Can anyone tell me how to...

… start an animation in TBS 5 in the following manner (as you would in, say Flipbook)?

In Flipbook, one very convenient way of getting going is you draw your keys on exposures 1,2,3,4, etc. Then for each key you type a number to set rough timings. This extends that exposure by whatever number you type. Then, when you want to do a breakdown, you just click in the cell in the exposure sheet and draw. It creates a new exposure there, and automatically extends it to the next exposure, without moving anything. Fast, easy. And you get a nice clean preview with no blank exposures.

In TBS (as best I can tell), you can’t simply draw a breakdown. You have to go through this elaborate procedure of dialing the cell number back down to zero to get a clear exposure, then extend it yourself, which moves all the other exposures downstream, so then you’ve got to go move them. A nightmare.

Or, if you simply draw your keys and your breakdowns without extending them, you get blank exposures all through your preview.

This is driving me completely insane as I have a lot of work to do, and I know there MUST be something I’m missing. I can’t believe it could be this convoluted.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Click on windows in the top menu, choose cells and the celleditor opens.
In the exposure sheet sheet click on the frame where you want to do the
new drawing. Pull the slider in the cell editor all to the left and it gives you a blank frame.It also fills exposures to next keydrawing.
The cell editor is a good tool when you need to change mouthdrawings to correct lipsync+++
Ivar