Never, ever render an animation out as an animation! ;)  I know that this sounds counterintutive, but you never want to do it this way for several reasons -

1. As you note, you can't see the end results until the entire animation render is complete and you have the animation file.  If there were any problems, you have to start all over again.

2. If something/anything goes wrong while the render is occurring (crash, electricity lost, spilt coffee on the keyboard), you have to start all over again.

3. You are stuck with the results - you can't easily change the dimensions or do too much editing.

The best and most widely used way to render animations is to do so as a sequence of images (BMP, TIF, GIF, JPG, whatever works).  Then you sequence them into an animation in something like QuickTime, Final Cut, or Premiere and save the animation from there.

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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