i have been useing blender now for about six months and just started doing animation.and i got a couple of questions  the frist is how do you save a animation and the2nd is is what format  do you use ie:codec. any help wil be most welcome .thanks 
                                                                                                   tom

Quote - i have been useing blender now for about six months and just started doing animation.and i got a couple of questions  the frist is how do you save a animation and the2nd is is what format  do you use ie:codec. any help wil be most welcome .thanks 
                                                                                                   tom

If I remember correctly, the saved animations will go in the fold set as your 'temp' folder.   Drag the edge of the menu bar down to see these options and go to file paths.

First set your frame options here under the 'Scene(F10) menu.   Format Tab.   Frame size, frames / sec, output format  -  AVI, or multiple images, etc.

The drop down button allows you to select the output format:  I usualy use 'AVI Raw' which seems pretty universal. 

Under the 'Scene (F10)' buttons, instead of clicking Render, you'll want to click 'Anim' under the 'Anim' tab.  First set your start and end frames here under the Anim tab too.

thanks reddog  all the tuts i looked at were not that clear on how to save your  life saver.
                                                                                                                                                         tom

Quote - thanks reddog  all the tuts i looked at were not that clear on how to save your  life saver.
                                                                                                                                                         tom

You're welcome.  Stick with it.  It's a terrific program.

i know it is.im new to 3d world and went cheap.and i have learned alot in six months. was working on a cuckoo clock modle and thought it would look better animated. after i get it saved i will post it .
 tom

Wellcome, tom

I'm going to give an advise about saving animations.
If you are rendering an .avi and then electric supply is down, computer crashes... you will lose all render.
So, for high render times, rendering in an image sequence is a better solution.
An option is saving as Targa, then composite in Sequencer, rendering the composition clicking in "Do sequence" before clicking in "Anim".

thanks for the advice vespertilum will try that.
                                                 tom