I am afraid this is one of Debut 8 limitations as it does not allow to render at 1280 X 720. Thanks for that information. I'm pretty unhappy about that situation because it makes Debut effectively crippleware for many people. I read through all the documentation I could find and never found that li...

Thanks for the reply. No, constrain aspect ratio is not ticked. I'm a bit surprised because the 16/9 ratio is pretty much a TV standard these days (in Europe, at least) and I cannot find any reference to such a restriction anywhere. I am pretty sure that such a crippling restriction would have to be...

I've just started some work using V8 Debut after using older versions some years ago. Not too much seems to have changed and I'm looking forward to finding the improvements. One problem though, and I seem to have fallen at the first hurdle here, is that I want to output my cartoons in the now standa...

I think I may be out of my depth here! I do have the Pro version and I do need to time the events start accurately. The animation I wish to use at different points consists of some ten layers, all keyframed on the timeline and working in their own right. Together, in their group layer, they are a co...

Thanks for that. The complete sequence of actions and characters are in one group and self-contained. So what you are saying is, copy it rather than duplicate it and then put the time line where I want it inserted and paste it there? Sorry to be so basic but this would be very useful to me and to ma...

I have an action sequence on 10 layers in a group about 10 seconds long which I wish to copy and repeat at different location is the same frame but at different times. For example, on left of frame there is a box and on the right of frame another box. Twenty seconds into the animation, I want a jack...

Thanks for all thoise helpful replies, which I've more or less got to grips with. Re the blood, my stuff isn't actually gory, it's just this poor little sap who gets snuffed every week. John Cleese was very interesting talking about the poodle flattening scene in A Fish Called Wanda. He said that th...

I need a good blood splat effect, sudden, for example where somebody's head is hit with a mallet or their car runs into a wall. It needs to be sudden and cartoony and subside fairly quickly. I find that everything I'm doing looks too slow or too fast. You can see some of the stuff at youtube.com/spo...

I'm not sure why it sounds kludgy to you.

As a novice, I kind of thought that layer changes were for bigger things than that. But if that's the way, at least I'm starting to discover things for myself.

Thanks for the input.

I have a figure in a group layer, containing all the moving parts on separate layers. If I want have this character move (probably walk) across the frame, I can either move each body part separately to where I want them (very tedious) or use the translate layer tool. Is there any reason not to use t...

Nothing I've read would have led me to think of that - thanks. I've actually needed to add several points around the joints to minimise distortion. It seems there will always be some by the very nature of the method and the fact that interaction is usually regarded as a good thing. I'd thought of pu...

No matter how I monkey around with bones (and I have been, for ages!), I seem unable to eliminate changes of shape when I bend a stick-like arm. The image here shows what I mean. I have reduced the bone strength to a minimum and the layer is regional binding. Is there a way round this? http://www.dt...

I'll download QT Pro now - thanks for your advice, Mike.

If this is just a hobby and you aren't looking to produce something other than just for fun, don't worry about it. Yes, your video is obviously professional quality and shows all your experience behind it. But....although my drawing and cartoon is rudimentary - and it is - I still want to output th...

Thanks for your time and advice. When you say MP4 is native to Youtube, the stuff on my screen appears to be Flash - or am I missing something here? If Youtube IS Flash would outputting directly to Flash not be better? Regarding my simple workflow, if I make the cartoons in ASP and output them as pn...