Month: January 2017

Reader Matt Hirsch posted a response showing this workaround presented by Iain Anderson  at macProVideo to get Motionize and Vekpo objects into your Motion projects under Motion 5.3. It is a great workaround until Apple puts .molo and .motn file support into their new Import feature.

In short, placing shape files (.motn or .molo) in Motion’s Favorites directory allows them to be used in Motion 5.3. Where is this directory? It’s at:

/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/Motion/Library/Favorites

To get there:

1. Go to the Finder
2. Press Command-N to open a new window
3. Press Command-Shift-G to specify a directory
4. Enter “~/Library/Application Support/Motion/Library/Favorites”

Make an alias of the Favorites folder (Command-Option while dragging) on your Desktop for easy access from Illustrator or Vekpo. Thanks to Matt Hirsch and Iain Anderson!

Apple recently released version 5.3 of Motion which has changed how files are imported. The previous media browser has been replaced with an “Import” feature which does not support Motion’s own .molo (Motion Object) file format. I’ve submitted a bug report with Apple but it might help if you do to!

Motion contains its own shapes object library within the application structure. Navigating to this  library reveals files in .molo format. Unfortunately, dragging these files onto the desktop and attempting to open or import them from Motion also fails. Attempts to put custom .molo or renamed .molo files back into the application structure also fails as a list is maintained by Motion which restricts available shapes to those included with the application.

I am working on a way around this issue but am obviously hoping Apple’s exclusion of their own .molo file support within the new “Import” feature was an oversight which they will soon fix.

The file structure has not changed, the bug is simply a matter of Motion no longer recognizing its own object file format. Help me let them know!