatives. We think and speak for others. There is always a point of view.

- Working with others is trusting them to propose ideas, and then choose. Not imposing your preconceived ideas onto others. Directing is simple, it's just saying yes or no.

- I cannot live in a ghetto, I must rub with people and know how people live in their own world. Some people have much more pressing stories to tell than the stories we tell in the west. These are the stories I'm interested with.

- Identities are chosen, I see them as juxtaposition, as layers. You are responsible for your own identity.

You are one of a kind! Thank you Robert!!

Also, AF Toronto, can you please QC your videos...? That's the problem with direct upload, you do not see the results until it's posted. Oops! Too late!  Guess what NLE is being used?