Synfig rendering blank avi file (cannot search forum)

I am following the tutorial narrated by Terry Hancock that I downloaded from the website. In lesson 3, we are to render out animation created in lesson 2. When I render it per the directions in the tutorial, all I get is a blank AVI file. Trying to play it results in just a black window. I have tried it three times and each time, the result is the same. Is there a known issue? Has anyone else had this problem?

I know this may have been asked before but I cannot search the forum for related topics. This is what I see when I use the search box:

Hi!
Did you select ffmpeg as a target? Also try playing around with different codec settings under the parameters button in the render settings.
Greetz!